Light shone before Duane's eyes--thick, strange light that came and went. For a long time dull and booming sounds rushed by, filling all. It was a dream in which there was nothing; a drifting under a burden; darkness, light, sound, movement; and vague, obscure sense of time--time that was very long. There was fire--creeping, consuming fire. A dark cloud of flame enveloped him, rolled him away.
He saw then, dimly, a room that was strange, strange people moving about over him, with faint voices, far away, things in a dream. He saw again, clearly, and consciousness returned, still unreal, still strange, full of those vague and far-away things.
Then he was not dead. He lay stiff, like a stone, with a weight ponderous as a mountain upon him and all his bound body racked in slow, dull-beating agony.
A woman's face hovered over him, white and tragic-eyed, like one of his old haunting phantoms, yet sweet and eloquent. Then a man's face bent over him, looked deep into his eyes, and seemed to whisper from a distance: "Duane--Duane! Ah, he knew me!"After that there was another long interval of darkness. When the light came again, clearer this time, the same earnest-faced man bent over him. It was MacNelly. And with recognition the past flooded back.
Duane tried to speak. His lips were weak, and he could scarcely move them.
"Poggin!" he whispered. His first real conscious thought was for Poggin. Ruling passion--eternal instinct!
"Poggin is dead, Duane; shot to pieces," replied MacNelly, solemnly. "What a fight he made! He killed two of my men, wounded others. God! he was a tiger. He used up three guns before we downed him.""Who-got--away?"
"Fletcher, the man with the horses. We downed all the others.
Duane, the job's done--it's done! Why, man, you're--""What of--of--HER?"
"Miss Longstreth has been almost constantly at your bedside.
She helped the doctor. She watched your wounds. And, Duane, the other night, when you sank low--so low--I think it was her spirit that held yours back. Oh, she's a wonderful girl. Duane, she never gave up, never lost her nerve for a moment. Well, we're going to take you home, and she'll go with us. Colonel Longstreth left for Louisiana right after the fight. I advised it. There was great excitement. It was best for him to leave.""Have I--a--chance--to recover?"
"Chance? Why, man," exclaimed the Captain, "you'll get well!
You'll pack a sight of lead all your life. But you can stand that. Duane, the whole Southwest knows your story. You need never again be ashamed of the name Buck Duane. The brand outlaw is washed out. Texas believes you've been a secret ranger all the time. You're a hero. And now think of home, your mother, of this noble girl--of your future."The rangers took Duane home to Wellston.
A railroad had been built since Duane had gone into exile.
Wellston had grown. A noisy crowd surrounded the station, but it stilled as Duane was carried from the train.
A sea of faces pressed close. Some were faces he remembered--schoolmates, friends, old neighbors. There was an upflinging of many hands. Duane was being welcomed home to the town from which he had fled. A deadness within him broke. This welcome hurt him somehow, quickened him; and through his cold being, his weary mind, passed a change. His sight dimmed.
Then there was a white house, his old home. How strange, yet how real! His heart beat fast. Had so many, many years passed?
Familiar yet strange it was, and all seemed magnified.
They carried him in, these ranger comrades, and laid him down, and lifted his head upon pillows. The house was still, though full of people. Duane's gaze sought the open door.
Some one entered--a tall girl in white, with dark, wet eyes and a light upon her face. She was leading an old lady, gray-haired, austere-faced, somber and sad. His mother! She was feeble, but she walked erect. She was pale, shaking, yet maintained her dignity.
The some one in white uttered a low cry and knelt by Duane's bed. His mother flung wide her arms with a strange gesture.
"This man! They've not brought back my boy. This man's his father! Where is my son? My son--oh, my son!"When Duane grew stronger it was a pleasure to lie by the west window and watch Uncle Jim whittle his stick and listen to his talk. The old man was broken now. He told many interesting things about people Duane had known--people who had grown up and married, failed, succeeded, gone away, and died. But it was hard to keep Uncle Jim off the subject of guns, outlaws, fights. He could not seem to divine how mention of these things hurt Duane. Uncle Jim was childish now, and he had a great pride in his nephew. He wanted to hear of all of Duane's exile.
And if there was one thing more than another that pleased him it was to talk about the bullets which Duane carried in his body.
"Five bullets, ain't it?" he asked, for the hundredth time.
"Five in that last scrap! By gum! And you had six before?""Yes, uncle," replied Duane.