 CHAPTER 31 OF INITIALS ONLY This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Varen Mjöln. Initials only by Anna Catherine Green. Cup 3 The Heart of Man, Chapter 31 What is making? When the box is addressed to all persons that have been received at the station, and carried to a mysterious shelter in the woods, and now, with locked door and left atop, the other brother contemplates at his doors and prepares himself for work. He had been allowed a short interview with Oswald, and yet entouched himself in a few words with Doris. But he had left those memories behind with other and more serious matters. Nothing that could have left his hand or read in his insight should enter this box sacred to his great hope. Here, Jean is ranked. Here, he was himself homey and without thought. He ties in with his growth, on the mechanical idea by means of which he would soon rule the world. Not so happy with the other characters in this drama. Oswald thought, that for a short time under some constraint's interview, he had helped with his brother, had flown eastward again, and signed enough anointing. While Doris, with her double dread, now in her heart, went about her daily tasks, praying for strength to endure the horrors of his feet, without betraying the anxieties secretly devouring her. And she was only 17 and quite alone in the trouble. She was very old and insistent and small, but she did it with heavenly sweetness. When the magic threshold was passed, and she stood in her valet's presence, overshadowed through it, ever was by the Greek dread. In Mrs. Chanel, let those endless walks of his, feel what's in over the hills, tell her story if they can, or as rapidly whitening hair and leggings stood. He had been a strong man before his trouble, and had this drought which laid him low, been limited to a quick, sharp low, he might have risen above it after a while, and been ready to encounter life again. But this long drawn-out misery was proving too much for him. The sight of the sun building never really met, acted like asset upon the wound. And it was not till six days had passed, and the dreaded Sunday was at hand, and he slept with any sense of rest, or went his way about the town, without that halting corners which betrayed this good petrol apprehension of a most undesirable encounter. The reason for this change will be apparent in the short conversation he held with men, yet come upon one evening a small park just beyond the workman's dwellings. You see I'm here, with no waiting. Thank God, was Mrs. Chandler's reply. I could knock her face tomorrow alone, and I doubt if Miss Cobb could have found the requisite courage. Does she know that you are here? I stopped at her door. Was that safe? I think so, Mrs. Wilson. The broken man is up in the shed. He sleeps there now, I'm told, and sell me to her, I've no doubt. What is he making? What half he invented on both sides of the water I engaged upon just now. A mall plane, or a biplane, or some machine for carrying men through the air. I know, for I helped him with it. But you'll find that if he succeeds in this unscaking, and I believe he will, the faint shot of fame awaits him. His invention has starting points. I'm not going to give them away. I'll be true enough to him for that. His inventor hears my sympathy, but, well, I'll see what results he's moral. You say that he's bound to be present when Miss Cobb relates the tragic story. He won't be the only unseen listener. I've made my own arrangements with Miss Cobb. If he feels the need of watching her and his brother off-world, I feel the need of watching him. You take a bad enough intolerable weight from my shoulders. Now I don't feel easier about their interview. But I'd like to ask you this. Do you feel justified in his continued surveillance of men, who are so frequently heard such evident sincerity to her innocent? I do that. If he says goodluck, as he says he is, my watchfulness won't hurt him. If he's not, then, Miss Chanel, I've got one duty to match her strength with our patience. That men must run great mystery of the day and measure his car for season. At least, that's the way a detective looks at it. They haven't helped their efforts. I soundly at this distance was a drug-jointer. Sweetwater was by no means blind to the difficulties awaiting him. End of chapter 31. Chapter 32 of initials only. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Initials only by Anna Catherine Green. Book 3. The Heart of Man. Chapter 32. Tell Me, Tell It All. The day was a grey one, the first of the kind in weeks, as Dora stepped into the room where Oswald sat. She felt how much a ray of sunshine would have encouraged her and yet how truly these leaden skies in this dismal atmosphere expressed the gloom, which soon must fall upon this hopeful, smiling man. He smiled because any man must smile at the entrance of so lovely a woman, but it was an abstracted smile and Doris, seeing it, felt her courage falter for a moment, though her steps did not, nor her steady, compassionate gaze. Advancing slowly and not answering because she did not hear some casual remark of his, she took her stand by his side and then slowly and with her eyes on his face sunk down upon her knees, still without speaking, almost without breathing. His astonishment was evident. For her air was strange and full of presage, as indeed she had meant it to be, but he remained as silent as she, only reached out his emancipated hand and, laying it on her head, smiled again, but this time far from abstractedly. Then, as he saw her cheeks pale in terror for the task before her, he ventured to ask gently, What is the matter, child? So weary, eh? Nothing worse than that, I hope. Are you quite strong this morning? Strong enough to listen to my troubles, strong enough to bear your own, if God sees fit to send them, came hesitantly from her lips as she watched the effect of each word in breathless anxiety. Troubles? There can be but one trouble for me, was his unexpected reply, that I do not fear, will not fear in my hour of happy recovery, so long as Edith is well, Doris. Doris, you alarm me, Edith is not ill, not ill. The poor child could not answer, save with her sympathetic look and halting, tremendous breath, and these signs he would not, could not read. His own words had made such an echo in his ears. Ill? I cannot imagine Edith ill. I always see her in my thoughts, as I saw her on that day of our first meeting, a perfect, animated woman with the joyous look of a glad, harmonious nature. Nothing has ever clouded that vision. If she were ill, I would have known it. We are so truly one that, Doris, Doris, you do not speak. You know the depth of my love, the terror of my thoughts, is Edith ill. Doris gazing wildly into his, slowly left his face, and raised themselves aloft, with a sublime look. Would he understand? Yes, he understood, and the cry which rung from his lips stopped for a moment the beating of more than one heart in that little cottage. Dead, he shrieked out, and fell back fainting in his chair. His lips still murmuring in semi-unconsciousness. Dead, dead! Doris sprung to her feet, thinking of nothing but his wavering, slipping alive till she saw his breath return, his eyes refill with light. Then the horror of what was yet to come, the answer which must be given to the how she saw trembling on his lips, caused her to sink again upon her knees in an unconscious appeal for strength, if that one sad revelation had been all. But the rest must be told. His brother exacted it, and so did the situation. Further waiting, further hiding of the truth would be insupportable after this, but, oh, the bitterness of it. No wonder that she turned away from those frenzied, wildly demanding eyes. Doris, she trembled and looked behind her. She had not recognized his voice, had another entered, had his brother dead, no, they were alone, seemingly so, that is. She knew, no one better than that, they were not really alone, that witnesses were within hearing, if not within sight. Doris, he urged again, and this time she turned in his direction and gazed aghast. If the voice were strange, what of the face which now confronted her? The ravages of sickness had been marked, but they were nothing to those made in an instant by a blasting grief. She was startled, although expecting much, and could only press his hand while she waited for the question he was gathering strength to utter. It was simple when it came, just two words. How long? She answered them as simply, just as long as you have been ill, said she. Then, with no attempt to break the inevitable shock, she went on. Miss Chalona was struck dead and you were taken down with typhoid on the self-same day. Struck dead. Why do you use that word? Struck. Struck dead. She, a young woman. O Doris, an accident. My darling has been killed in an accident. They do not call it accident. They call it what it never was. What it never was, she insisted, pressing him back with frightened hands as he strove to rise. Miss Chalona was how nearly the word shot had left her lips. How fiercely above all else in that harrowing moment had risen the desire to fling the accusation of that word into the ears of him who listened from his secret hiding place. But she refrained out of compassion for the man she loved and declared instead. Miss Chalona died from a wound. How given, why given, no one knows. I had rather have died myself than have to tell you this. O Mr Brotherson, speak. Sob, do anything but. She started back, dropping his hands as she did so. With quick intuition she saw that he must be left to himself if he were to meet this blow without succumbing. The body must have freedom if the spirit would not go mad. Conscience, or perhaps not conscience, of his release from her restraining hand, albeit profiting by it. He staggered to his feet, murmuring that word of doom. Wound, wound. My darling died of a wound. What kind of a wound? Suddenly thundered out. I cannot understand what you mean by wound. Make it clear to me. Make it clear to me at once. If I must bear this grief, let me know its whole depth. Leave nothing to my imagination, or I cannot answer for myself. Tell it all, Doris. And Doris told him. She was on the mezzanine floor of the hotel where she lives. She was seemingly happy and had been writing a letter, a letter to me which they never forwarded. There was no one else by but some strangers, good people whom one must believe. She was crossing the floor when suddenly she threw up her hands and fell. A thin, narrow paper cutter was in her grasp, and it flew into the lobby. Some say she struck herself with that cutter, for when they picked her up they found a wound in her breast, which that cutter might have made. Edith, lever! The words were chokingly said. He was swaying, almost falling, but he steadied himself. Who says that? He asked. It was the coroner's verdict, and she died that way, died? Immediately. After writing to you, yes, what was in that letter? Nothing of threat, they say, only just cheer and expressions of hope, just like the others, Mr. Brotherson. And they accuse her of taking her own life. Their verdict is a lie. They did not know her. Then, after some moments of wild and confused feeling, he declared with a desperate effort at self-control. You said that some believed this. Then there must be others who do not. What do they say? Nothing, they simply feel as you do. They see no reason for the act and no evidence of her having meditated it. Her father and her friend insist besides that she was incapable of such a horror. The mystery of it is killing us all, me above others, for I've had to show you a cheerful face with my brain reeling and my heart like lead in my bosom. She held out her hands. She tried to