The Day of the Beast by Zane Grey
page 7 of 377 (01%)
page 7 of 377 (01%)
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disillusion."
Used as Lane was to his comrade's outbursts, this one struck singularly home to Lane's heart and made him mute. The chill of his earlier misgiving returned, augmented by a strange uneasiness, a premonition of the unknown and dreadful future. But he threw it off. Faith would not die in Lane. It could not die utterly because of what he felt in himself. Yet--what was in store for him? Why was his hope so unquenchable? There could be no _resurgam_ for Daren Lane. Resignation should have brought him peace--peace--when every nerve in his shell-shocked body racked him--when he could not subdue a mounting hope that all would be well at home--when he quivered at thought of mother, sister, sweetheart! The ship glided on under the shadow of America's emblem--a bronze woman of noble proportions, holding out a light to ships that came in the night--a welcome to all the world. Daren Lane held to his maimed comrade while they stood bare-headed and erect for that moment when the, ship passed the statue. Lane knew what Blair felt. But nothing of what that feeling was could ever be spoken. The deck of the ship was now crowded with passengers, yet they were seemingly dead to anything more than a safe arrival at their destination. They were not crippled American soldiers. Except these two there were none in service uniforms. There across the windy space of water loomed the many-eyed buildings, suggestive of the great city. A low roar of traffic came on the breeze. Passengers and crew of the liner were glad to dock before dark. They took no notice of the rigid, erect soldiers. Lane, arm in arm with Blair, face to the front, stood absorbed in his sense of a nameless sublimity for them while passing the Statue of Liberty. The spirit of the first man who ever breathed of freedom for the human |
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