My knees shook together, and big drops of
sweat gathered on my forehead. I roused myself and searched again;
again I was baffled. Distractedly I beat the bushes round and round
the tiny lawn, then flung myself down on the turf and gave way to my
despair. To this, then, it had all come; this was the end for which
I had abandoned my wife and child; this the treasure that had dangled
so long before my eyes. Fool that I had been! I cursed my madness
and the hour when I was born; never before had I heartily despised
myself, never until now did I know how the lust for this treasure had
eaten into my soul. The secret, if secret indeed there were, and all
were not a lie, was in the keeping of the silent Peak.
"I almost wept with wrath. I tore the turf in my frenzy, and felt as
one who would fain curse God and die. But after a while my passion
spent itself. I sat up and reflected that after all my first
direction might have been the right one; at any rate, I would try it
again and explore it thoroughly. The instructions were precise, and
had been confirmed in the matter of the tree.
Pages:
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181