"Daddy! Darlin' old, good Daddy, look at yer dear brat, an' listen to 'er."
"I air a listenin', my girl," he said between set teeth. She put her head directly in line with her father's vision.
"Look at me, Daddy," she craved tremulously, "an' listen to me. Can't ye remember how ye came back from Auburn like the innercent man ye were?"
"Yep," whispered Skinner.
"'Twere the Christ on the cross helped ye, Daddy. Ye air wishin' to go away now with my mummy, huh?"
"Yep," groaned Skinner. "God, aw kind, merciful God, let me go!"
Tess laid him gently back on the pillow. A bright light flashed into her soul. The red in her eyes turning almost to black.
"Then go, my darlin'! Go, Daddy," she moaned, rising and looking upward.
"Take 'im, Mummy, little love-mummy, take 'im back to Heaven with ye."
Inspired by that smiling face in the rafters, Tessibel opened her lips and began to sing,
"Rescue the Perishin'; Care for the Dyin'."
It was a glorious strain that echoed and reechoed around and around the shanty kitchen. It gathered within its heavenly power the moaning of the wind and the haunting noises of the tin-rusted roof. Even the weeping willows, bowing their mournful heads in sympathy, could no longer be heard in their endless chant.
Strangely stirred, Pete struggled up, disregarding the dwarf's desire to detain him. He placed his forefeet on the edge of the bed, lifting his head to the girl's shoulder. Responsive to the pressure of his body, she threw her arm around him. Gravely the golden eyes of the great dog regarded his suffering master on the cot as the tender melody of the song continued to fill the shanty.
Tessibel ever afterwards remembered Daddy Skinner's eyes as for those last few moments he lay looking at her. They were kindly, tender, smiling, as he watched her lips moving in the song he'd always loved to hear her sing.
He seemed to realize that she was singing him into the very presence of the Savior of the world--into the presence of Him who was leading Tessibel Skinner and her squatter father through their garden of Gethsemane.
"Rescue the Perishin'; Care for the Dyin'."
On and on she sang, and on and on the dying man gropingly felt his way to Eternity. Sometimes he smiled at her; sometimes at the wraith in the rafters. But not for one moment did the voice of the little singer cease its insistent cry for a complete rescue.
The dwarf was silent, his shining face reflecting the peace and security of which the squatter girl sang.
"Rescue the Perishin'; Care for the Dyin'."
The beautiful voice did not falter. Suddenly the powerful lungs of the fisherman gathered in one long, last breath, and when it came forth to meet Tessibel's song, the broad shoulders dropped back, the chest receded, the smile faded from the gray eyes--and Daddy Skinner was dead.
He had died listening to those appealing, melodious words, "Rescue the Perishin'; Care for the Dyin'." That sudden collapsing change in the gaunt figure seemed to freeze the very song on Tessibel's lips. Her voice trailed to a limp wail, as if an icy hand had caught her throat.
Silence succeeded silence. Even the storm seemed for an instant to still its raging roar, then Pete threw back his head and howled his grief. As his resonant cries filled the shack and mingled with the turmoil of the elements, Tess clung to the dog, staring with horrified eyes at the huge beloved form crushed and crumpled upon the cot. Death had come and gone.
The mystery in the shadowy rafters had taken Daddy Skinner away.
The dwarf raised his head and looked at Tess. Slowly he leaned over and pressed his lips to Orn Skinner's brow, and as he rose, he lifted the girl's rigid arm from the tawny back and seized the dog by the collar to quiet him.
Then came one of those unthinkable, weird cries, a nightmarish cry from the girl's throat, and--as God tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb, so in Divine pity he covered Tess of the Storm Country with mental oblivion.
CHAPTER XXVIII
YOUNG DISCOVERS ANDY
During the minutes Daddy Skinner lay grappling with death, Ebenezer Waldstricker sat in his handsome drawing room with an open Bible on his knee, talking to his wife.
"I've explained to you time and time again, Helen," said he impatiently, "why I struck her and I'm not sorry I did it."
"It seems awful, though," replied his wife, reflectively.
Waldstricker frowned into the wistful face.
"Why awful when the Bible ordered me to do it? I've given you the Master's own words to verify it. Didn't he say, 'Let the man without sin first cast a stone?'"
Mrs. Waldstricker raised her eyes to her husband's face.
"But Ebenezer--"
"There's no argument, my dear," the man interrupted. "I tell you I know whereof I speak. It came to me like a flash on Wednesday in the church ... I had to show the world a man--a man without sin."
Helen stared back at him in amazement. Her husband had never before expressed himself in quite such bombastic terms, and, oh, dear, she knew he was good; but for any human being to claim to be without sin! She'd never heard of such a thing.
"But, dearest," she argued pleadingly and partly rising, "are you sure?"
"I have no doubt about it," interpolated Ebenezer, striking his chest emphatically. "As I said, I know whereof I speak."
Helen sank down again.
"I'm glad you can explain it, dear," she murmured dubiously. "It'll be easier for you to make Deforrest understand about it when he comes. He's so wrapped up in that girl.... He'll be here in a few minutes, I think, if the train's on time."
"I'll make him understand all right," answered Ebenezer.
The words had scarcely left his lips before both husband and wife heard the approach of sleigh-bells.
"He's coming now," said Mrs. Waldstricker, and she rose and started to the window.
"Sit down and don't look as if you were going to die," her husband commanded. "But perhaps you'd better go to your room while I'm explaining the thing to him."
When Deforrest Young opened the door and walked in, his face was wreathed in smiles.
"Well, hello, everybody," he cried heartily. "It's an awful night."
Ebenezer rose and extended his hand.
"So 'tis," he agreed.
Helen went forward quickly and helped slip the snow-covered coat from Deforrest's shoulders. At the same time she lifted her lips for a kiss.
How she adored this brother of hers, and how anxiously she desired he should be satisfied with Ebenezer's account of the church proceedings.