He pressed the b.u.t.ton on his desk. The clerk appeared.
"Write out a full pardon for Frank Gordon, and call the warden of Sing Sing!"
Ruth dropped to her knees, crying:
"O Lord G.o.d, unto thee I give praise!"
In a moment the clerk hurried back to the Governor"s side and in startling tones whispered:
"The wires are down, sir. I can"t get the warden."
The Governor s.n.a.t.c.hed his watch from his pocket.
"There is no train for two hours. Order me a special!"
The despatcher flashed his command for a clear track as far as the wires would work, and within fifteen minutes the great engine with its single coach dashed across the bridge and plunged down the grade toward Sing Sing, roaring, hissing, screaming its warnings above the splash and howl of the storm.
The Governor sat silent with his head resting on his hand, shading his eyes.
Ruth, still and pale, gazed out the car window, and, shivering, closed her eyes now and then over the vision of a cold dead face she feared to see at the journey"s end.
They had made fifty miles in fifty minutes, and not a word had been spoken.
The Governor looked at his watch and leaned over:
"Cheer up, Ruth. We are making a mile a minute through the storm, over slippery rails. We will make it in time."
Suddenly the emergency brakes came down with a crash, every wheel was locked, and the train slid heavily on the track, hissing, grinding, swaying, the steel rails blazing with sparks.
The Governor sprang from the car. "We"re blocked by a wreck, sir,"
the conductor said, touching his cap. "The high water has undermined the track on the river bank."
Within twenty minutes the engine in front of the wreck was secured, Ruth and Lucy were in the cab, and the engineer and fireman stood reading their orders.
"Gentlemen, I am the Governor," said a voice by their side.
They looked up.
"This is a matter of life and death. The life of a man--and the life of the little pale woman I helped into your cab. Put this engine into Sing Sing by five minutes to two o"clock and I"ll give you a thousand dollars. Five hundred for each of you."
The engineer smiled.
"We"ll do it for you, sir, without money. We voted for you."
The Governor pressed their hands.
Down the storm-clouded track the engine flew with throbbing heart of steel and breath of fire like a panting demon. Back and forth over the spongy rails she swayed, her mighty ribs cracking as she lurched and jumped and plunged. But the fireman in his flannel shirt, dripping with perspiration, never paused, as with steady stroke he fed her roaring mouth; and the engineer, with his hand on her pulse, leaned far out of the cab with his eyes fixed on the flying track.
The hour for the condemned man was at hand. He had asked the warden as a special favour to do his duty without delay at the appointed time.
Gordon was ready, dressed with his old fastidious distinction to the last detail of his toilet. He had spent the entire night before writing to Ruth the last chapter in a secret diary he had kept and given to the warden for her.
The warden read the death warrant with halting lips. He had been strangely drawn to this tall young giant with his premature gray hairs. Gordon"s words of lyric fire to him of the mysteries of life and death had thrown a spell over his imagination. He was going to kill him now with the horrible feeling that he was his own brother.
"Come, my friend," Gordon said to him, cheerfully, "you promised me there should be no delay. I"ve a child"s eagerness now to push the black curtains aside and see what lies beyond. I"ve often dreamed and wondered. In a few minutes I shall know. I hear it calling me, that unknown world of silence, beauty and mystery. Let us make haste."
But the feet of the jailer were of lead. He would stop and hold his lower lip tightly under his teeth, as though in pain.
At last they were in the dim chamber that is the vestibule of death. The cap had been drawn over his face and the leather straps buckled on his wrists legs,
The warden put his hand on the electric switch.
There was a shout and a stir without, the thump of hurrying feet, and the b.u.t.t of a guard"s gun thundered against the door.
The warden sprang forward.
"Stop! The Governor!" he heard faintly shouted through the deep-padded panels.
CHAPTER x.x.xVII
THE KISS OF THE BRIDE
For a quarter of an hour the Governor sat and talked with Lucy, waiting the arrival of Gordon and Ruth. The warden arranged that they should meet in the adjoining room alone.
No eye save G.o.d"s saw their meeting. Those who waited only heard through the heavy curtains half articulate cries like the soft crooning of a mother over her babe.
When they entered the room and Lucy had clung pa.s.sionately for a moment to the neck of the tall, gaunt figure, the Governor took his hand.
"I have accepted Ruth"s word and yours for the truth in this case, Frank Gordon. I have grown to know that she is the soul of truth.
I heard you preach once from the text, "He saved others, himself he could not save." I did not know then what you were talking about.
I know now--"
"Oh, Morris," Ruth broke in, "we will always love you as the nearest and dearest friend on earth."
"As for you, Frank Gordon," he went on. "I could no longer hate you if I tried. In the presence of a love so pure, so divine as that which hallows your life, I uncover my head. I am on holy ground--I am in the presence of the living G.o.d."
He turned away, and Ruth broke into a sob, while the man by her side hung his head and sat down as though too weak to stand.
The Governor lifted Gordon from the seat, seized Ruth"s hand and placed it in his.