07.02.15. The River Road
15. THE RIVER ROAD
It was a dark winter night when the freight train on which Todd was riding rolled into the little town six miles from his home. The brakeman had put him off six times during the last thirty miles, but the pull for home was so strong that each time he caught it again and finally arrived. He did not tarry in the little town but started immediately on his six mile hike out over the old river road. As he walked through the darkness with the river rolling along on his left hand and the high bluff towering on his right, he began for the first time to really take an inventory of his condition. When he left his home he was well dressed, but as he shivered in his shabby and worn clothing he knew that like the prodigal he had wasted all in riotous living. When he left home he had money, but now dig as deeply as he might in his pockets, not a penny could he find. When he left home he was strong physically, but as he felt of his pale, pinched and twisted features and coughed the awful hacking cigarette cough that seemed to tear his lungs, he knew his physical strength was gone. Young men, you cannot play with sin and come out of it physically or mentally what you were when you went in. When he went away he had plans, hopes, and ambitions, but all had been shattered.
"I can never meet mother like this," he said, "I must have some story to tell her." The devil is always ready with a suggestion to put one deeper in trouble. Todd had a scar on his side that his folks did not know of so the devil suggested that he tell them he had been through an operation, was too proud to write for money and therefore beat his way in, showing the scar for evidence. It seemed a plausible story so he planned to make that his alibi.
He had covered more than half the journey when he heard voices and the sound of horses’ hoofs on the road ahead. He crawled out in the bushes and hid until they passed. He knew the riders, for they were neighbor boys, and he also knew the horses, which brought again the memoryof his own good horse and saddle that had been wasted in riotous living. When the riders were gone he walked on up the road until he came to where the highway turned sharply to the right and on ahead lay the old road that led through the trees down across the ravine and up the hill to his home, a quarter of a mile away.