Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1915-05-07
CHAPTER !.
The MESSAGE From the Deem.

AAO IWO ONu nou bdt III tuo llUIAIy
cycling the unresponsive blue envelope
that lay on the end Of the long table
nearest the fireplace, where a merry
but unnoticed bed of Goals cracked
Hereby In the vain effort to cry down
the shrieks Of the bleak December
wind that whistled about the corners
of the house.
There was something maddening In
the fact that the envelope would have
to remain unopened until young Fred
'erick Brood came home for the night.
They found themselves wondering II
by any chance he would fail to come
in at all. Their hour for retiring was
ten O'Clock. day in, day out.
Up to half-past nine they discussed
the blue envelope with every inmate
OF the house, from Mrs. John Des-
mond. the housekeeper, down to the
voiceless but eloquent decanter of port
that stood between them, first on the
arm Of n chair. then the other. They
were very old men; they could solilo-
Quize without In the least disturbing
each other. An observer would say,
during these periods Of abstraction,
that their remarks were addressed to
the decanter and that the poor decan-
ter had something to say in return.
But, for all that, their eyes seldom left
the broad, blue envelope that had lain
mere since half-past eight.
They knew that it came directly or
indirectly from the man to whom they
owed their present condition Of COM
fort and security after half a century
Of vicissitudes; from the mar whose
life they had saved more than once
in those old, evil days when comforts
were so few that they passed without
recognition in the maelstrom Of
events. From midocean James Brood
was speaking to his son.
Twenty years ago these two old GRO.
mics had met James Brood in one of
. the blacklist holes of Calcutta, a dere-
lict being swept to perdition with the
swiftness and sureness Of q tide that
knows no pause. They found him
when the dregs were at his lips, and
the stupor Of defeat In his brain.
Without meaning to be considered
Samaritans, good or bad. they dragged
him from the depths and found that
lhey had revived a man. Those were
the days when James Brood's life
meant nothing to him. days when he
/. was tortured by the thought that 1t
, would be all too long for him to en-
dure, yet he was not the kind to muir.
der himself as men do who lack the
courage to go on living.
Weeks after the rescue in Calcutta
these two soldiers Of fortune and an
other. John Desmond, learned from
the lips Of the man himself that he
was not such as they, but rich in this
worlds goods, richer than the Solo
mon of their discreet imagination.
What Brood told them of his life
brought the grim smile Of appreciation
to the lips Of each. He had married q
beautiful foreigner-an Austrian, they
gathered-of excellent family, and had
taken her to his home in New York
city to the house in lower Fifth ave
nue. where his father and grandfather
had lived before him-the house in
which two lof the ~wayfarers aftel
twenty year. now sat In rueful con
temptation ora blue envelope.
A baby boy came to the Broods In
the second year of their welded life
but before that there had come 9
mana music master, dreamy-eyed
handsome, Latin; a man who played
upon the harp al only the angels may
play. In his delirious rawlings BROOD
cursed this mar and the wife he hat
stolen away from him; he reviled the
baby boy, even denying him; hi
laughed with blood-curdling glee ovel
the name in which he had cast ou'
the woman who had broken his hear
and crushed his pride; he walled II
anguish over the mistake he had made
in allowing the man to live that hi
might gloat and sheer In triumph. Thii
much the three men who lifted hin
from hell were able to CLEAN from lip.
that knew not what they said, ant
they were filled with pity. Later on
in Q rational weakness, he told then
more, and without curses. A deep
silent, steadfast bitterness succeede,
the violent rawlings. He became a way
farer with them, quiet, logged, fatal
where they went he also went; wha
they did. also did he. Soon he led, an,
they followed. Into the dark place,
Of the world they plunged, for peri
meant little to him, death even less
They no longer knew days of priva
tion-he shared his wealth with them
bat they knew no rest, no peace, n
safety. Life had been a whirlwind be
fore they came upon James Brood; i
was a hurricane afterward.
Twice John Desmond, younger thai
Danbury Dawes and Joseph Riggs
saved the life Of James Brood b
acts of unparalleled heroism; once Il
a South African jungle when a lior
-ess fought for her young, and agai
in upper India, when single-handet
he held of a horde Of Hindus TO
days while his comrade lay wount
ed in a cavern. Dawes and Rigg.
In the Himalayas. crept down tn
u.u AZ q rraciDica with five thni