A telegram summoned the Blight a home next day.Marston was in bed with a ragged wound in the shoulder,and I took her to tell him good-by.I left the room for a few minutes,and when Icame back their hands were unclasping,and for a Discarded Knight the engineer surely wore a happy though pallid face.
That afternoon the train on which we left the Gap was brought to a sudden halt in Wildcat Valley by a piece of red flannel tied to the end of a stick that was planted midway the track.Across the track,farther on,lay a heavy piece of timber,and it was plain that somebody meant that,just at that place,the train must stop.The Blight and I were seated on the rear platform and the Blight was taking a last look at her beloved hills.
When the train started again,there was a cracking of twigs overhead and a shower of rhododendron leaves and flowers dropped from the air at the feet of the Blight.And when we pulled away from the high-walled cut we saw,motionless on a little mound,a black horse,and on him,motionless,the Knight of the Cumberland,the helmet on his head (that the Blight might know who he was,no doubt),and both hands clasping the broken handle of his spear,which rested across the pommel of his saddle.Impulsively the Blight waved her hand to him and I could not help waving my hat;but he sat like a statue and,like a statue,sat on,simply looking after us as we were hurried along,until horse,broken shaft,and shoulders sank out of sight.And thus passed the Knight of the Cumberland with the last gleam that struck his helmet,spear-like,from the slanting sun.
THE END
