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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Destiny, by Charles Neville
Buck

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Title: Destiny
Author: Charles Neville Buck
Release Date: November 23, 2005 [eBook #17141]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DESTINY***

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Destiny, by Charles Neville Buck
1
DESTINY
BY
CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK
AUTHOR OF
THE CALL OF THE CUMBERLANDS, ETC.
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

[Pg 4]
Copyright, 1916, by
W. J. Watt & Company

OTHER BOOKS BY
CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK

THE KEY TO YESTERDAY
THE LIGHTED MATCH
THE PORTAL OF DREAMS
THE CALL OF THE CUMBERLANDS
THE BATTLE CRY
THE CODE OF THE MOUNTAINS

Table of Contents
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XXIX
DESTINY
2

CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XIV CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XVI CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XXXIV

CHAPTER XXXV
[Pg 5]
DESTINY
Part I
THE LAND OF PROMISE
CHAPTER I

OUTSIDE the subtle clarion of autumn's dying glory flamed in the torches of the maples and smoldered in the
burgundy of the oaks. It trailed a veil of rose-ash and mystery along the slopes of the White Mountains, and
inside the crumbling school-house the children droned sleepily over their books like prisoners in a lethargic
mutiny.

Frost had brought the chestnuts rattling down in the open woods, and foraging squirrels were scampering
among the fallen leaves.

Brooding at one of the front desks, sat a boy, slender and undersized for his thirteen years. The ill-fitting
crudity of his neatly patched clothes gave him a certain uniformity with his fellows, yet left him as unlike
them as all things else could conspire to make him. The long hair that hung untrimmed over his face seemed a
black emphasis for the cameo delicacy of his features, lending them a wan note of pathos. On his thin temples,
bluish veins traced the hall-mark [Pg 6]of an over-sensitive nature, and eyes that were deep pools of
somberness gazed out with the dreamer's unrest.

Occasionally, he shot a furtively terrified glance across the aisle where another boy with a mop of red hair, a freckled face and a mouth that seemed overcrowded with teeth, made faces at him and conveyed in eloquent gestures threats of future violence. At these menacing pantomimes, the slighter lad trembled under his bulging coat, and he sat as one under sentence.

Had any means of escape offered itself, Paul Burton would have embraced it without thought of the honors of war. He had no wish to stand upon the order of his going. He earnestly desired to go at once. But under what semblance of excuse could he cover his retreat? Suddenly his necessity fathered a crafty subterfuge. The bucket of drinking water stood near his desk\u2014and it was well-nigh empty. Becoming violently thirsty, he sought permission to carry it to the spring for refilling, and his heart leaped hopefully when the tired-eyed teacher indifferently nodded her assent. He meant to carry the pail to the spring. He even meant to fill it for the sake of technical obedience. Later, some one else could go out and fetch it back.

Paul's object would be served when once he was safe from the stored-up wrath of the Marquess kid. As he
carried the empty bucket down the aisle, he felt upon him the derisive gaze of a pair of blue eyes entirely
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Destiny, by Charles Neville Buck
Table of Contents
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