The Quickening by Francis Lynde
Page 1 of 188
Illustration: Tom was fronting the firebrand Dabney like a man.
THE QUICKENING
By
FRANCIS LYNDE Author of The Grafters, The Master of Appleby, etc., etc.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY E.M. ASHE
INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1906 Francis Lynde
March
PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N.Y.
To My Mother
CHAPTER PAGE
I Bethesda 1
II The Cedars of Lebanon 11
III Of the Fathers Upon the Children 21
IV The Newer Exodus 25
V The Dabneys of Deer Trace 32
VI Blue Blood and Red 44
VII The Prayer of the Righteous 57
VIII The Backslider 65
IX The Race to the Swift 75
X The Shadow of the Rock 90
XI The Trumpet-Call 99
XII The Iron in the Forge Fire 107
XIII A Sister of Charity 116
XIV On Jordan's Bank 124
XV Noel 140
XVI The Bubble, Reputation 145
XVII Absalom, My Son! 160
XVIII The Awakening 172
XIX Issachar 188
XX Dry Wells 201
XXI Gilgal 216
XXII Love 226
XXIII Tarred Ropes 242
XXIV The Under-Depths 255
XXV The Plow in the Furrow 265
XXVI As With a Mantle 279
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: The Quickening by Francis Lynde
- 2: Spatting barefooted up the dusty pike
- 3: But there was a boyish scowl for Japheth Pettigrass
- 4: When the Reverend Silas hurled out the Baptist's words
- 5: With the tall mountaineer called William Layne on his right
- 6: In fact had once owned him as Mawstuh Majah
- 7: The thought of studying Sunday lessons begot rebellion
- 8: The old negro quarters on the Dabney grounds
- 9: And Major Dabney its chief citizen
- 10: Thomas Jefferson shook his head
- 11: He had helped to destroy the guns of his battery
- 12: Writing it Reverend Thomas Jefferson Gordon
- 13: In spite of the premonitory tremblings
- 14: Of the rotunda of the Marlboro
- 15: We're quite proud of the Marlboro
- 16: Caspar Dabney was rarely to be taken for granted
- 17: Lantern jawed Japheth Pettigrass
- 18: Had topped the shrugged shoulder of Lebanon
- 19: Including her grandfather and Japheth Pettigrass
- 20: When you offeh me youh contemptible Yankee gold
- 21: He whispered reassuringly to Ardea
- 22: Tike had been stilling more pine top whisky
- 23: But the Dabneys were lords of the soil
- 24: It was Thomas Jefferson who gave the alarm
- 25: Helgerson hastened away to obey his orders
- 26: But the burden of her prayer was not now for Caleb Gordon
- 27: If you had been given youh just dues
- 28: No disputed sovereignty of the woods
- 29: Faveh us Thomas Jefferson heard no more
- 30: Thomas Jefferson had never seen any one die
- 31: And when Thomas Jefferson went home after the shower
- 32: But the milestones along the backward way were familiar
- 33: Hector is a an extremely good dog
- 34: Said Thomas Jefferson doggedly
- 35: And between them Ardea was dragged ashore
- 36: The installation of coking ovens
- 37: Duxbury Farley was equally successful
- 38: And that he and Farley had been appointed receivers
- 39: Duxbury Farley looked down at him curiously
- 40: Ardea he saw only now and then
- 41: Buddy don't act as if he'd heard it
- 42: The Dabneys always forgive but they never forget
- 43: Studying with sullen resentment in his heart
- 44: She's tolerable only tolerable
- 45: Sat out decorously on the ornate veranda
- 46: But whosoever shall deny me before men
- 47: When the mechanical hunger was sated
- 48: Ardea was somewhere on the peopled verandas
- 49: He would stand before this mocking
- 50: She was standing on the opposite side of the barrel basin
- 51: Hung her piggin on a broken limb
- 52: And carpeted with cedar needles
- 53: And he was immensely relieved when Bryerson
- 54: But the preceptor had already stepped to the ticket window
- 55: He went straight to the Pullman
- 56: And then he pointed at the bottle
- 57: Ardea thought it would not be well
- 58: Ardea remembered a saying of hers
- 59: Said 'He that doubteth is damned if he eat
- 60: I reckon I'd better ride on the box with Unc' Scipio
- 61: And Scipio reined in his horses
- 62: There was no answer to his prayers
- 63: Ardea could not reason with him
- 64: Ardea rose and began to untangle the great bunch of holly
- 65: The curtains of the void were parted by invisible hands
- 66: There was the Church one and indivisible
- 67: Any answer to any prayer would be a miracle
- 68: I want to know what you think about promises
- 69: Ardea Dabney's expressive face mirrored dawning displeasure
- 70: Tom had been shy about making inquiries
- 71: Let's go over yonder and sit down in the sun
- 72: Bone meltings and blood firings apart
- 73: Tom crushed Nan into the farthest cranny
- 74: Tom Jeff Gordon if you know what's good for you
- 75: A grayer cloud hung over the industries at Gordonia
- 76: Silas Crafts was silent for a moment
- 77: And the voice of Japheth Pettigrass said Why
- 78: It's Brother Silas ag'inst the field
- 79: Silas Crafts was abstracted and silent
- 80: Chiawassee Consolidated was moderately prosperous
- 81: I reckon that was about what Farley wanted him to do
- 82: Dyckman was polite to the general manager
- 83: You have smashed Chiawassee Consolidated