draw his attention to herself, not from any sentiment of egotism, but to break if she could. The strain of these insupportable horrors were so short a time before hope, song and life reveled in reawakened joys. Perhaps some faint realisation of this reached him, for presently he caught her by the hands and bowed his head upon her shoulder and finally let her seat him again before he said, Do they know of my interest in this? Yes, they know about the two OVs. The two he was on his feet again, but only for a moment his weakness was greater than his will power. Orlando and Oswald Brotherson, she explained, in answer to his broken appeal, your brother wrote letters to her as well as you and signed them just as you did with his initials only. These letters were found in his desk and he was opposed for a time to have been the author of all that were so signed, but they found out the difference after a while. Yours were easily recognised after they learned there was another OV who loved her. The words were plain enough, but the stricken listener did not take them in. They carried no meaning to him. How should they? The very idea she sought to impress upon him by this seemingly careless illusion was an incredible one. She found at her dreadful task to tell him the hard, bare truth. Your brother, said she, was devoted to Miss Chalona too. He even wanted to marry her. I cannot keep back this fact. It is known everywhere and by everybody but you. Orlando, his lips took an ironical curve as he uttered the word. This whizzing young girl's imaginative fancy to him. Why, Orlando never knew her, never saw her, never. He met her at Lenox. The name produced its effect. He stared, made an effort to think, repeated Lenox over to himself, then suddenly lost his hold upon the idea which that word suggested. Struggled again for it, seized it in an instant of madness and shouted out. Yes, yes, I remember. I sent him there and paused. His mind blank again. Poor Doris, frightened to her very soul, looked blindly about for help. But she did not quit his side. She did not dare to that his lips had reopened. The continuity of his thoughts had returned. He was going to speak. I sent him there. The words came in a sort of shout. I was so hungry to hear of her and I thought he might mention her in his letter. Insane, insane. He saw her and what's that you said about his loving her? He couldn't have loved her. He's not of the loving sort. They've deceived you with strange tales. They've deceived the whole world with fancies and mad dreams. He may have admired her but loved her. No, nor if he had. He would have respected my claims. He did not know them. A laugh. A laugh which pale Doris' cheek. Then his tones grew even again. Memory came back and he muttered faintly. That is true. I said nothing to him. He had the right to court her and he did. You say, wrote to her, imposed himself upon her, drove her mad with importunities. She was forced to rebute. And, and what else? There is something else. Tell me, I will know it all. He was standing now, his feebleness all gone. Passion in every lineman and his eye alive with feverish, with emotion. Tell me, he repeated, with unrestrained venance. Tell me all. Kill me with sorrow but save me from being unjust. He wrote her a letter and frightened her. He followed it up by a visit. Doris paused. The sentence hung suspended. She had heard a step, a hand on the door. Orlando had entered the room. End of chapter 32. Chapter 33 of initials only. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Initials only by Anna Catherine Green. Book 3 The Heart of Man Chapter 33 Alone. Oswell had heard nothing, seen nothing, but he took note of Doris's silence and turning towards her in frenzy saw what had happened and so was in a measure prepared for the stern short sentence which now rung through the room. Wait, Miss Scott. You tell the story badly. Let him listen to me. From my mouth only shall he hear the stern and seemingly unnatural part I played in this family tragedy. The face of Oswell hardened. Those pliant features beloved for their gracious kindness set themselves in lines which altered them almost beyond recognition. But his voice was not without some of its natural sweetness. As after a long and hollow look at the other's composed countenance he abruptly exclaimed Speak. I am bound to listen. You are my brother. Orlando turned towards Doris. She was slipping away. Don't go, said he. But she was gone. Slowly he turned back. Oswell raised his hand and checked the words with which he would have begun his story. Never mind the beginnings, said he. Doris has told all that. You saw Miss Chalona in Lenox, admired her, offered yourself to her and afterwards wrote her a threatening letter because she rejected you. It is true. Other men have followed just such unworthy impulses and been ashamed and sorry afterwards. I was sorry and I was ashamed and as soon as my first anger was over went to tell her so. But she mistook my purpose and and what? Orlando hesitated. Even his iron nature trembled before the misery he saw and misery he was destined to augment rather than soothe. With pains altogether out of keeping with his character he sought in the recesses of his darkened mind for words less bitter and less abrupt than those which sprung involuntarily to his lips. But he did not find them. Though he pitted his brother and wished to show that he did nothing but the stern language suitable to the stern fact he wished to impart would leave his lips and ended the pitiful struggle at the moment with one quick unpremeditated blow was what he said there is no other explanation possible for this act Oswald. Better as it is for me to acknowledge it I am thus far guilty of this beloved woman's death. As God hears me from the moment I first saw her to the moment I saw her last I did not know nor did I for a moment dream that she was anything to you or to any other man of my stamp and station I thought she despised my country birth, my mechanical attempts, my lack of aristocratic pretensions and traditions. Edith, now that I know she had other reasons for her contempt that the words she wrote were in rebuke to the brother rather than to the man I feel my guilt and deplore my anger I cannot say more I should but insult your grief by any lengthy expressions of regret and sorrow a groan of intolerable anguish from the sick man's lips and then the quick thrust of his awakened intelligence rising superior to the overthrow of all his hopes for a woman of Edith's principle to seek death in a moment of desperation the provocation must have been very great tell me if I'm to hate you through life, yeah through all eternity or if I must seek in some unimaginable failure of my own character or conduct the cause of her intolerable despair Oswald, the tone was controlling and yet that of one strong man to another is it for us to read the heart of any woman least of all of a woman of her susceptibilities and keen inner life the wish to end all comes to some natures like a lightning flash from a clear sky it comes it goes often without leaving a sign but if a weapon chances to be near here it was in hand then death follows the impulse which given an instant of thought would have vanished in a back sweep of other emotions chance was the real accessory to this death by suicide Oswald, let us realize it is as such and accept our sorrow as a burden and turn to what remains to us of life and labour work is grief only consolation then let us work but of all this Oswald had caught but the one word chance he repeated Orlando I believe in God then seek your comfort there I find it in harnessing the winds enforcing the powers of nature to do my bidding the other did not speak and the silence grew heavy it was broken when it was broken by a cry from Oswald no more said he no more then in a yearning accent send Doris to me Orlando started this name coming so close upon that word comfort produced a strange effect upon him but another look at Oswald and he was ready to do his bidding the bitter ordeal was over let him have his solace if it was in her power to give it to him Orlando upon leaving his brother's room did not stop to deliver that brother's message directly to Doris he left this protruded to do and retired immediately to his hangar in the woods locking himself in he slightly raised the roof and sat down before the car which was rapidly taking on shape and assuming that individuality and appearance of sentient life which the two he had only seen in dreams but his eye which had never failed to kindle at this sight before shone duly in the semi-gloom the air car could wait he would first have his hour in this solitude of his own the gaze he dreaded the words from which he shrunk could not penetrate here he might even shout her name aloud and only these windowless walls would respond he was alone with his past his present and his future alone he needed to be the strongest must pause when the precipice yawns before him the gulf can be spanned he feels himself forceful enough for that but his eyes must take their measurement of it first he must know his depths and possible dangers only a fuel would ignore these steeps of jagged rock and he was no fuel only a man to whom the unexpected had happened a man who had seen his way clear to the horizon and then had come up against this love when he thought such folly dead remorse when glory called for the quiet mind and heart he recognized its modern fang and knew that its ravages though only just begun would last his lifetime nothing could stop them now nothing nothing and he laughed as the thought went home laughed at the irony of fate and its exploring this laughed at his own defeat and his nearness to a barred paradise Oswald loved Edith loved her yet with a flame time would take long to quench Doris loved Oswald and he Doris and not one of them would ever attain the delights each were so fitted to enjoy why shouldn't he laugh what is left to man but mockery when all disappointment was the universal lot and it should go merrily with him if he must take his turn at it but hear the strong spirit of the man reasserted itself it should be but a turn a man's joys are not bounded by his loves or even by the satisfaction of a perfectly untrammeled mind performance makes a world of its own for the capable and the strong and this was still left to him he orlando brotherson despair while his great work lay unfinished that would be to lay stress on the inevitable pains and fears of commonplace humanity he was not of that ilk intellect was his god ambition his motive power what would this casual blight upon his supreme contentment be to him when with the wings of his air car spread he should burn the earth and sour into the heaven of fame simultaneously with his flight into the open he could wait for that hour he had measured the gulf before him and found it passable henceforth no looking back rising he stood for a moment gazing with an alert eye now upon such sections of his car as had not yet been fitted into their places then he bent forward to his work and soon the lips which had uttered that sardonic laugh a few minutes before parted in gentle of fashion and song took the place of curses a ballad of love and fondest truth but orlando never knew what he sung he had the gift and used it would his tones however have rung out with quite so mellow as sweetness had he seen the restless figure even then circling his retreat with eyes darting accusation and arms lifted towards him in wild but impotent threat yes I think they would but he knew that the man who thus expressed his helplessness along with his convictions was no nearer the end he had set himself to a time than on the day he had first betrayed his suspicions