Dedicated
ex voto
to
THE LITTLE WHITE CHURCH
of
ST. MARY OF THE MOUNT
at
Mount Pocono

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I Enter Miss Cicely Adair[ 9]
II The Rôle of Perseus[ 24]
III Miss Jeanette Lucas[ 39]
IV Transplanting[ 56]
V The Pinch of Necessity[ 72]
VI Beginning[ 88]
VII Codes[ 104]
VIII Cable Strands[ 121]
IX Atalanta’s Pause[ 137]
X Public Franchise and Private Thraldom[ 154]
XI The Weakness of Strength[ 171]
XII The Strained Cable[ 188]
XIII Darkness[ 204]
XIV Indecision[ 221]
XV Decision[ 236]
XVI Witnessing[ 252]
XVII Good-bye[ 268]
XVIII Orientation[ 283]
XIX The New Year[ 298]
XX The Old Bottle for New Wine[ 314]
XXI The Weaving[ 329]
XXII Entangled Threads[ 344]
XXIII The Next Step[ 360]
XXIV The Beacon[ 375]
XXV Port[ 390]

THE CABLE

CHAPTER I
ENTER MISS CICELY ADAIR

A GROUP of small boys stood on the corner, looking anxiously down the shaded street. They ranged from eight to twelve years in age; from grimy hands to universal griminess in uncleanliness; from comfortable meagreness to ragged poverty in clothing, while in race they were polyglot, but they were identical in the impatience with which they scanned the sidewalk, vision-length, and found it empty though there were frequent passers-by.

“Gee! What’s the matter wid her?”

“Say! She wouldn’t go th’ udder way?”

“Th’ odder way nothin’! Don’t she know we’re waitin’?”

The tallest, but also the raggedest, boy of the group made a fine gesture, drawing a nickel watch from somewhere between his bagging shirt and tight trousers. “’Tain’t so late,” he said, displaying the watch’s candid face. “Twenty to one by mine, an’ I set her by the city hall when de ball dropped’t noon. She ain’t so late.”