The Colonel's Dream
Page 37
The colonel left the coffin standing on the porch, where it remainedall day, an object of curious interest to the scores and hundreds whowalked by to look at it, for the news spread quickly through the town.No one, however, came in. If there were those who reprobated theaction they were silent. The mob spirit, which had broken out in thelynching of Johnson, still dominated the town, and no one dared tospeak against it.
As soon as Colonel French had dressed and breakfasted, he drove overto the cemetery. Those who had exhumed old Peter's remains had notbeen unduly careful. The carelessly excavated earth had been scatteredhere and there over the lot. The flowers on old Peter's grave and thatof little Phil had been trampled under foot--whether wantonly or not,inevitably, in the execution of the ghoulish task.
The colonel's heart hardened as he stood by his son's grave. Then hetook a long lingering look at the tombs of his ancestors and turnedaway with an air of finality.
From the cemetery he went to the undertaker's, and left an order;thence to the telegraph office, from which he sent a message to hisformer partner in New York; and thence to the Treadwells'.