End of Chapter 33 Chapter 34 That night Oswald was taken very ill for three days his life hung in the balance then youth and healthy living triumphed over shock and bereavement and he came slowly back to his sad and crippled existence he had been conscious for a week or more of his surroundings and of his bitter sorrows as well when one morning he asked Doris whose face it was he had seen bending over him so have you a new doctor a man with white hair and a comforting smile or have I dreamed this face I have had so many fancies this might easily be one of them no it's not a fancy was a quiet reply nor is it the face of a doctor it is that of friend one whose heart is bound up in your recovery one for whom you must live Mr. Rotherson I don't know him Doris it's a strange face to me and yet it is not all together strange who is this man and why should he care for me so deeply because you share one love and one grief it is Edith's father whom you see at your bedside he has helped to nurse you ever since you came down the second time Edith's father Doris it cannot be Edith's father yes Mr. Shaliner has been in Darby for the last two weeks he has only one interest now to see you well again why Doris caught the note of pain if not suspicion in this query and smiled as she asked in turn shall he answer that question himself he is waiting to come in not to talk you need not fear his talking he's as quiet as any man I ever saw the sick man closed his eyes and Doris watching saw the flush rise to his emaciated cheek then slowly fade away again to a pallor that frightened her had she injured where she would heal had she pressed too suddenly and too hard on the ever gaping wound in her invalid's breast she gasped in terror at the thought then she faintly smiled for his eyes had opened again and showed a calm determination as he said I should like to see him I should like him to answer the question I have just put you I should rest easier and get well faster or not get well at all this latter he half whispered and Doris chirping from the room may not have heard it for her face showed no further shadow as she ushered in Mr. Shaloner and closed the door behind him she had looked forward to this moment for days to Oswald however it was an unexpected excitement and his voice trembled with something more than physical weakness as he greeted his visitor and thanked him for his attentions Doris says that you have shown me this kindness from the desire you have to see me well again Mr. Shaloner is this true? very true I cannot emphasize the fact too strongly Oswald's eyes met his again this time with great earnestness you must have serious reasons for feeling so reasons which I do not quite understand may I ask why you place such value upon a life which if ever useful to itself or others has lost and lost forever the one delight which gave it meaning it was for Mr. Shaloner's voice to tremble now as reaching out his hand he declared with unmistakable feeling I have no son I have no interest left in life outside this room and the possibilities it contains for me your attachment to my daughter has created a bond between us Mr. Brotherson which I sincerely hope to see missed by you startled and deeply moved the young man stretched out a shaking hand towards his visitor with the feeble but exulting cry then you do not blame me for her wretched and mysterious death you hold me guiltless of the misery which nerved her despairing arm quite guiltless Oswald's wand and pinched features took on a beautiful expression and Mr. Shaloner no longer wondered at his daughter's choice thank god fell from the sick man's lips and then there was a silence during which their two hands met it was some minutes before either spoke and then it was Oswald who said I must confide to you certain facts I honored your daughter and realized her position fully our plate was never made in words nor should I have presumed to advance any claim to her hand if I had not made good my expectations Mr. Shaloner I meant to win both her regard and yours by acts not words I felt that I had a great deal to do and I was prepared to work and wait I loved her he turned away his head and the silence which filled up the gap united those two hearts as the old and young are seldom united but when a little later Mr. Shaloner rejoined Doris in her little sitting room he nevertheless showed a perplexity he had hoped to see removed by this understanding with the younger brotherson the cause became apparent as soon as he spoke these brothers hold by each other said he Oswald will hear nothing against Orlando he says that he has redeemed his fault he does not even protest that his brother's word is to be believed in this matter he does not seem to think that necessary he evidently regards Orlando's personality as speaking truly and satisfactorily for itself as his own does and I dare not un-deceive him he does not know all our reasons for distrust he has heard nothing about the poor washerwoman no and he must not not for weeks he has borne all that he can his confidence and his older brother is sublime I do not share it but I cannot help but respect him for it it was warmly said and Mr. Shaloner could not forbear casting an anxious look at her upturned face what he saw there made him turn away with his eye this confidence has for me a very unhappy side he remarked it shows me Oswald's thought he who loved her best accepts the cruel verdict of an unreasoning public Doris's large eyes burned with a weird light upon his face he has not had my dream, she murmured with all the quiet of an unmoved conviction yet as the days went by even her manner changed towards the busy inventor it was hardly possible for it not to the high stand he took the regard accorded him on every side his talent his conversation which was an education in itself and above all his absorption and at work daily advancing and completion removed him so insensibly and yet so decidedly from the hideous past of tragedy with which his name, if not his honor was associated that unconsciously to herself she gradually lost her icy air of repulsion and lent him a more or less attentive ear when he chose to join their small company of an evening the result was that he turned so bright a side upon her with admiration and memory lost itself in anticipation of the event which was to prove him a man of men if not one of the world's greatest mechanical geniuses meanwhile Oswald was steadily improving in health if not in spirits he had taken his first walk without any unfavorable results and Orlando decided from this that the time had come for an explanation of his device and his requirements in regard to it seated together in Oswald's room he broached the subject thus Oswald, what is your idea about what I'm making up there that it will be a success I know but it's character, it's use what do you think it is I have an idea but my idea don't fit the conditions how's that the shed is too closely hemmed in you haven't room for what to start an airplane yet it is certainly a device for flying I suppose so but it is an air-car with a new and valuable idea the idea for which the whole world has been seeking ever since the first aeroplane found its way up from the earth my car needs no room to start in save that which it occupies if it did it would be but the modification of a hundred others Orlando as Oswald thus gave expression to a surprise their two faces were a study the fire of Junius in the one the light of sympathetic understanding in the other if this car now within three days of its completion Orlando proceeded does not rise from the oval of my hanger like a bird from its nest and after a wide and circling flight descend again into the self same spot without any swerving from its direct course then I have failed in my endeavor and must take a back seat with the rest but it will not fail I am certain of success Oswald all I want just now is a sympathetic helper you for instance someone who will aid me with the final fittings and hold his peace to all eternity if the impossible occurs and the thing proves a failure have you such pride as that? precisely so much that you cannot face failure not when attached to my name you can see how I feel about that by the secrecy I've worked under no other person living knows what I have just communicated to you every part shipped here came from different manufacturing firms sometimes a part of a part was all I allowed to be made in any one place my fame, like my ship must rise with one bound into the air or it must never rise at all it was not made for petty accomplishment or the slow plotting of commonplace minds I must startle or remain obscure that is why I chose this place for my venture and you for my helper and associate you want me to ascend with you? exactly at the end of three days yes Orlando, I cannot you cannot? not strong enough yet? I'll wait then three days more the time's too short the month is scarcely sufficient it would be folly such as you never show to trust a nerve so undermined as mine till time has restored its power for an enterprise like this you need a man of ready strength and resources not one whose condition you might be obliged to consider at a very critical moment Orlando, bulked with us at the outset showed his displeasure you do not do justice to your will it is strong enough to carry you through anything it was you can force it to act for you I fear not Orlando I counted on you and you thwart me at the most critical moment of my life Oswald smiled his whole candid and generous nature bursting into view in one quick flash perhaps he assented but you will thank me when you realize my weakness another man must be found secret yet honorably alive to the importance of the occasion and your rights as a great original thinker and mechanician do you know such a man I don't but there must be many such among our workmen there isn't one and I haven't time to send to Brooklyn I reckoned on you can you wait a month no a fortnight then no not ten days Oswald looked surprised he would like to have asked why such precipitation was necessary but their tone in which this ultimatum was given was of that decisive character which admits of no argument he therefore merely looked his query but Orlando was not one to answer looks besides he had no reply for the same important question urged by his own good sense he knew that he must make the attempt upon which his future rested soon and without risk of the sapping influence of length and suspense and the weeks of waiting he could hold on to those two demons leaked an attack against him for a definite seven days but not for an indeterminate time if he were to be saved from folly from himself events must be rushed he therefore repeated his no with increased aviamance adding as he marked the reproach in his brother's eye I cannot wait the test must be made on Saturday evening next whatever the conditions, whatever the weather an air-car to be serviceable must be ready to meet lightning and tempest and what is worse perhaps an insufficient crew then rising he exclaimed with a determination that rendered him majestic if help is not forthcoming I'll do it all myself nothing shall hold me back nothing shall stop me and when you see me and my car rise above the treetops I would to make you forget he did not need to continue Oswald understood and flashed a grateful look his way before saying you will make the attempt at night certainly and on Saturday I've said it I will run over in my mind the qualifications of such men as I know and acquaint you with the result tomorrow there are adjustments to be made a man of accuracy is necessary I will remember and he must be likable I can do nothing with a man with whom I'm not perfectly in accord I