- 84: If there was anything criminal in the Farley administration
- 85: So Ardea saw nothing but his back
- 86: Than this plan of having youh fatheh in command at Gordonia
- 87: At the station in South Tredegar
- 88: Japhe was about the last man in Paradise
- 89: Bauer didn't change his point of view
- 90: Of chief priest Dyckman in particular
- 91: Dyckman is Farley's confidential man
- 92: The engineer of the accommodation had whistled for Gordonia
- 93: And ef he's got anything to say
- 94: Farley is away we're the bosses
- 95: We are going to run the foundry
- 96: You can't sell a pound of foundry product
- 97: Was fair with the Chiawassee Consolidated
- 98: And the stacks of pig in the Chiawassee yards
- 99: Set him down at Gordonia late in the afternoon
- 100: There was a suspension of active operations at Gordonia
- 101: Caleb Gordon shook his head as one who deprecates helplessly
- 102: The two Helgersons are played out
- 103: This is Gordon at the Chiawassee plant
- 104: Caleb was still wrestling with the incredible thing
- 105: Wrote Ardea in a letter to Martha Gordon
- 106: Farley's thought of Ardea was libertine
- 107: Ardea did not think to inquire
- 108: Longfellow is fearfully and wonderfully slow
- 109: I am going to make you like the Farleys
- 110: But Ardea saw safety only in instant frankness
- 111: Ardea do you love Vincent Farley
- 112: I'll eat hawss for the rest o' my bawn days
- 113: You jest natchelly couldn't whup this here bay
- 114: But on this particular evening Kinderling
- 115: Nan hid her face again and turned away
- 116: Clicked and Ardea and Miss Euphrasia came out
- 117: Reckon he's done tuk up with Nan Bryerson
- 118: Whom Cousin Euphrasia continued to ignore
- 119: The slate blue eyes were transfixing him
- 120: Nan had not revealed the name of her betrayer
- 121: Is stronger than the traditions
- 122: And in this glen the kennels had been established
- 123: Ardea let her horse pick his way down to the wood road
- 124: In the comment of the simpler minded Gordonia folk
- 125: Vancourt Henniker could dig ditches
- 126: Inwardly hot hearted and contemptuous
- 127: And transferred the hard word from Nan to Mr
- 128: Such things are hard to forgive
- 129: Driving homeward from South Tredegar
- 130: Schuyler Farnsworth and her daughter
- 131: John's is hardly to the working people of Gordonia
- 132: But Morelock remarked as he might
- 133: Miss Euphrasia thought of her roses
- 134: Morelock could do no more than fall with her
- 135: A moment afterward he turned short on Ardea
- 136: I'm afraid the woman is incorrigible
- 137: He said to Saladin at the remounting
- 138: When you find it in a woman like Ardea Dabney
- 139: Or I'm not going to be after the Farleys come back
- 140: Reckon it's everlastin'ly too late now
- 141: A dulling of the sharp edge of his hatred for the Farleys
- 142: Farley by a broad fortnight or more
- 143: Dyckman made a final attempt to gain fighting space
- 144: And Gordon handed a pen to Dyckman
- 145: You've had youh suspicions aroused
- 146: His smile became a scowl the anger scowl of the Gordons
- 147: Putting maidenly shame to the wall
- 148: Across the road to the Chiawassee laboratory and yard office
- 149: This sham walking delegate was a Pinkerton man
- 150: You can check him off your list
- 151: But I didn't come out here to talk about Miss Dabney
- 152: Spoke to Saladin and rode the faster
- 153: Then Pettigrass said Allowin' ther' might be another man
- 154: And after luncheon Ardea shut herself in her room
- 155: When Ardea had assured herself of this
- 156: But Ardea read between the lines
- 157: Who was also a Chiawassee employee
- 158: Anybody but Dyckman would have burned them himself
- 159: Just before the late dinner hour at Woodlawn
- 160: I only know what Ardea tells me
- 161: And this is This is Wednesday
- 162: What the stenographer had to say took some little time
- 163: The Dabney buggy was waiting for him when
- 164: Duxbury Farley had only to step aside
- 165: Vincent Farley had it all the business
- 166: Japheth had evaded as he could
- 167: That Dyckman should be sitting two tables away
- 168: If Mr Farley owned the patents
- 169: Farley saw the growing outlaw in his son
- 170: What his object is makes no manneh of diffe'ence to me
- 171: Could not be moved out of the Chiawassee yard
- 172: And in a manner the trouble at Gordonia was a tonic
- 173: Since Colonel Duxbury saw fit to freeze us out
- 174: Farley had it fixed to be swallowed by the trust
- 175: Cut out the curses and tell me what you owe Vint Farley
- 176: Kincaid laughed and gave up his weapon
- 177: Then he looked up and saw the slag car coming
- 178: Farley was lying face down and motionless
- 179: And the Farley fortune with it
- 180: Another was to the order of Ardea Dabney
- 181: The smash at Gordonia is my smash
- 182: He was frowning thoughtfully again
- 183: Henniker trying vainly to allay it
- 184: Miss Ardea is like the king she can do no wrong
- 185: It was during the mid passage pause
- 186: When chaos and darkness fled away
- 187: Haven't you admitted all this to yourself
- 188: Whether you are asleep or waking