Amanda was enthroned in his heart, he knew it at last! How blind he had
been! He knew now what his mother had meant one day when she told him,
"Some of you men are blinder'n bats! Bats do see at night!"
As he rode from Lancaster on the little crowded trolley his thoughts
were all of Amanda--would she give him the answer he desired? Could he
waken in her heart something stronger than the old feeling of
friendship, which was not now enough?
He stepped from the car--now he would be with her soon. He meant to
stop in at the Reist farmhouse and ask her the great question. He could
wait no longer.
"Hello, Landis," a voice greeted him as he alighted from the car. He
turned and faced Lyman Mertzheimer, a smiling, visibly happy Lyman.
"Oh, hello," Martin said, not cordially, for he had no love for the
trouble-maker. "I see you're in Lancaster County for your vacation
again."
"Yes, home from college for Thanksgiving. I hear you've been away for
several weeks."
The college boy fell into step beside Martin, who would have turned and
gone in another direction if he had not been so eager to see Amanda.
"Yes, Landis," continued the unwelcome companion. "I'm home for
Thanksgiving. It'll be a great day for me this year. By the way, I saw
Amanda Reist a number of times since I'm here. Perhaps you'll be
interested to know that Amanda's promised to marry me--congratulate
me!"
"To marry you! Amanda?" Martin's face blanched and his heart seemed
turned to lead.
"Why not?" The other laughed softly. "I'm not as black as I'm painted,
you know."
"I--I hope not," Martin managed to say, his body suddenly seeming to be
rooted in the ground. His feet dragged as he walked along. Amanda to
marry Lvman Mertzheimer! What a crazy world it was all of a sudden.
What a slow, poky idiot he had been not to try for the prize before it
was snatched from him!
Lyman, rejoicing over the misery so plainly written in the face of
Martin, walked boldly down the middle of the road, while Martin's feet
lagged so he could not keep pace with the man who had imparted the
bewildering news. Martin kept along the side of the road, scuffing
along in the grass, thinking bitter thoughts about the arrogant youth
who walked in the middle of the road. The honk, honk of a speeding
automobile fell heedlessly upon the ears of both, till Martin looked
back in sudden alarm. His startled eyes saw a car tearing down the road
like a huge demon on wheels, its driver evidently trusting to the
common sense of the man in the way to get out of the path of danger in
time. But Lyman walked on in serene preoccupation, gloating over the
unlucky, unhappy man who was following. With a cry of warning Martin
rushed to the side of the other man and pushed him from the path of the
car, but when the big machine came to a standstill Martin Landis lay in
the dusty road, his eyes closed, a thin red stream of blood trickling
down his face.