understand that good night then a moment of hesitancy then I wish not only yourself but Miss Scott to be present at this test prepare her for the spectacle but not yet not till within an hour or two of the occasion and with a proud smile in which flashed a significance which startled Oswald he gave a hurried nod and turned away when in an hour afterwards Doris looked in through the open door she found Oswald sitting with face buried in his hands thinking so deeply that he did not hear her he had sat like this immovable and absorbed ever since his brother had left him End of Chapter 34 Book 3 Chapter 35 of initials only This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nicole Carl St. Louis, Missouri, January 2009 Initials only by Anna Catherine Green Book 3 The Heart of Man Chapter 35 Silence and a Knock Oswald did not succeed in finding a man to please Orlando he suggested one person after another to the exacting inventor but none were satisfactory to him an ancient turn was turned down it is not everyone we want to have share a worldwide triumph for an ignominious defeat and the days were passing he had said in a moment of elation I will do it alone but he knew even then that he could not two hands were necessary to start the car afterwards he might manage it alone descent was even possible but to give the contrivance its first lift required a second machination where was he to find one to please him and what was he to do if he did not conquer his prejudices against such men as he had seen or delay the attempt as Oswald had suggested till he could get one of his old cronies on from New York he could do neither the tendency of his nature was such as to offer an invincible barrier against either suggestion one alternative remained he had heard of women aviators if Doris could be induced to accompany him into the air instead of clinging sudden light to the weight of Oswald's woe then would the world behold a triumph which would dwarf the ecstasy of the bird's flight and rob the eagle of his kingly pride but Doris barely endured him as yet and the thought was not one to be considered for a moment yet what other course remained he was brooding deeply on the subject in his hangar one evening it was Thursday and Saturday it was but two days off when there came a light knock at the door this had never occurred before he had given strict orders backed by his brother's authority that he was never to be intruded upon in his place and though he had sometimes encountered the prying eyes of the curious flashing from behind the trees encircling the hangar his door had never been approached before or his privacy encroached upon he started then when this lobe penetrating sound struck across the turmoil of his thoughts and cast one look in the direction from which it came but he did not rise or even change his position on his workman's stool then it came again still low but with an insistence which drew his brows together and made his hand fall from the wire he had been unconsciously holding through the mental debate which was absorbing him still he made no response and the knocking continued should he ignore it entirely start up his motor and render himself oblivious to all of the sounds at every other point in his career he would have done this but an unknown and as yet unnamed nothing had entered his heart during this fatal month which made always impossible an oblivion a thing he dared not court too recklessly should this be a summons from Doris should inconceivable idea yet it seized upon him relentlessly and would not yield for the asking should it be Doris herself taking advantage of a momentary cessation of the ceaseless tap tap he listened silence was never profounder than in this forest on that windless night earth and air seemed to his strained ear emptied of all sound the clatter of his own steady unhastened heartbeat was all that broke upon the stillness he might be alone in the universe for all token of life beyond these walls or so he was saying to himself when sharp quick sinister the knocking recommend demanding admission costing upon attention drawing him against his own will to his feet and finally though he made more than one stand against it to the very door who's there he asked imperiously and with some show of anger no answer but another quiet knock speak or go from my door no one has the right to intrude here what is your name and business continued knocking nothing more with an outburst of wrath which made the hangar ring Orlando lifted his fist to answer this appeal with his own fierce fashion from his own side of the door but the impulse paused at fulfillment and he let his arm fall again in a rush of self-hatred which it would have pained his worst enemy even little Doris to witness as it reached his side the knock came again it was too much with Orlando reached for his key but before fitting it into the lock he cast a look behind him the car was in plain sight feeling the central space from floor to roof a single glance from a stranger's eye and its principle secret would be a secret no longer he must not run such a risk before he answered this call he must drop the curtain he had rigged up against such emergencies as these he had but to pull a cord and a veil would fall before his treasure concealing it as effectively as an eastern bride is concealed behind her yajmak stepping to the wall he drew that cord then with an impatient sigh returned to the door another quiet but insistent knock greeted him in no fury now but with a vague sense of portent which gave an aspect of farewell to the one quick glance he cast about the well-known spot he fitted the key in the lock to turn it I ask again your name and your business he shouted out in loud command tell them or he meant to say or I do not turn this key but something with hell the threat he knew that it would perish in the utterance that he could not carry it out he would have to open the door now response or no response speak was the word with which he finished his demand a final knock pulling a pistol from his pocket with his left hand he turned the key with his right the door remained unopened stepping slowly back he stared at its unpainted boards for a moment then spoke up quietly almost courteously enter but the command passed unheeded the latch was not raised and only the slightest tap was heard with a bound he reached forward and pulled the door open the great silence fell upon him and a rigidity as of the grave seized and stiffened his powerful frame the man confronting him from the darkness was sweet water End of Book 3, Chapter 35 Book 3, Chapter 36 of initials only This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nicole Carl, St. Louis, Missouri February 2009 Initials only by Anna Catherine Green Book 3, The Heart of Man Chapter 36 The Man Within and the Man Without An instant of silence during which the two men eyed each other then sweet water with an ironical smile directed towards the pistol lightly remarked Mr. Shawner and the other men at the hotel are acquainted with my purpose and await my return I have come here he cast a glowing look at the huge curtain cutting off the greater portion of the illulent interior to offer you my services, Mr. Brotherson I have no other motive for this intrusion than to be of use I am deeply interested in your invention to the development of which I have already lent some aid and can bring to the test you propose a sympathetic help which you could hardly find in any other person living The silence which settled down at the completion of these words had a weight which made that of the previous moment seem light in all a throb with sound The Man Within had not yet caught his breath The Man Without held his in an anxiety which had little to do with the direction of the weapon into which he looked in the forest and Orlando slowly lowering his arm asked in an oddly constrained tone How long have you been in town? The answer cut clean through any lingering hope he may have had Ever since the day your brother was told the story of his great misfortune Ah! still at your old tricks I thought you had quit that business as unprofitable I don't know, I never expect quick returns He who holds on for a rise sometimes reaps unlooked for profits The arm and fist of Orlando Brotherson inked to hurl his fellow back into the heart of the midnight woods But they remained quiescent as he spoke instead I have buried the business You will never resuscitate it through me Sweetwater smiled There was no mirth in his smile though there was lightness in his tone as he said Then let us go back to the matter in hand You need to help her Find one if you don't take me A growl from Brotherson's set lips never had he looked more dangerous than in the one burning instant following this daring repetition of the detective's outrageous request but as he noted how slight was the figular opposing him from the other side of the threshold he was swayed by his natural admiration of pluck in the physically weak and lost his threatening attitude only to assume one which Sweetwater secretly found it even harder to meet You are a fool was the stinging remark he heard flung at him Do you want to play the police officer here and arrest me in midair Mr. Brotherson you understand me as little as I am supposed to understand you humble as my place is in society and I may add in the department whose interests I serve there are in me two men one you know passively well methods only indifferently clever show that he has very much to learn of the other the workman acquainted with hammer and saw but with some knowledge too of higher mathematics and the principles upon which great mechanical inventions depend you know little and must imagine much I was playing the gawky when I helped you in the old house in Brooklyn I was interested in your airship oh I recognized it for what it was not withstanding its oddity and lack of sensible means for flying but I was not caught in the world of its idea the idea by which you doubtless expect and with very good reason too to revolutionize the science of aviation but since then I've been thinking it over and I'm so filled with your own hopes that either I must have a hand in the finishing and sailing of the one you have yourself constructed or go to work myself on the hints you have unconsciously given me and make the car my own audacity often succeeds where a subtler means fail Orlando with a curious twist of his strong lip took hold of the detective's arm and drew him in shutting and locking the door carefully behind him now he said you shall tell me what you think you have discovered to make any ideas of your own available in the manufacture of a superior self propelling airship sweetwater who had been so violently wheeled about in entering that he stood with his back to the curtain car answered without hesitation you have a device entirely new so far as I can judge by which this car can leap at once into space hold its own in any direction and a light again upon any given spot without shock to the machine or danger to the people controlling it explain the device I will draw it you can as I see it as you see it yes it's a brilliant idea I could never have conceived it you believe I know sit here let's see what you know sweetwater sat down at the table the other pointed out and drawing forward a piece of paper took up a pencil with an easy air brothers and approached and stood at his shoulder he had taken up his pistol again why he hardly knew and as sweetwater began his marks his fingers tightened on its butt till they turned white in the murky lamp light you see came in easy tones from the stooping drotsman I have an imagination which only needs a slight flip from a mind like yours to send it in the