English cathedrals - the nuggets in the contribution plate - the radiant
bride who had come across the plains to hear "Dearly Beloved, We are
gathered together," standing beside the man she loved. The service for
the dying: "When we shall have served thee in our generation we may be
gathered unto our Fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience,
the confidence of a certain faith, in favor with Thee our God, and in
perfect charity with the world." So, Jim Muldoon, cut down before his
time, and his slayer out there in the darkness on the end of a rope.

The dying candle picked out in flame a withered cabbage rose under the
table; a baby's mitten, the letter written for the man who had died, the
Mexican's sombrero on a chair, the gilt sun and moon and stars on the
glass face of the grandfather clock by the window.

Duncan's head fell forward in his clasped arms on the table, and in his
dreams he heard the huntsman's silver horn from across the seas calling
him home to carry on the destiny of the ancient and honorable name which
was his. His "strike of pay ore" in his "land of gold."

The candle wick in a shallow pool of tallow flared high, and went out.

The old clock chimed twelve.



The Tom Bell Stronghold

II

"You smile, O poet, and what do you?