At that juncture a man came running to them from the direction of the fire. The Squire recognized him as the boss of the carpenters. "Mr.
Britt is in that house. I saw him through a window. But it"s a furnace from top to bottom."
The Squire opened his mouth as if query, urgently demanding utterance, had pried apart his jaws. "How do you think the fire--" But he promptly closed his mouth and set his lips tightly. He shook his head with the manner of one who did not require information. Then he turned and hurried to his house.
Colonel Wincott and Xoa were on the porch, lighted by the great, red torch whose radiance was flung afar by the reflector aid of the fog.
"It"s Britt"s house--and Britt is in it," he told them. "Colonel, your man Friday had over many times one text that fits this thing. "Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothing not be burned?""
He went to Xoa and patted her arm. "Better go inside, mother. It isn"t a good thing to be looking at. Where are the children?"
Frank and Vona answered that question by appearing in the door. They were honestly affected by the news the Squire gave them. Vona hid her face against the young man"s breast.
"It seems to be a self-operating proposition," stated Colonel Wincott.
"And about all anybody can do is to let it flicker!"
Vaniman was clearly not the captain of his soul in those distressing circ.u.mstances. He was displaying symptoms of collapse. Squire Hexter noted and acted.
"Wincott, this boy must not stay here in this town any longer. If that prison guard runs afoul of him before I get matters under way at the shire, Frank will be galloped back to his cell in order to make a grandstand play. I"ve got to be going. Take Frank under your wing. Get him over the border."
"Surest thing in the world!" declared the hearty colonel. "Got a hitch?"
"My horse and double-seater. Come along to the stable--you, too, Frank.
Xoa, bring him one of my coats and a hat!"
Vona leaped away from her lover and faced the Squire. "I shall go with him, wherever he may go!" she said, with the fire of one who expected to meet opposition.
But the Squire grinned. "Why, girl, of course you"ll go! I wouldn"t grab life-saving medicine away from a sick man. Take your mother along, and G.o.d bless the whole of you on the way."
That way was toward the north, on the heels of the wains and the flocks and the herds and the men and women and children of the migrating population of Egypt.
Colonel Wincott occupied the front seat with Mrs. Harnden. By the time he had teamed the Squire"s fat little nag along for a mile he had succeeded in calming Mrs. Harnden"s hysterical spirits. He induced her to quit looking over her shoulder at the great torch that lighted luridly the heavens above the deserted town. "It"s a pillar of fire by night, madam, as you say! But that"s as far as it fits in with the Exodus sentiment. It"s behind us--and behind us let it stay."
At the end of another mile Mrs. Harnden was extolling the capability of her husband.
"I"ve heard about him," said the colonel. "Optimist? So am I. Get in touch with him and tell him to come to my new town. He"ll have something that he can really optimize over."
Colonel Wincott sedulously kept his attention off the two who rode on the back seat; he obliged Mrs. Harnden to do the same.
After a time the trotting nag overtook the trailers of the procession.
The colonel hailed and pa.s.sed one wain after another, steadily calling, "Gangway!" They recognized his authority; they obeyed; they gave him half the road.
He had an especially hearty greeting for the hand tub, Hecla, trundling on its little wheels, men guarding its flanks, men pulling on the rope by which it was propelled. Ike Jones was one of the guards. He gave the colonel"s party a return greeting by a flourish on the "tramboon."
"The stage starts from your town this morning, Colonel! Runs express through Egypt."
"Good idea! Nothing but scenery left there," agreed the colonel. "Take good care of that gold, boys! The receiver of the Egypt Trust Company will be able to cut _some_ melon!"
But Prof. Almon Waite, toddling behind the treasure, had a metaphor of his own. "This gold will gloriously pave the streets of the New Jerusalem, sir!"
They went on in the growing dawn, threading their way among the vehicles and the folks on foot.
In all their progress they met only one party headed in the opposite direction, coming back toward the town that had been deserted. Vaniman beheld Bartley Wagg teaming along the two convicts. They were tied together and he was threatening them with a club. They merely flashed on the screen of the mist and were out of sight. It was evident that Mr. Wagg had determined to grab a couple of straws, at any rate, in a desperate attempt to buoy himself officially in the flood of his misfortunes.
The sun was burning away the mists when Colonel Wincott"s turnout topped a hill; he waved his whip to invite the attention of his pa.s.sengers.
"There she lies, folks! I"ve been calling it my town. From now on it"s our town. Some daisy on the breast of nature, eh?"
There was a lake on the facets of whose ripples the sunlight danced.
White water tumbled down cascades. Beside the lake there was a nest of portable houses. "Homes till we build bigger ones," explained the master of The Promised Land. "I"m giving building lots free. The cla.s.s of settlers warrants it!"
Then Colonel Wincott called their attention to something else--something that was not visible. He wrinkled his nose, but his sniff indicated gusto. "Smell it? It"s food for the Children of Israel. Not manna. But it will fit the occasion, I hope. It"s a barbecue. A whole ox and all the fixings."
Then they came to a high arch, fashioned from boughs of fir and spruce trees. The wains were rolling under it.
Frank and Vona lifted up their eyes. At the top of the arch, in great letters that were formed of pine ta.s.sels fastened to a stretch of canvas, was the word, "LIBERTY."
"The name of our new town," said the colonel.
But for the two on the rear seat it was more than the name of a town.
Vaniman pressed the girl"s trembling hand between his palms. They looked at each other through the lenses of grateful tears.
Just inside the arch stood Prophet Elias, welcoming all comers. He had put off his robe and had laid aside his fantastic umbrella. He wore the sober garb of a dominic, and his face, above his tie of white lawn, displayed shrewd and complete appreciation of the occasion.
He took off his hat and bowed low when Colonel Wincott"s party pa.s.sed under the arch. And this sonorous proclamation followed Frank and Vona:
""And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.""
"Amen!" responded Colonel Wincott, fervently.
The two persons on the rear seat did not speak. In silence they had reverently prostrated themselves at a shrine of thanksgiving in their souls.