desired direction I shall not draw an exact reproduction of your idea but I think you will see that I understand it very well how's that for a start brothers and looked and hastily drew back he did not want the other to note his surprise but that is a portion you never saw he loudly declared no but I saw this returned sweetwater working busily on some curves and these gave me the fill of I mentioned the rest came easily brothers and in dread of his own anger through his pistol to the other end of the shed you naive you thief he furiously cried how so asked sweetwater smilingly rising and looking him calmly in the face a thief is one who appropriates another man's goods let us say another man's ideas I have appropriated nothing yet I've only shown you how easily I could do so Mr. Brotherson take me in as your assistant I will be faithful to you I swear it I want to see that machine go up for how many people have you drawn those lines thunder the inexorable voice for nobody not for myself even this is the first time they have left their hiding place in my brain you swear to that I can and will if you require it but you ought to believe my words sir I am square as a die in all matters not connected well not connected with my profession he smiled in a burst of that whimsical humor which not even the seriousness of the moment could quite suppress and what surety do I have that you do not consider this very matter of mine as coming within the bounds you speak of none but you must trust me that far Brotherson surveyed him with an irony which conveyed a very different message to the detective than any he had intended then quickly to how many have you spoken dilating upon this advice and publishing abroad my secret I have spoken to no one not even to Mr. Grice that shows my honesty as nothing else can you have kept my secret intact entirely so sir so that no one here or elsewhere shares our knowledge of the new points in this mechanism I say so sir then if I should kill you came in ferocious accents now here you would be the only one to own that knowledge but you won't kill me why need I go into reasons why I say because your conscience is already too heavily hidden to bear the burden of another unprovoked crime Brotherson starting back glared with open ferocity upon the man who dared to face him with such accusation God why didn't I shoot you in the entrance he cried your courage is certainly colossal a fine smile without even the hint of humor now touched the daring detective's lip Brotherson's anger seemed to grow under it and he loudly repeated it's more than colossal it's a normal in moments pause then with ironic pauses and quite unnecessary save as a matter of display unless you think you need it to sustain you through the ordeal you were courting you wish to help me finish and prepare for flight I certainly do you consider yourself competent I do Brotherson's eyes fell and he walked once to the extremity of a flooring and back well we will grant that but that's not all that is necessary my requirements demand a companion in my first flight will you go up in the car with me on Saturday night a quick affirmative was on sweetwater's lips but the glimpse which he got of the speaker's face glowering upon him from the shadows and to which Brotherson had withdrawn stopped its utterance and the silence grew heavy though it may not have lasted long by the clock the instant of breathless contemplation of each other's features across the intervening space was of incalculable moment to sweetwater and possibly to Brotherson as drowning men are said to live over their whole history between their first plunge and their final rise to light and air so through the mind of the detective rushed the memories of his past and the fast fading glories of his future and rebelling at the subtle peril he saw in that sardonic way he vociferated an impulse no I'll not and paused caught by a new and irresistible sensation a breath of wind the first he had felt that night had swept in through some crevice in the curving wall flapping the canvas enveloping the great car it acted like a peel to battle after all a man must take some risks in his life and his heart was in this trial of a inevitable mechanism in which he had full faith he could not say no to the prospect of being the first to share a triumph which would send his name to the ends of the earth and changing the trend of his sentence he repeated with a calmness which had the force of a great decision I will not fail you in anything if she rises hear his trembling hand fell on the curtain shutting off his view of the ship she shall take me with her so that when she descends I may be the first to congratulate the proud inventor of such a marvel so be it shot from the other's lips his eyes losing their threatening look and his whole countenance suddenly aglow with the enthusiasm to awaken genius coming from the shadows he laid his hand on the cord regulating the rise and fall of the concealing curtain here she is he cried and drew the cord the canvas shook, gathered itself into great folds and disappeared into the shadows from which he had just stepped the air-car stood revealed a startling but wholly unique vision long did sweetwater survey it then turning with a beaming face upon the watchful inventor he uttered a loud hurrah next moment with everything forgotten between them saved the glories of this invention both dropped simultaneously to the floor and began that minute examination of mechanism necessary to their mutual work end of book three chapter thirty-six book three, chapter thirty-seven of initials only this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Nicole Carl St. Louis, Missouri initials only by Anna Catherine Green book three the heart of man chapter thirty-seven his great hour Saturday night at eight o'clock so the fiat had gone forth with no concession to be made on account of weather as Oswald came from his supper and took a look at the heavens from the small front porch he was deeply troubled that Orlando had remained so obstinate in this point for there were ominous clouds rolling up from the east and the storms in this region of high mountains and abrupt valleys were not light nor without danger even to those with feet well planted upon mother earth if the tempest should come up before eight Mr. Shaliner who from some mysterious impulse of bravado on the part of brotherson was to be allowed to make the third in this small band of spectators was equally concerned at this site but not for brotherson his fears were for Oswald whose slowly gathering strength could illy bear the strain which this additional anxiety for his brother's life must impose upon him as for Doris she was in a state of excitement more connected with the past than with the future that afternoon she had laid her hand in that of Orlando brotherson and wished him well this breast still lingered reminiscences of those old doubts which had beclouded his image for her at their first meeting she had not been able to avoid it his look was a compelling one and it demanded thus much from her and a terrible thought to her gentle spirit he might be going to his death it had been settled by the prospective aviator that they were to watch the ascent from the mouth of the grassy road leading into the hangar the three were to meet there at a quarter to eight and await the stroke and the air-car's rise that time was near and Mr. Shaliner catching a glimpse of Oswald's pallid and unnaturally drawn features as he set down the lantern he carried shuttered with foreboding and wished the hour passed Doris's watchful glance never left the face whose lightest change was more to her than all Orlando's hopes but the result upon her was not to weaken her resolution but to strengthen it whatever the outcome of the next few minutes she must stand ready to sustain her invalid through it that the darkness of the early hour had deepened to oppression was unnoticed for the moment the fears of an hour passed had been forgotten their attention was too absorbed in what was going on before them for even a glance overhead suddenly Mr. Shaliner spoke who is the man whom Mr. Brotherson has asked to go up with him Oswald who answered he has never told me he has kept his own counsel about that as about everything else connected with this matter he simply advised me that I was not to bother about him anymore that he had found the assistant he wanted such reticence seems unpardonable you have displayed great patience Oswald because I understand Orlando he reads men's natures like a book the man he trusts we may trust he will speak openly enough all causes for reticence will be gone you have confidence then in the success of this undertaking if I hadn't I should not be here I could hardly bear to witness his failure even in a secret test like this I should find it too hard to face him afterwards I don't understand Orlando has great pride if this enterprise fails I cannot answer for him he would be capable of anything why Doris what is the matter child I never saw you look like that before she had been down on her knees regulating the lantern and the sudden flame shooting up had shown him her face turned up towards his in an apprehension which verged on horror do I look frightened she asked remembering herself and lightly rising I believe that I am a little frightened if anything should go wrong if an accident but here she remembered herself again and quickly changed her tone but your confidence shall be mine I will believe in his good angel or in his self command and great resolution I'll not be frightened anymore but Oswald did not seem satisfied he continued to look at her in vague concern he hardly knew what to make of the intense feelings she had manifested had Orlando touched her girlish heart this cold-blooded nature with its steel-like brilliancy and honorable but stern views of life moved this warm and sympathetic soul to more than admiration the thought disturbed him so he forgot the nearness of the moment they were all waiting till a quick rasping sound from the hangar followed by the sudden appearance of an ever widening band of light about its upper rim drew his attention and awakened them all to a breathless expectation the lid was rising now it was halfway up and now for the first time it was lifted to its full height and stood a broad oval disc against the background of the forest the effect was strange the hangar had been made brilliant by many lamps and their united glare poured from its top and illuminating not only the surrounding tree tops but the broad face of this uplifted disc roused in the odd spectator a thrill such as in mythological times might have greeted the southern side of Vulcan Smithy blazing on Olympian hills but the clang of iron on iron would have attended the flash and gleam of those unexpected fires and here all was still safe for that steady throb never heard in Olympus or the halls of Valhalla the pant of the motor eager for flight in the upper air as they listened in a trance of burning hope which obliterated all else this noise in all others near and distant was suddenly lost in a loud clatter of writhing and twisting boughs which set the forest in a roar and seemed to heave air about them a wind had swooped down from the east bending everything before it and rattling the huge oval on which their eyes were fixed as though it would tear it from its hinges all three caught at each other's hands in dismay the storm had come just on the verge of the enterprise and no one might guess the results will he dare will he dare whisper Doris and Oswald answered though it seemed next to impossible that he could have heard her he will dare but will he survive it Mr. Shaliner he suddenly shouted in that