The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Cross-Cut, by Courtney Ryley Cooper, Illustrated by George W. Gage

Title: The Cross-Cut

Author: Courtney Ryley Cooper

Release Date: December 13, 2006 [eBook #20104]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROSS-CUT***

Carbide pointing the way, he turned back, pushing the tram before him.

THE CROSS-CUT

BY

COURTNEY RYLEY COOPER

WITH FRONTISPIECE BY
GEORGE W. GAGE

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1921

Copyright, 1921,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

All rights reserved

Published May, 1921

TO
G. F. C.

I'VE THREATENED YOU WITH A DEDICATION
FOR A LONG TIME AND HERE IT IS!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE CROSS-CUT

CHAPTER I

It was over. The rambling house, with its rickety, old-fashioned furniture—and its memories—was now deserted, except for Robert Fairchild, and he was deserted within it, wandering from room to room, staring at familiar objects with the unfamiliar gaze of one whose vision suddenly has been warned by the visitation of death and the sense of loneliness that it brings.

Loneliness, rather than grief, for it had been Robert Fairchild's promise that he would not suffer in heart for one who had longed to go into a peace for which he had waited, seemingly in vain. Year after year, Thornton Fairchild had sat in the big armchair by the windows, watching the days grow old and fade into night, studying sunset after sunset, voicing the vain hope that the gloaming might bring the twilight of his own existence,—a silent man except for this, rarely speaking of the past, never giving to the son who worked for him, cared for him, worshiped him, the slightest inkling of what might have happened in the dim days of