this
mountain on which we are sitting and climbed nearly to the top. God was
there, but, like Jacob of old, 'I knew it not.' But something seemed to
speak to me out of the infinite silence, calming my frenzied brain and
soothing my troubled soul. I sat there till the stars appeared, and then
I sank into a deep, peaceful sleep--the first in years. When I awoke the
sun was shining in my face, and, though the old pain still throbbed, I
had a sense of new strength with which to bear it. I ate of the food I
carried with me and drank from a mountain stream--the same that trickles
past us now, only nearer its source. The place fascinated me; I dared
not leave it, and I spent the day in wandering up and down the rocks. My
steps were guided to the mine I showed you to-day. I saw the indications
of richness there, and, overturning the earth with my pick, found gold
among the very grassroots. Then followed the life of which I have
already given you an outline.

"For a while I worked in pain and anguish, but gradually, in the
solitude of the mountains, my spirit found peace; against their infinity
my life with its burden dwindled to an atom, and from the lesson of
their centuries of silent waiting I gathered strength and fortitude to
await my appointed time.

"But after a time God spoke to me and bade me go forth from my solitude
into the world, to comfort other sorrowing souls as I had been
comforted. From that time I have travelled almost constantly. I have no
home; I wish none. I want to bring comfort and help to as many of
earth's sorrowing, sinning children as possible; but when the old wound
bleeds afresh and the pain becomes more than I can bear I flee as a bird
to my mountain for balm and healing. Do you wonder, my son, that the
place is sacred to me? Do you understand my love for you in bringing you
here?"

Darrell sat with bowed head, speechless, but one hand went out to Mr.
Britton, which the latter clasped in both his own.

When at last he raised his head he exclaimed, "Strange! but your story
has wrung my soul! It seems in some inexplicable way a part of my very
life!"

"Our souls seem united by some mystic tie--I cannot explain what, unless
it be that in some respects our sufferings have been similar."

"Mine have been as nothing to yours," Darrell replied. A moment later he
added:

"I feel as one in a dream; what you have told me has taken such hold
upon me."

Night had fallen when they returned to the cab