gentleman's ear what time is it now engaging himself from the mutual grasp knelt down by the lantern to consult his watch one minute to eight he shouted back the forest was now a pandemonium great bows split from their parent trunks fell crashing to the ground in all directions the scream of the wind roused echoes which repeated themselves here there and everywhere no rain had fallen yet but the sight of the clouds scurrying there thrown up from the shed created such havoc in the already overstrained minds of the three onlookers that they hardly heeded when with a clatter and crash which at another time would have startled them into flight the swaying over before them was whirled from its hinges and thrown back against the trees already bending under the onslaught of the tempest destruction seen the natural accompaniment of the moment and the only prayer which sprang to Oswald's lips was that the motor who's throb yet lingered in their blood though no longer taken in by the ear would either refuse to work or prove insufficient to lift the heavy car into this seething tumult of warring forces his brother's life hung in the balance against his fame and he could not but choose life for him yet as the multitudinous sounds about him yielded for a moment to that brother's shout the moment had come which would soon settle all he found himself staring at the elliptical edge of the hangar with an anticipation which held in it as much terror as joy for the end of a great hope for the beginning of a great triumph was compressed into this trembling instant and if great gods he sees it they all see it plainly against that portion of the disk which still lifted itself above the further wall a curious moving mass appears lengthens takes on shape then shoots suddenly aloft clearing the encircling tops of the bending twisting and tormented trees straight into the heart of the gale where for one breathless moment it whirls madly about like a thing distraught then in slow but triumphant obedience to the master hand that guides it steadies and mounts majestically upward till it is lost to their view in the depths of the impenetrable darkness Orlando Brotherson has accomplished his task he has invented a mechanism which can send an air-car straight up from its mooring place as the three watchers realize this Oswald honors a cry of triumph and doors throws herself into Mr. Schellen's arms then they all stand transfixed again waiting for a descent which may never come but hark a new sound mingling its clatter with all the others it is the rain quick maddening drenching it comes enveloping them in wet in a moment can they hold their faces up against it and the wind surely it must toss that aerial messenger before it and fling it back to earth a broken and despised toy Orlando went up in a shriek Orlando oh for a ray of light from those far off heavens for a lull in the tremendous sounds shivering the heavens and shaking the earth but the tempest rages on and they can only wait five minutes ten minutes looking, hoping, fearing without thought of self and almost without thought of each other till suddenly as it had come the rain ceases and the wind with one final wail of rage and defeat rushes away into the west leaving behind it a sudden silence which to their terrified hearts seems almost more dreadful to bear than the accumulated noises of the moment just gone Orlando was in that shout of natural forces but he is not in this stillness they look aloft but the heavens are void emptiness is where life was Oswald begins to sway Andorus remembering him now and him only has thrown her strong young arm about him when what is the sound they hear high up, high up in the rapidly clearing vault of the heavens a throb a steady pant drawing near and yet nearer entering the circlet of great branches over their heads descending slowly descending till they catch another glimpse of those early outlines which had no sooner taken shape than the car disappeared from their sight within the elliptical wall open to receive it it had survived the gale it has reentered its haven and that too without colliding with ought around or any shock to those within just as Orlando had promised and the world was henceforth his hailed to Orlando Brotherson Harley restrained his mad joy and enthusiasm bounding to the door separating him from his conqueror of almost invincible forces he pounded it with impatient fist let me in he cried you've done the trick Orlando you've done the trick yes I have satisfied myself came back and studied self control from the other side of the door and with a quick turning of the lock Orlando stood before them they never forgot him as he looked that moment he was drenched battered palpitating with excitement but the majesty of success was in his eye and in the bearing of his incomparable figure as Oswald bounded towards him he reached out his hand but his glance was for Doris yes he went on in tones of supressolation there's no flaw in my triumph I have done all that I set out to do now why did he stop and look hurriedly back into the hangar he had remembered sweetwater sweetwater who at that moment was stepping carefully from his seat in some remote portion of the car the triumph was not complete he had meant but there his thoughts stopped nothing of evil nothing even of regret should mar his great hour he was a conqueror and it was for him now to reap the joy of conquest end of chapter 37 chapter 38 of initials only this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Piek initials only by Anna Catherine Green book III The Heart of Man chapter 38 night three days had passed and Orlando Brotherson sat in his room at the hotel before a table laden with telegrams letters and marked newspapers the news of his achievement had gone abroad and Derby was for the moment the center of interest for two continents his success was an established fact the second trial which he had made with his car this time with the whole town gathered together in the streets as witnesses had proved not only the reliability of its mechanism but the great advantages which it possessed for a direct flight to any given point already he saw fortune beckoning him in the shape of an unconditional offer of money from a first class source and better still for he was a man of untiring energy and boundless resource that opportunity for new and enlarged effort which comes with the recognition of one's exceptional powers all this was his and more a sweeter hope a more enduring joy had followed hard upon gratified ambition Doris had smiled on him Doris she had caught the contagion of the universal enthusiasm and had given him her first ungrudging token of approval it had altered his whole outlook on life in an instant for there was an eagerness in this demonstration which proclaimed the relieved heart she no longer trusted either appearances or her dream she proceeded in conquering her doubts by the very force of his personality and the shadow which had hitherto darkened their intercourse had melted quite away she was ready to take his word now and Oswald's after which the rest must follow love does not lag far behind an ardent admiration fame, fortune, love what more could a man desire what more could this man with his strenuous past and an unlimited capacity for an enlarged future ask from faith and this yet as he bends over his letters fingering some but reading none beyond a line or two he portrays but a passing elation and hardly lifts his head when a burst of loud acclaim comes ringing up to his window from some ardent pastor by hurrah for brotherson he has put our town on the map why this despondency have those two demons seized him again it would seem so and with new and over mastering fury after the hour of triumph comes the hour of reckoning orlando brotherson in his hour of proud attainment stands naked before his own soul's tribunal and the pleader is dumb and the judge inexorable there is but one witness to such struggles but one eye to note the waste and desolation of the devastated soul when the storm is over past orlando brotherson has succumbed the attack was too keen his forces too shaken but as the heavy minutes pass he slowly regathers his strength and rises in the end a conqueror nevertheless he knows even in that moment of regained command that the peace he has thus bought with strain and stress is but momentary that the battle is on for life that the days which to other eyes would carry a sense of brilliancy days teeming with work would hold within their hidden depths a brooding uncertainty which would rob applause of its music and even overshadow the angel face of love he quailed at the prospect materialist though he was the days the intramparable days in his unbroken strength and the glare of the noonday sun he forgot to take account of the nights looming in black and endless procession before him it was from the day phantom he shrank not from the ghoul which works in the darkness and makes a grave of the heart while happier mortal sleep and the former terror seemed formidable enough to him in this his hour of startling realization even if he had freed himself for the nonce from its controlling power to escape all further contemplation of it he would work these letters deserved attention he would carry them to oswald and in their consideration find distraction for the rest of the day at least oswald was a good fellow if pleasure were to be gotten from these tokens of good will he should have his share of it a gleam of oswald's old spirit and oswald's once bright eye would go far towards throttling one of those demons whose talents he had just released from his throat and if doris responded to he would deserve his fate if he did not succeed in gaining that mastery of himself which would make such hours as these but episodes of interest and potent with great emotions rising with a resolute air he made a bundle of his papers and with them in hand passed out of his room and down the hotel stairs a man stood directly in his way as he made for the front door it was mr. shaliner courtesy demanded some show of recognition between them and brotherson was passing with his usual cold bow when a sudden impulse led him to pause and meet his sarcastic remark you have expressed or so I have been told some surprise at my choice of mecanition a man of varied accomplishments mr. shaliner but one for whom I have no further use if therefore you wish to call off your watchdog you are at liberty to do so I hardly think he can be serviceable to either of us much longer the older gentleman hesitated seeking possibly for composure and when he answered it was not only without any but with a certain forced respect mr. sweetwater has just left for New York mr. brotherson he will carry with him no doubt the full particulars of your great success Orlando bowed this time with distinguished grace not a flicker of relief had disturbed the calm serenity of his aspect yet when a moment later he stepped among his shouting admirers in the street his air and glance betrayed a bounding joy for which another source found than that of gratified pride a chain had slipped from his spirit and though the people shrank a little even while they cheered it was rather from all of his bearing and the recognition of that sense of apartness which underlay his smile then from any perception of the man's real nature or of the awesome purpose which at that moment exalted it but had they known could they have seen into this tumultuous heart what a silence would have settled these noisy streets and in what terror and soul confusion would each man have slunk away from his fellows into the quiet and solitude of his own home brotherson himself was not without a sense of the incongruity underlying this