I wrote her that some day she might hear from me, but not
under my right name, as the law would always be watching for me. It was
ironic that on that human cobra's desk there lay an open Bible, open at
the Book of Peter, and involuntarily I wrote the words to
Josephine--PETER GOD. She has kept my secret, while the law has hunted
for me. And this--"
He held the pages of the letter out to Philip.
"Take the letter--go outside--and read what she has written," he said.
"Come back in half an hour. I want to think."
Back of the cabin, where Peter God had piled his winter's fuel, Philip
read the letter; and at times the soul within him seemed smothered, and
at times it quivered with a strange and joyous emotion.
At last vindication had come for Peter God, and before he had read a page
of the letter Philip understood why it was that Josephine had sent him
with it into the North. For nearly seven years she had known of Peter
God's innocence of the thing for which she had divorced him. The
woman--the dead man's accomplice--had told her the whole story, as Peter
God a few minutes before had told it to Curtis; and during those seven
years she had traveled the world seeking for him--the man who bore the
name of Peter God.
Each night she had prayed God that the next day she might find him, and
now that her prayer had been answered, she begged that she might come to
him, and share with him for all time a life away from the world they
knew.
Pages:
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250