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His father was seated, his nervous hands gripping the arms of his chair. On the desk beside him lay a thin cane. He motioned to his son to stand before him. "My boy," he said, "tell me each thing you have done to-day." There was a slight pause. "I have forgotten what I did to-day," answered Shenton, his eyes fixed on his father's face.
Behind followed Leighton on his favorite horse and Shenton and Lewis on their ponies. By sundown they reached the banks of the Tieté. It took men and boys an hour to set the big bell tent. Because the road led north, they traveled north.
We spent three days in exploring the hills, but failed to see any auriferous indications, excepting in the immediate neighbourhood of Mount Shenton. We had therefore had our long tramp for nothing, and had to be content with knowing that we had tried our best and had at least proved the useless character of a large stretch of country. For this, however, one gets no thanks.
Perhaps it was this look of peace that made Ann Leighton regard this latest as the lightest of all the calamities that had fallen upon her frail shoulders. She felt that in a measure the catastrophe had brought the Reverend Orme back nearer to her heart. Her heart, which had seemed to atrophy and shrivel from disuse since the poignant fullness of the last days of Shenton, was suddenly revivified.
They camped at the foot of the mountain, for fever had laid its final grip upon Shenton. He was too weak to stand the jolting of the wagon. One night, while lying in his mother's arms, he slipped away from life.
The dreaded call never came. He began to distrust his messenger. Then one stifling afternoon as he sat dozing in his chair a sharp rap on the study door awakened him with a start. "Master! Master!" called Lalia's voice. "Yes, yes," cried Leighton; "come in." As he rose from his chair Lalia entered. She was breathless with running. "Master," she said, "Shenton did quarrel with us.
Sometimes Manoel took him to his little house. To Lewis this strange friendship was the one cloud in childhood's happy sky. He could not have defined what he felt. It was jealousy mixed with hurt pride jealousy of the hated Manoel, hurt pride at the thought that Shenton went where he could not follow. One day Shenton had been gone an hour. Lewis had seen him with Manoel.
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