Continue."
"He commanded us to sing pleasantly when he was gone."
"I heard the singing on the lake road. It is well."
"Also, he bade us keep the first master in our minds, for John, he said, was the beginning."
At this the face of David clouded a little.
"Continue. What word for David?"
Something that Connor had said about the pride and sulkiness of a child came back to Ruth.
Elijah, after hesitation, went on: "He declared that Glani is too heavy in the forehead."
"Yes, that is Abraham," said the master, smiling tenderly. "He would argue even on the death bed."
"But a cross with Tabari would remedy that defect."
"Perhaps. What more?"
"He blessed you and bade you remember and rejoice that he was gone to his wife and child."
"Ah?" cried David softly. His glance, wandering absently, rested on the girl for a moment, and then came back to Elijah. "His mind went back to that? What further for my ear?"
"I remember nothing more, David."
"Speak!" commanded the master.
The eyes of Elijah roved as though for help.
"Toward the end his voice grew faint and his mind seemed to wander."
"Far rather tremble, Elijah, if you keep back the words he spoke, however sharp they may be. My hand is not light. Remember, and speak."
The fear of Elijah changed to a gloomy pride, and now he not only raised his head, but he even made a step forward and stood in dignity.
"Death took Abraham by the throat, and yet he continued to speak. "Tell David that four masters cherished Abraham, but David cast him out like a dog and broke his heart, and therefore he dies. Although I bless him, G.o.d will hereafter judge him!""
A shudder went through the entire group, and Ruth herself was uneasy.
"Keep your own thoughts and the words of Abraham well divided," said David solemnly. "I know his mind and its working. Continue, but be warned."
"I am warned, David, but my brother Abraham is dead and my heart weeps for him!"
"G.o.d will hereafter judge me," said David harshly. "And what was the further judgment of Abraham, the old man?"
"Even this: "David has opened the Garden to one and therefore it will be opened to all. The law is broken. The first sin is the hard sin and the others follow easily. It is swift to run downhill. He has brought in one, and another will soon follow.""
"Elijah," thundered David, "you have wrested his words to fit the thing you see."
"May the dead hand of Abraham strike me down if these were not his words."
"Had he become a prophet?" muttered David. "No, it was maundering of an old man."
"G.o.d speaks on the lips of the dying, David."
"You have said enough."
"Wait!"
"You are rash, Elijah."
She could not see the face of David, but the terror and frenzied devotion of Elijah served her as mirror to see the wrath of the master of the Garden.
"David has opened the gate of the Garden. The world sweeps in and shall carry away the life of Eden like a flood. All that four masters have done the fifth shall undo."
The strength of his ecstasy slid from Elijah and he dropped upon his knees with his head weighted toward the earth. The others were frozen in their places. One who had opened his lips to speak, perhaps to intercede for the rash Elijah, remained with his lips parted, a staring mask of fear. In them Ruth saw the rage of David Eden, and she was sickened by what she saw. She had half pitied the simplicity of this man, this gull of the clever Connor. Now she loathed him as a savage barbarian. Even these old men were hardly safe from his furies of temper.
"Arise," said the master at length, and she could feel his battle to control his voice. "You are forgiven, Elijah, because of your courage--yet, beware! As for that old man whose words you repeated, I shall consider him." He turned on his heel, and Ruth saw that his face was iron.
_CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE_
From the gate of the patio Connor, watching all that time in a nightmare of suspense, saw, first of all, the single figure of David come around the trees, David alone and walking. But before that shock pa.s.sed he saw Glani at the heels of the master, and then, farther back, Ruth!
She had pa.s.sed the gate and two-thirds of the battle was fought and won.
Yet all was not well, as he plainly saw. With long, swift steps David came over the terrace, and finally paused as if his thoughts had stopped him. He turned as Glani pa.s.sed, and the girl came up to him; his extended arm halted Abra and he stood looking up to the girl and speaking. Only the faint murmur of his voice came unintelligibly to Connor, but he recognized danger in it as clearly as in the hum of bees.
Suddenly the girl, answering, put out her hands as if in gesture of surrender. Another pause--it was only a matter of a second or so, but it was a s.p.a.ce for life or death with Connor. In that interval he knew that his scheme was made or ruined. What had the girl said? Perhaps that mighty extended arm holding back Abra had frightened her, and with the wind blowing his long black hair aside, David of Eden was a figure wild enough to alarm her. Perhaps in fear of her life she had exposed the whole plan. If so, it meant broken bones for Connor.
But now David turned again, and this time he was talking by the side of Abra as they came up the hill. He talked with many gestures, and the girl was laughing down to him.
"G.o.d bless her!" muttered Connor impulsively. "She"s a true-blue one!"
He remembered his part in the nick of time as they came closer, and David helped the girl down from the saddle and brought her forward. The gambler drew himself up and made his face grave with disapproval. Now or never he must prove to David that there was no shadow of a connection between him and the girl. Yet he was by no means easy. There was something forced and stereotyped in the smile of the girl that told him she had been through a crucial test and was still near the breaking point.
David presented them to one another uneasily. He was even a little embarra.s.sed under the accusing eye of Connor.
"I make you known, Ruth," he said, "to my brother Benjamin. He is that man of whom I told you."
"I am happy," said the girl, "to be known to him."
"That much I cannot say," replied the gambler.
He turned upon David with outstretched arm.