human
In my own life, said Hibbs,
gpt
I have not seen much of violence. I cannot pretend to know how it was for you three years ago, except I know it to be a thing beyond words of comfort. Nevertheless allow me to say, Reuben, that your life, yours and Benjamin's, is yet at the spring.
human
Something ahead! I heard----
gpt
Can't hear it now----
human
Hush! said Reuben savagely. Then:
gpt
It's to the left.
human
You mean the marshes, boy?
gpt
Yes. Give me the light, old man! Grimes yielded it without a murmur, and Reuben ran, unthinking, sure-footed, avoiding the hummocks and the marshy hollows, shouting:
human
Where are you? Where are you? Then he could see his brother fifty feet away, upright in grotesque dignity on a small sodden peninsula of land not much broader than the spread of his feet. Between him and Reuben was a muttering of wind-tormented marsh water, and a smooth patch of featureless gray unaffected by the wind. Ben took a wavering step.
gpt
Don't move, you damn fool! Look down!
human
said Ben agreeably, and swayed back from the quicksand, grinning at Reuben's light.
gpt
Fact 'm drunk.
human
That I know. Don't move your feet. Stay as you are till I come to you. Laughing still, he picked his way along the edge of the water and the foulness, to the narrow strip of solid ground that Ben's luck had found for him in the dark.
gpt
Pee-yew! said Reuben, and clutched a handful of Ben's shirt.
human
With such a breath why walk? Why not float, friend?
gpt
Was trying to. Was trying to find Polaris. Too dark. Besides I'm in a 'culiar condition.
human
Lean on me. Firm ground here.
gpt
Wherever thou art.
human
I shall remember that, and thou wilt forget it.
gpt
I forget nothing, Reuben. I _was_ trying to find Polaris.
human
Well, a'n't it the nature of the children of Adam to hunt for the North Star on a cloudy night?
gpt
Very sound. One of thine evenings. Yaphoo!
human
All evenings are mine. But don't weep.
gpt
I'm laughing, boy. A'n't I? Oh, Ru, I was so confused. I thought--I certainly thought----
human
What, Ben?
gpt
I thought it was wilderness.
human
That wouldn't make thee afeared. That wouldn't make thee weep.
gpt
I thought everything was wilderness.
human
Well, what if it is?
gpt
This I was waiting to observe. Note, Mr. Eccles, the motions of the creature's head, how they creak. Are these actual sounds of pain, or only noises of some mechanism which creates an illusion of animation?
human
Alas! said Ben.
gpt
I am not fit to rise and murder you--yet.
human
It speaks. Note that, Eccles. Note the bleared eyes, how obscene! Will you go to the kitchen and fetch a pot of coffee for it? Mr. Eccles yawned and filed his yellow paws.
gpt
Unfeeling animal! Have you no pity? Must _I_ wait on the needs of this moaning monster?
human
Some day when _you_ feel like dawn on the battlefield, I'll stand on your stomach and read aloud every word of _Magnalia Christi Americana_.
gpt
You heard that, Eccles?--how it appeals to my humanity and in the same breath threatens my life? I must act. Ben watched the golden image rise, slip on a dressing-gown, and stand over him in the enormous light.
human
Puh, what a breath even now!