The covenant - James A. Michener [228]
As he reached the climax of his preachment a hush fell over the room, and when the last click sounds had echoed, Hilary Saltwood knew that his destiny lay in South Africa. Waiting till the other students had left the room, he stepped forward to the podium, but before he could speak, Reverend Keer jumped down and held out his hands: 'Laddie, you've decided to join the Lord's work in Africa?' 'I have.'
'God be praised.'
That night, after he had written explanatory letters to his parents, he felt an enormous sense of having been set free. He had been impelled toward this decision both spiritually and intellectually, and would never question it. It had been God's miracle that sent Simon Keer at this particular time, and Hilary thanked Him for that with a full heart.
But before he fell asleep a most curious reflection flashed across his mind: In all the time I've been here, I've rarely heard the Old Testament mentioned. We're men of the New Testament, the personal followers of Jesus and St. Paul . . .
When Hilary completed his studies, Parliament was not in session, so before sailing for South Africa he returned to Sentinels on Salisbury Plain, and there he sat under the oak trees with his parents and his two brothers. Peter was now in full charge of family affairs and spent half his time on them, the other half devoted to the interests of the Proprietor. Richard had his commission in the Wiltshire regiment and was on leave prior to embarking for India; he joked that when he was a general he would stop off at Cape Town to meet with his brother, the bishop. Their father did not appreciate such remarks, for he still insisted that what Hilary ought to do was serve routine time as a missionary, then hurry back to enter competition for the deanship of the cathedral: 'When a young fellow has backing as strong as the Proprietor's, and as vigorous . . .'
One day the entire family went for a picnic at Old Sarum, where Josiah showed them the ancient elm under whose noble branches he had been elected to Parliament, and the older Saltwoods remained there while the three brothers climbed the low hill to view the ruins. It was both remarkable and moving that they could pick out the lines of those very old buildings which represented a heroic age of England, but after the first moments they paid scant attention to the ruins, for this was a cloudy day, and while they were standing among the fallen rocks a portion of the sky cleared, allowing great shafts of light to fall upon Salisbury to the south, and there the cathedral stood, bathed in radiance, a most noble monument, perhaps the finest in all England, situated on its almost empty meadow with no smaller buildings encroaching, and beyond it, outlined in the same accidental light, the three clumps of trees at Sentinels.
'Oh, look!' Peter cried. 'It's a signal!'
'For what?' Richard asked.
'For us. For us Saltwoods.' Grasping the hands of his brothers, he cried in excited syllables, 'Wherever you go, you're to come back here. This is always to be your home.'
Richard said, somewhat gruffly, 'It looks a far distance from India.'
Peter ignored his brother's dampening comment and asked, in a flush of emotion, 'Hilary, will you say a prayer for us?'
It seemed a most natural thing to do when three brothers, who had shared an old house beside a river of heavenly beauty and in the shadow of a great cathedral, were parting: 'Dearest God, Thy home is everywhere. Ours is here. Let us cherish both.'
'Damned fine prayer, Hilary,' Richard said, and the outing ended, but four days later their father proposed a more serious expedition, one that would require horses and considerable preparation.
'You'll be gone for some time,'