Captains and The Kings by Taylor Caldwell Read Free Book Online Page B

There is naught to return to. There is no one." The priest spoke with compassionate eagerness. "You must keep the money, Joey. There is an orphanage in Philadelphia, managed by the Sisters of Charity, where these with us are bound. I, too, am to live there. They will welcome the children of Danny Armagh and love them as their own." He paused. "And it is possible that some good man, with money, will be joyful to adopt the little colleen, and Scan, and give them rich homes with warm fires and fine food and clothing." For the first time Joseph stirred and showed emotion. He stared at the priest in total amazement and outraged fury. "And is it mad you are, Father?" he exclaimed. "My brother, and my sister, my flesh and blood, given to strangers so that I will not know how they fare or where they are? Is that permitted in this America, that my kin be taken from me? If so, we will return to Ireland." "Joey," said the priest sadly, "I have the paper from your uncle, consenting." Joseph said, "And let me see that famous paper." Father O'Leary hesitated again, then felt inside his habit and brought forth a paper and silently gave it to Joseph. The boy read: "I hereby grant to religious authorities the privilege of conveying adoption in the matter of my deceased brother's children, Daniel Padraic Armagh, for they have neither father nor mother. Signed, John Scan Armagh." The paper was written poorly but clearly, and dated this morning, March ist, and signed. Joseph, slowly and deliberately, and watching the priest balefully all the while, tore the paper into shreds, over and over, and then stuffed the remnants in his pocket. The priest shook his head. "Joey, Joey. That will do no good. I have but to send to your uncle for another paper. Ah, Joey, you are not dull. I taught you myself for nine years. You are but thirteen. How can you care for Scan and the babe?" The blows of the last hours now began to ache agonizingly in Joseph, but he held himself still. His heart had started to run like a racer's, and his voice was stifled and gasping when he spoke. "Father, I will work. I am strong. I will find work in this America. The children will be with the Sisters until I can provide a home for them. I will pay the Sisters. They will not be on charity. I will pay. And if I pay they cannot be taken from me." The priest could have wept. "And what can you do, Joey?" "I can write a fine hand, and that you taught me, Father. I can work in the fields and in the manufactories. Perhaps there will be work in the oqjhanage a strong man can do, fires to keep, walls and roofs to repair. I have worked, Father, and I know what work is, and I do not fear it. But you must not take my brother and my sister from me! If you do, Father, I will kill myself, and that I swear to you!" "Joey, Joey!" cried the priest in horror. "It is a mortal sin even to speak of that!" "Mortal sin or not, that I shall do," said Joseph, and the priest, with dread, knew that he was not speaking as a child but as a man. "And you will be responsible for my lost soul." lie made a small secret grimace and something in him smiled with rage and contempt as he saw the priest's old anguished face. "You do not fear God," said the priest, and blessed himself. "I never feared anything," said the boy. "I shall not begin now. But mark me, Father, what I must do I will do." He looked at the priest with renewed hatred. "And that was what you were doing so long, Father, with my uncle this morning, while I waited. You were plotting against the children of Daniel Armagh, and telling my uncle how to write the letter. You were uncommonly sly, Father, but it has come to nothing." The priest studied him with both pity and dread. "We thought it best," he murmured. "We thought it best. It was no wickedness we plotted against you, Joey. But if it is your will, then so be it." He left Joseph then and returned to Sean who was licking his fingers after eating the apple. The priest's eyes filled with tears again,