Answered Prayer [pp. 87]

Stratagems and Spoils
Putting his hand to his pistol-pocket, he Let me see the other, if you please,"
said:- said I.
'I have a mind to blow your head off He raised the other boot which had one
for a meddlesome fool!" coin sunk in the gum.
'That would hang you, and yet would "How many are there?" he asked. " 1
not satisfy my curiosity," I replied. do not yet know."
He kept his keen black eyes fastened on "Three."
me for several seconds. I met his gaze "Fair luck," he said, smiling, as he
steadily, wondering what his next move stood up.
would be. He walked to the table, laid "Good-morning," I said. "My curioshis pistol on it, and sat down beside it. itv is satisfied. I believe you will not re "I believe you are right," he said, "and peat the trick."
I had better trust you." "No," he replied, as he escorted me to
Then, throwing one leg over the other, the door; "such things never go more
he showed me the bottom of his boot. It than once. I wish you good-morning,
had a broad sole with a soft, narrow welt sir."
around the edge, and inside of that was As I hurried along to my business, I
covered with a very stickv gum in which I felt that I was indebted to him for a most
were imbedded two double-eagles.'interesting half-hour.
ANSWERED PRAYER
BY HARRIET HOWE
S THE days grew into weeks, and
the weeks into months, his hopes
grew also. And he prayed daily for
her wholi he adored. Prayed that she
might have her heart's desire, her greatest
wish, for he well knew what fair, pure
things her inmost thoughts could be.
And now the year was almost done,and at last the day came,-the anniversary of the day on which she had promised
him that, when another year had passed
without news of that Other,-he might, if
he still wished, take what was left of her
love-and life.
He went to her, filled with an exultation he could not conceal, and a joy that
he felt no power on earth could shadow.
She met him with face pale as death,
but with wonderfully luminous eyes, andi
when, for the first time, he sought her lips
to kiss, she drew away a little and said.
"You must not!
As he stood, a numbness seized him, and
he could not speak; she, watching him
while tears of pity filled her eyes, drew
from her dress a folded paper and held it
out. He reached toward it, gropingly, as
one blinded, and she put it into his hands.
He read, slowly, for the light was dimn
to himn.-" Just released from Russian
prison. Am following this." The signature was that of the man she loved, and
who loved her.
The wording seemed more brutally concise than that of any dispatch he had ever
read before. The paper escaped from his
hand and fluttered slowly, turning over as
it went, down upon the carpet.
His eye followed it and noted the design
woven there. The woven figures moved,
coming toward him, and bringing the
paper nearer. He shrank back,-then
the figures ran together with a sharp
sound that made him start, and he saw
only a gray space, with throbbing fires
where the figures had been.
Then a sob roused him, and he saw her
weeping.
He went to her quickly, smiling, and
held out his hands. She put her own into
them, and then he said, "Good-by." She
could not speak for the tears that choked
her.
He came close, and then, reverently, as
one kisses the loved dead, his lips touched
her smooth brow, and even as one prays
for the dead, he murmured, just as he
had prayed so long, "May God grant your
heart's desire," and went out into the
darkness, chill with the rising fog.
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