The Wedge of Gold eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 255 pages of information about The Wedge of Gold.

The Wedge of Gold eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 255 pages of information about The Wedge of Gold.

Then Grace led her to the door and said:  “Margaret, be brave, and keep in thought that you are going to restore your friend to health; and see, this room is next to mine.  I shall be waiting there; if you need me, tap softly upon the partition door.”  Then she opened noiselessly the door, kissed her friend, waited until she passed into the room, closed the door, and then ran to her husband, climbed upon his knees, embraced and kissed him, and cried with joy.

It was two hours before any sign came from the adjoining room.  Then the door was softly opened; Mrs. Hazleton came in without speaking, grasped Sedgwick’s hand, pointed to the room where Jordan lay, and said in a whisper:  “He wants you.”  And as Sedgwick passed from the apartment, the over-wrought woman fell upon her knees, buried her face in the lap of Grace, and said:  “Dear friend, help me to thank God.”

Later Sedgwick reported that as he approached the bed, Jordan smiled, and in a feeble voice said:  “Jim, old friend, I’ze mighty weak, but don’t mind it; I shall pull through easy now.  But if I don’t, I’ll be even; ther world’s been thet kind ter me thet I’ll keep thankin’ God ter all eternity.”

Then in his weakness he wept, but controlling himself at last, he continued:  “I’ze too powerful weak ter make much noise, but if yo’ think a loud invercation is heard sooner nor a weak one, thank God fur me in your loudest key.”

Sedgwick took up his watch by Jordan for the night.  He slept much of the night, and smiles stole over his face as he slept, but he was awfully prostrated with weakness.

After that, a regular order was prescribed.  Sedgwick watched at night, and the others took turns by day.

Three nights after their arrival, the fever left Jordan.  The doctor had anticipated it, and had told Sedgwick he would remain with him.  The fever left him so utterly prostrated that it was all the doctor and Sedgwick could do to keep life in him for two or three hours.  But the faintness finally passed, and the patient dropped into a peaceful sleep; and the doctor, with a sigh of relief, said:  “The crisis is passed, Sedgwick.  He is going to pull through.”

But it was a wearisome rally.  It was several days before the anxiety was over.  It was a week after the coming of Sedgwick before Sedgwick explained to Browning what he had done; how Jordan was an old gold miner; and that the reason he had not told Browning much of what he was doing was because Jordan was the one to test the ore, and was anxious to go; he, Sedgwick, thought it was a shame to separate Jack and Rose; then he thought also if Jack knew he had gone to Africa he would worry over it.  Then he told him of the mill, and finally that he had with him $100,000 in bullion, the result of the first month’s run of the mill; had fixed matters so that the mill would be running right along, and that there was ore enough in the stopes to insure steady crushing for at least four or five years to come.

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Project Gutenberg
The Wedge of Gold from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.