The Honor of the Big Snows

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
By JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD
Author of The Danger Trail, The Courage of Captain Plum, etc.
1911
Listen, John—I hear music—
The words came in a gentle whisper from the woman's lips. One white, thin hand lifted itself weakly to the rough face of the man who was kneeling beside her bed, and the great dark eyes from which he had hidden his own grew luminously bright for a moment, as she whispered again:
John—I hear—music—
A sigh fluttered from her lips. The man's head drooped until it rested very near to her bosom. He felt the quiver of her hand against his cheek, and in its touch there was something which told John Cummins that the end of all life had come for him and for her. His heart beat fiercely, and his great shoulders shook with the agony that was eating at his soul.
Yes, it is the pretty music, my Mélisse, he murmured softly, choking back his sobs. It is the pretty music in the skies.
The hand pressed more tightly against his face.
It's not the music in the skies, John. It is real—REAL music that I hear—