THE STEADFAST HEART
… Lemme be. I never heard of—sich folks…. Go ’way….”
They went, but they were to return before another dawn, for that afternoon Dr. Knipe declared that Titus could not live through the night…. Dave and Browning consulted with Alvin Trueman—and to the minister was delegated the task of a final effort to wring the truth from Burke’s stubborn, vindictive lips…. He it was who sat by Titus’s bedside as the useless, wasted, squalid life ebbed away….
“Titus,” he said, “I’ve something to tell you—something you will not wish to hear, but it must be told…. You have come to the end.”
Titus opened wide his eyes and stared at the minister—a hoarse, fearful whisper reached Trueman’s ears.
“No… ’tain’t so…. You’re lyin’ to me.”
“As God is above us, Titus, I am telling you the truth.”
Burke’s face twisted horribly—a grimace of that sort of terror which twists and wrings the soul. “Be I goin’ to—die—to-night?”… Gawd!… I dassent… I dassent….”
Trueman, sitting beside the bed, spoke to that vexed, unworthy soul, doing his duty as a man of God to soothe, to comfort, to soften—to bring Titus Burke’s heart to suppliant posture…. He sought to assuage a terror which was abject,
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