Teeftallow/Chapter 40

WHEN Abner Teeftallow next became conscious of the flow of life he found that it was full day and he was lying on a bunk in a tent crowded with men. The high uplifted voice of Sim Pratt argued and ordered the labourers out of the tent, but to no avail. The crowd was held together, not only by a wounded man, but also by a miracle. A miracle, a providential wonder had saved Abner’s life.

After that first pistol shot had inflicted a scalp wound and rolled Abner over unconscious, the assailant had fired another shot into the teamster's prostrate body, and this bullet had been stopped by the forty-five automatic in Abner's coat pocket. The shot had smashed one of the steel sides of the pistol and had ruined its mechanism. The hillmen inspected the wrecked firearm with a touch of awe. That was why Abner's tent was jammed with men and still others were outside awaiting their turn.

There was a general opinion among the labourers that this "meant something." They tried to interpret God's intention in saving Abner's life. It was clearly an anti-strike gesture on the part of Divinity, and linked up with Shallburger's avowed irreverence for the Bible. The incident in itself was enough to kill the strike.

One old fellow said he had heard of pocket Bibles saving men from pistol shots, but he had never before known the Lord to make use of an automatic, which was against the law to tote.

This introduction of the theme of pocket Bibles spread among the wonder lovers; first, as an odd thing that the pistol had not been a Bible; then among those outside the ​tent, as an alternative for the automatic; later the pistol was successfully transformed into a pocket Bible, and was triumphantly used by the Reverend Blackman as an illustration showing the marvellous care of Providence over the lives of men who read one chapter of the Bible each day and three on Sunday, which he said Abner always did. In a fiery evangelical sermon, the Reverend Blackman shouted at the top of his voice that the bullet had penetrated to the exact verse, "Not a hair of his head shall be harmed," and these precious words had stopped the missile.

However, in the midst of this wonder and admiration, Sim Pratt, the drug clerk, insisted on getting Abner instantly out of the crowd and the unsanitary camp. As Pratt was known to be the beau of Beatrice Sandage, Abner's foster-sister, this gave the drug clerk a certain authority over the sick man; so eventually six men started with Abner on a litter for the old Coltrane manor, while the ruined automatic was left in camp for the men to look at and marvel over.

Abner went up the hill on a stretcher made of a blanket and two poles; not because he was so badly wounded, but because he was so dazed he could not walk. The bullet had administered quite a thump and now, as a result, Abner saw the heads of his litter bearers far above him; their arms reached down from enormously high shoulders, and he seemed to be borne through space on some sort of Aladdin's rug. The only mental connections Abner had with such a scene was a memory of pictures of angels bearing away the souls of the dead to Heaven. Abner stared intently at the far-away faces and came to the conclusion that these enormously tall creatures were angels, and since they were clearly lifting him upward, he decided he was on his way to Heaven. And this surprised the teamster as much as his dazed wits could encompass because he had always been morally certain that his final destination in eternity was hell.

When Abner reached the Coltrane manor, his senses were cleared sufficiently for him to recognize the weeping face of ​Nessie, to feel her arms about him and his head drawn to her soft bosom. Then he knew he had gone to the abode of the blessed, for Nessie completed his Heaven. A marvellous sweet weakness flooded him. He lifted rather hazy arms about Nessie's neck, drew her face down to his own, and murmured her name.

She was sobbing:

"Oh, Abner, are you badly hurt? Do you feel better? Oh, I heard the shooting last night! I knew it was you! Oh, Abner! Abner!"

The men had placed the wounded man on an ancient bed—it may have been the very bed Abner was born in—and Nessie was sobbing and bending over him as if she could not take her hands away from caressing and loving him.

Mr. Sim Pratt said he would go and telephone to Lanesburg for a motor to come after Abner.

Nessie immediately thought it would not be safe for him to be moved in a motor.

"Sure it will," assured Pratt in a cheerful voice. "It's nothing but a scalp wound; as soon as it's dressed he'll be up and all right."

By this time Abner's Heaven had become badly diluted with the earth, and a few minutes later resolved itself into the living room of the old Coltrane place with half-a-dozen labourers in it, with its big fireplace, the carved arms, and some unfragrant diapers strung before a blazing log.

Nessie was still frightened and chafing Abner's hands when Mr. Belshue entered the room, and he in turn was bewildered by the novelty of so many guests. One of the men began explaining to him what had happened.

Abner became uneasily aware that Nessie was still half lying on the bed beside him, with one arm under his neck, and stroking his hands with the other. He saw that the jeweller's entrance made no difference at all in her anxiety and tenderness for him. The wounded man looked steadily at the jeweller's gray face, and finally, with much effort to control the movements of his tongue, he mumbled thickly, ​"I—didn't—come—back—my—se'f—they—brought—me—"

The effort produced beads of sweat on his forehead.

Nessie cried, "Oh, Abner, dear, don't try to talk!"

And the men said, "He's gittin' all right now."

Mr. Belshue invited with a pinched-looking face, "You can let him stay here till he's all right. Have they caught the man who shot him?"

The men didn't know. They had caught Tim Fraley, but Tim's gun hadn't been fired.

Mr. Pratt reiterated his offer to get a motor for the sick man, when one of the workmen who had wandered out on the big piazza shouted, "Here they come now, Beatrice Belle an' her mammy in her car. I guess they telephoned to Lanesburg from the camp."

Abner was sufficiently recovered to make a movement to sit up on the edge of the bed. Nessie helped him and so did Mr. Pratt.

At the same time everybody began persuading at once, "You needn't go home now, Abner; stay here till you're all right." Even Mr. Belshue offered his home for Abner's convenience.

But as Abner's wits and strength rapidly returned he recalled the jeweller ordering him off the plantation, and that is an unforgivable insult in the hills. He could sit up quite well now, and he said with a kind of stolid politeness, "Much oblige' to ye, but I'll be gittin' on. Yes, much oblige', but I'll be gittin' on. I don't want to put you out any."

Nessie was so unstrung that she began weeping at this dull formal refusal of all her favours. The young mother felt if she could only keep Abner in her house and nurse him and dress his wound she would be ecstatically happy. But Abner would go, and presently he was up again; Pratt at one arm, a workman at the other, and Nessie behind him blinking back her tears. They began a fairly steady progression to the front door.

When the group reached the piazza, they saw Beatrice ​Belle and Mrs. Sandage flying up the gravelled path of the unkept lawn. These women, when they saw Abner surrounded by helpers, shrieked out, "Oh, Abner, what's happened to you!"

Mr. Pratt stared at the Sandage women in turn and cried out, "What's happened to you all!"

Beatrice Belle, oddly enough, flew across the porch into Mr. Pratt's arms. The drug clerk hastily deserted Abner for this new charge.

"Oh, Sim! Sim!" wailed Beatrice Belle, sobbing on the clerk's neck.

Mr. Pratt enfolded her.

"Belle, darling, what is the matter? Has anything happened to you?"

Mrs. Haly Sandage was putting her arms out to Abner and crying in a shaken voice, "Oh, Abner, you mustn't be sick now! We need you! Come home at once and see Railroad Jones—Jim's in jail!" The poor wife fell to weeping so violently that she had to lift a hand and hold her ghastly false teeth in her mouth.