ovation for as he slowly worked himself along the brightness of his look became dimmed with a tinge of sarcasm which in its turn gave way to an expression of extreme melancholy both quite unbefitting the hero of the hour in the first flush of his newborn glory had he seen Doris youthful figure emerge for a moment from the vine hung porch he was approaching bringing with it some doubt of the reception awaiting him possibly for he made a stand before he reached the house and sent his followers back after which he advanced with an unhurring step so that several minutes elapsed before he finally drew up before Mr. Scott's door and entered through the now empty porch into his room he had meant to see Doris first but his mind had changed if all passed off well between himself and Oswald if he found his brother responsive and wide awake to the interests and necessities of the hour he might forgo his interview with her till he felt better prepared to meet it for call it cowardice or simply a reasonable precaution any delay seemed preferable to him in his present mood of discouragement to that final casting of the die upon his tongue so many and such tremendous issues it was the first moment of real halt in his whole tumultuous life never as daring experimentalist or agitator had he shrunk from danger seen or unseen or from threat uttered or unuttered as he shrank from this young girl's no and something of the dread he had felt lest he should encounter her unaware on the hall and so be led on to speak when his own judgment bade him be silent his features as he entered his brother's presence but Oswald was sunk in a bitter reverie of his own and took no heed of the signs of depression in the reaction following these days of great excitement the past had reasserted itself and all was gloom in his once generous soul this Orlando had time to perceive quick as the change came when his brother really realized who his visitor was the glad Orlando and the forced smile did not deceive him and his voice quavered a trifle as he held out his packet with the words I have come to show you what the world says in my invention we will soon be great men he emphasized as Oswald opened the letters money has been offered me and read, read he urged with an unconscious dictatorialness as Oswald paused in his task see what the fates have prepared for us for you shall share all my honors as you will from today share my work and enter into all my experiments cannot you enthuse a little bit over it doesn't the prospect contain any allurement for you would you rather stay locked up in this petty town yes or die don't look like that Orlando it was a cowardly speech and I ask you pardon I'm hardly fit to talk today Edith Orlando frowned not that name he harshly interrupted you must not hamper your life worries that dream of yours may be sacred but it belongs to the past and a great reality confronts you when you have fully recovered your health your own manhood will rebel at the weakness unworthy one of our name rouse yourself Oswald take account of our prospects give me your hand and say life hold something for me yet I have a brother who needs me if I do not need him together we can prove ourselves invincible and same and fortune from the world but the hand he reached for did not rise at his command though Oswald started erect and faced him with manly earnestness I should have to think long and deeply he said before I took upon myself responsibilities like these I am broken in mind and heart Orlando and must remain so till God mercifully delivers me I should be a poor assistant to you a drag rather than a help deeply as I deplored hard as it may be for one of your temperament to understand so complete an overthrow I yet must acknowledge my condition and pray you not to count upon me in any plans you may form I know how this looks I know that as your brother and truest admirer I should respond and respond strongly to such overtures as these but the motive for achievement is gone she was my all and while work it would be mechanically the lift the elevating thought is gone Orlando stood a moment studying his brother's face then he turned shortly about and walked the length of the room when he came back he took up his stand again directly before Oswald and asked with a new note in his voice did you love Edith Shaliner so much as that a glance from Oswald's eye sadder than any tear so that you cannot be reconciled a gesture Oswald's words were always few Orlando's frown deepened such grief I partly understand said he but time will cure it some day another lovely face will not talk of that Orlando no will not talk of that acquiesce the inventor walking away again this time to the window for you there's but one woman she's a memory killed broke from his brother's lips slain by her own hand under an impulse of wildness and terror can I ever forget that do not expect it Orlando then you do blame me Orlando turned and was looking full at Oswald I blame your unreasonableness and your overweening pride Orlando stood a moment then moved towards the door the heaviness of his step smote upon Oswald's ear and caused him to exclaim forgive me Orlando but the other cut him short with an imperative thanks for your candor if her spirit is destined to stand like an immovable shadow between you and me you do right to warn me but this interview must end all allusion to the subject I will seek and find another man to share my fortunes as he said this he approached suddenly and took his papers from the other's hand here he hastily retraced his steps to the door which he softly opened or he repeated but though Oswald listened for the rest it did not come while he waited the other had given him one deeply concentrated look and passed out no heartfelt understanding was possible between these two men crossing the hall Orlando knocked at the door of Doris little sitting room no answer yet she was there he knew it in every throbbing fiber of his body she was there and quite aware of his presence of this he felt sure yet she did not bid him enter should he knock again never but he would not quit the threshold not if she kept him waiting there for hours perhaps she realized this perhaps she had meant to open the door to him from the very first who can tell what avails is that she did open it and he meeting her soft eye wished from his very heart that his impulse had led him another way even if that way had been to the edge of the precipice and over for the face he looked upon was serene and there was no serenity in him rather a confusion of unloosed passions fearful of barrier and yearning tumultuously for freedom but whatever his revolt the secret revolt which makes no show look or movement he kept his ground and forced a smile of greeting if her face was quiet it was also lovely too lovely he felt for a man to leave it whatever might come of his lingering nothing in all his life had ever affected him like it for him there was no other woman in the past the present or the future and realizing this taking into the full but her affection and her trust might be to him and those fearsome days come he so dreaded a rebuff he who had been the courted of women and the admired of men ever since he could remember that he failed to respond to her welcome and the simple congratulations he felt forced to repeat he could neither speak the common place nor listen to it this was his crucial hour he must find support here or yield hopelessly to the maelstrom from whose world he was caught she saw his excitement and faltered back a step a move which he regretted the next minute for he took advantage of it to enter and close behind him the door which she would never have shut if her own accord then he spoke abruptly, passionately but in those golden tones which no emotion could render other than a luring I am an unhappy man, Miss Scott I see that my presence here is not welcome yet I'm sure that it would be so if it were not for a prejudice which your generous nature should be the first to cast aside in the face of the outspoken confidence of my brother Oswald Doris, little Doris, I love you I have loved you from the moment of our first meeting not to many men is given to find his heart so late and when he does it is for his whole life no second passion can follow it I know that I am premature in saying this that you are not prepared to hear such words it might be wiser for me to withhold them but I must leave Darby soon and I cannot go until I know whether there is the least hope that you will yet lend a light to my career or whether that career must burn itself to ashes at your feet Oswald, nay, hear me out Oswald lives in his memories but I must have an active hope a tangible expectation if I am to be the man I was meant to be will you then coldly dismiss me or will you let my whole future life prove to you the innocence of my past I will not hasten anything all I ask is some indulgence time will do the rest impossible, she murmured but that was a word for which he had no ear he saw that she was moved unexpectedly so that while her eyes wandered restlessly at times towards the door they ever came back in girlish wonder fascination to his face emboldening him so that he ventured at last to add Doris, little Doris I will teach you a marvelous lesson if you will only turn your dainty ear my way love such as mine carries infinite treasure with it will you have that treasure heaped piled before your feet your lips say no but your eyes the truest eyes I ever saw whisper a different language the day will come when you will find your joy in the breast of him you are now afraid to trust and not waiting for disclaimer or even glance of approach from the eyes he had so willfully misread he withdrew with a movement as abrupt as that with which he had entered why then with the memory of this exultant hour to fend off all shadows did the midnight find him in his solitary hanger in the moonlit woods a deeply desponding figure again beside him swung the huge machine which represented a life of power and luxury but he no longer saw it it called to him with many a creek and a quiet snap sounds to start his blood and fire his eye a week may a day ago but he was deaf to this music now the call went unheeded the future had no further meaning for him nor did he know or think whether he sat in light or in darkness whether the woods were silent about him or panting with life and sound his demon had gripped him again and the final battle was on there would never be another mighty as he felt himself to be there were limits even to his capacity for endurance he could sustain no further conflict how then would it end he never had a doubt himself yet he sat there around him in the forest the night owl screeched an innumerable small things without a name from layer to layer he heard them not above the moon-road flecking the deepest shadows with the silver from her half-turned urn but none of the soft and healing drops fell upon him nature was no longer a goddess but an avenger light a revealer not a solace darkness the only boon nor had time a meaning from early eve to early morning he sat there not if it were one hour or twelve earth was his no longer he roused when the sun made everything light about him but he did not think about it he rose but was not conscious that he rose he unlocked the door and stepped out into the forest but he could never remember doing this he only knew later that he had been in the woods and now was in his room at the hotel all the rest was phasmagoria agony and defeat he had crossed the rubicon of this world's hopes and fears but he had been unconscious of the passage kathryn green book three the heart of man chapter thirty-nine the avenger dear mr. chaliner with every apology for the intrusion may I request a few minutes of private conversation with you this evening at seven o'clock let it be in your own room yours truly orlando brotherson mr. chaliner had been called upon to face many difficult and heart-rending duties since the blow which had desolated his home fell upon him but from none of them had he shrunk as he did from the interview thus demanded he had supposed himself rid of this man he had dismissed him from his life when he had dismissed sweetwater his face accordingly wore anything but a propitiary look when promptly at the hour of seven orlando brotherson entered his apartments his pleasure or his displeasure was however a matter of small consequence to his self invited visitor he had come there with a set purpose and nothing in heaven or earth could deter declining the offer of a seat with the slightest of acknowledgments in the way of a bow he took a careful survey of the room before saying are we alone mr. chaliner or is that man's sweetwater lurking somewhere within hearing mr. sweetwater is gone as I had the honor of telling you yesterday was the somewhat stiff reply there are no witnesses to this conference if that is what you wish to know thank you but you will pardon my insistence if I request the privilege of closing that door I have no one communicating with the bedroom the information I have to give you is not such as I am willing to have shared at least for the present you may close the door said mr. chaliner coldly but is it necessary for you to give me the information you mentioned tonight if it is of such a nature that you cannot accord me the privilege of sharing it as yet with others why not spare me till you can I have gone through much mr. brotherson you have came in steady ascent as the man thus addressed the door he had indicated and quietly closed it but he continued as he crossed back to his former position would it be easier for you to go through the night now in anticipation of what I have to reveal than to hear it at once for my lips while I am in the mood to speak the answer was slow and coming the courage which had upheld this rapidly aging man through so many trying interviews seemed inadequate for the test put so cruelly upon it he faltered and sank heavily into a chair while the stern man watching him gave no signs of responsive sympathy or even interest only a patient and icy tempered resolve I cannot live in uncertainty such were finally mr. chaliner's words what you have to say concerns Edith the pause he made was infinitismal in length but it was long enough for a quick disclaimer but no such disclaimer came I will hear it came in reluctant finish mr. brotherson took a step forward his manner was as cold as the heart which lay like a stone in his bosom will you pardon me if I ask you to rise said he I have my weaknesses too he gave no sign of them I cannot speak down from such a height to the man I am bound to hurt as if answering to the constraint of a will quite outside his own mr. chaliner rose their heads were now more nearly on a level and mr. brothersons voice remained low as he proceeded with quiet intensity there has been a time and it may exist yet god knows when you thought me in some unknown and secret way the murder of your daughter I do not quarrel with the suspicion it was justified mr. chaliner I did kill your daughter and with this hand I can no longer deny it the wretched father swayed following the gesture of the hand thus held out but he did not fall nor did a sound leave his lips brotherson went coldly on I did it because I regarded her treatment of my suit as insolent I have no mercy for any such display of intolerance on the part of the rich and the fortunate I hated her for it I hated her class herself and all she stood for to strike the dealer of such a hurt I felt to be my right though a man of small beginnings and of a stock which such as you call common I have a pride which few of your blood can equal I could not work or sleep or eat with such a sting in my breast as she had planted there to rid myself of it I determined to kill her and I did how oh that was easy though it has proved a great stumbling block to the detectives as I knew it would I shot her but not with an ordinary bullet my charge was a small icicle made deliberately for the purpose it had strength enough to penetrate but it left no trace behind it a bullet of ice for a heart of ice I had said in the torment of my rage but the word was without knowledge mr. chaliner I see it now I've seen it for two whole weeks I did not misjudge her condemnation of me but I misjudged its cause it was not to the comparatively poor the comparatively obscure man she sought to show contempt but to the brother of Oswald whose claim she saw insulted a woman I should have respected not killed a woman of no pride of station a woman who loved a man not only of my own class but of my own blood a woman to avenge whose unmerited death I stand here before you a self-condemned criminal that is but justice mr. chaliner that is the way I look at things though no sentimentalists and dead to all beliefs save the eternal truths of science I have that in me which will not let me profit now that I know myself unworthy by the great success I have earned hence this confession mr. chaliner it has not come easily nor do I shut my eyes in the least to the results which must follow but I cannot do differently tomorrow you may telegraph to New York till then I desire to be left undisturbed I have many things to dispose of in the interim mr. chaliner very white by now pointed to the door before he sank again into his chair brothers and took it for dismissal and stepped slowly back then their eyes met again and mr. chaliner spoke his first word there was another a poor woman she died suddenly and her wound was not unlike that inflicted upon Edith did you I did the answer came without a tremor you may say and so may others that I was less justified in this attack than in the other but I do not see it that way a theory does not always work in practice I wish to test the unusual means I contemplated and the woman I saw before me across the court was hard working and with nothing in life to look forward to so a cry of bitter execution for mr. chaliner cut him short turning with a shrug he was about to lift his hand to the door when he gave a violent start and fell hastily back the entering figure of such passion and fury as neither of these men had ever seen before it was Oswald Oswald the kindly Oswald the lover of men and the adorer of women Oswald with the words of the dastardly confession he had partly overheard searing hot within his brain Oswald raised in a moment from the desponding invalid to a terrifying ministrant of retributive justice Orlando could scarcely raise his hand before the others was upon his throat murder doubly died murder of innocent women was hissed in the strong man's ears not with the law but with me you must reckon and may God in the spirit of my mother nerve my arm end of chapter 39 chapter 40 of initials only this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Anna Roberts initials only by Anna Catherine Green Book 3 The Heart of Man Chapter 40 Desolate the struggle was fierce but momentary Oswald with his weakened powers could not long withstand the steady exertion of Orlando's giant strength and ere long sank away from the contest into Mr. Chaloner's arms you should not have summoned the shade of our mother to your aid observe the other with a smile the irony was lost in terrible presage I was always her favorite Oswald shuttered Orlando had spoken truly she had always been blindly, arrogantly trustful of her eldest son no fault could she see in him and now impetrously Oswald struggled with his weakness raised himself in Mr. Chaloner's arms and cried and loud revolt but God is just he will not let you escape if he does I will not I will hound you to the ends of the earth and bury into the eternities not with the threat of my arm you are my master there but with the curse of a brother who believed you innocent of his darlings blood and would have believed you so in the face of everything but your own word peace, a jurid Orlando there is no account I am not ready to settle I have robbed you of the woman you love but I have despoiled myself I stand desolate in the world who but an hour ago could have chosen my seat among the bests and the greatest is due after that nothing the word came slowly like a drop rung from a nearly spent heart nothing, nothing oh Orlando, I wish we were both dead and buried and that there were no further life for either of us the softened tone, the wistful prayer which would blot out an immortality of joy for the one that it might save the other from an immortality of retribution touched some long unsound accord in Orlando's extraordinary nature advancing a step he held out his hand the left one we'll leave the future to itself Oswald and do what we can with the present, said he I've made a mess of my life and spoil a career which might have made us both kings forgive me Oswald I ask for nothing else from God or man I should like that it would strengthen me for tomorrow but Oswald ever kindly generous and more ready to think of others than of himself had yet some of Orlando's tenacity he gazed at that hand and a flush swept up over his cheek which instantly became ghastly again I cannot, said he not even the left one may God forgive me Orlando struck silent for a moment dropped his hand and slowly turned away Mr. Challoner felt Oswald stiffen in his arms and break suddenly away only to stop short before he had taken one of the half dozen steps between himself and his departing brother where are you going he demanded in tones which made Orlando turn I might say to the devil was the sarcastic reply but I doubt if he would receive me no, he added in more ordinary tones as the other shivered and started forward again you will have no trouble in finding me in my own room tonight I have letters to write and other things a man like me cannot drop out without a ripple you may go to bed and sleep I will keep awake for two Orlando visions were passing before Oswald's eyes such as in his blameless life he never thought could enter into his consciousness or blast his tranquil outlook upon life Orlando he again appealed covering his eyes in a frenzied attempt to shut out these horrors I cannot let you go like this tomorrow tomorrow in every niche and corner of this world wherever Edith Challoner's name has gone wherever my name has gone it will be known that the discoverer of a practical airship is a man whom they can no longer honor do you think that is not hell enough for me or that I do not realize the hell it will be for you I've never weird you or any man with my affection but I'm not all demon I would gladly have spared you this additional anguish but that was impossible you are my brother and must suffer from the connection whether we would have it so or not if it promises too much misery and I know no misery like that of shame come with me where I go tomorrow there will be room for two Oswald swaying with weakness but maddened by the sight of an overthrow which carried with it the stifled affections and the admiration of his whole life gave a bound forward opened his arms and fell Orlando stopped short gazing down on his prostrate brother he stood for a moment with a gleam of something like human tenderness showing through the flare of dying passions and perishing hopes then he swung open the door and passed quietly out and Mr. Challoner could hear the laughing remark with which he met and dismissed the half dozen men and women who had been drawn to this end of the hall by what had sounded to them like a fracas between angry men End of Chapter 40