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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


Carter, Carol.
Keys to success quick / Carol Carter, Joyce Bishop, Sarah Lyman Kravits.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-254171-8
ISBN-10: 0-13-254171-8
1. College student orientation—United States—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Study
skills—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. College students—United States—Life skills guides.
I. Bishop, Joyce (Joyce L.). II. Kravits, Sarah Lyman. III. Title.
LB2343.32.C38 2012
378.1'98 dc22
2010033664

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CIN 15 14 13 12 11

ISBN-10: 0-13-254171-8
www.pearsonhighered.com ISBN-13: 978-0-13-254171-8
Brief Contents

WELCOME TO COLLEGE
1 Attitudes and Actions for Success 1

GOALS AND TIME


2 Planning Your Future and Your Time Wisely 14

LEARNING HOW YOU LEARN


3 Making the Most of Your Abilities 29

CRITICAL, CREATIVE, AND PRACTICAL THINKING


4 Solving Problems and Making Decisions 45

READING AND INFORMATION LITERACY


5 Learning from Print and Online Materials 61

LISTENING AND NOTE TAKING


6 Taking In and Recording Information 77

MEMORY AND STUDYING


7 Retaining What You Learn 90

TEST TAKING
8 Showing What You Know 105

DIVERSITY AND COMMUNICATION


9 Making Relationships Work 119

WELLNESS AND STRESS MANAGEMENT


10 Staying Healthy in Mind and Body 132

MANAGING MONEY
11 Living Within Your Means 146

CAREERS AND MORE


12 Building a Successful Future 160

iii
Contents

Preface xv
Acknowledgments xviii
Supplemental Resources xix

Quick Check: How Prepared Are You for College? 2

What Does College Offer and Expect of You? 2


The Culture of College 2
Connect with People 3
Connect with Technology and Written Resources 4

What Thinking Skills Can Help You Achieve Your Goals? 5


The Three Thinking Skills 5
How Thinking Skills Move You Toward Your Goals 6
■ Think Critically Analyze the Effect of Education 7

How Can a “Growth Mindset” Help You Succeed? 7


Be Responsible 8
Practice Academic Integrity 8
■ Think Creatively Imagine Your Potential 8
Face Your Fears 9

How Can You Work Effectively with Others? 10


Emotional Intelligence 10
Strategies for Study Group Success 10
■ Think Practically Connect College to Career 11

How Does College Prepare You for Work and Life Success? 11
Quick Skill Building 12

v
Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Self-Management Skills? 15

How Do Goals Help You Strive for Success? 15


The Definition of a Goal 15
Long-Term Goals 16
Short-Term Goals 16

How Can You Create and Achieve Realistic Goals? 17


Get to Know Yourself 17
Set SMART Goals 17
Work Toward Goals 18
■ Think Creatively Imagine Achieving a Goal 18

How Can You Effectively Manage Your Time? 19


Identify Your Time Profile and Preferences 19
■ Think Critically Analyze Distractions 20
Use Schedules and Planners 20
Make To-Do Lists and Prioritize 21
Plan and Track 22
■ Think Practically Define Yourself as a Time Manager 24
Confront Procrastination 25
Quick Skill Building 25

Quick Check: How Aware Are You of How You Learn? 30

Why Explore Who You Are as a Learner? 30


Use Assessments to Learn About Yourself 31
Assess to Grow, Not to Label 31

What Tools Can Help You Assess How You Learn and Interact with Others? 31
■ Think Critically Analyze the Value of Lifelong Learning 31
Assess Your Multiple Intelligences with Pathways to Learning 32
Assess Your Style of Interaction with the Personality Spectrum 35

vi Keys to Success Quick


How Can You Use Your Self-Knowledge? 39
Learn to Work with Different Teaching Styles 39
Make Smart Study Choices 40
■ Think Creatively Connect with an Instructor 40
■ Think Practically Link How You Learn to Coursework and Major 41
Use Technology That Works for Your Learning Style 43
Transfer Self-Knowledge to the Workplace 43
Quick Skill Building 44

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Thinking Skills? 46

Why Is It Important to Ask and Answer Questions? 46

How Can You Improve Critical Thinking Skills? 47


Gather Information 47
Break Information into Parts 48
Examine and Evaluate 48
Make Connections 50

How Can You Improve Creative Thinking Skills? 50


■ Think Critically Analyze a Statement 51
Brainstorm 51
Try a New Approach 51
■ Think Creatively Consider Where Risk May Take You 52

How Can You Improve Practical Thinking Skills? 52


Put Emotional Intelligence to Work 53
■ Think Practically Think Through a Decision 53
Take Action 54

How Can You Solve Problems and Make Decisions Effectively? 54


Solve a Problem 54
Make a Decision 55
Quick Skill Building 57

Contents vii
Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Reading and Information
Literacy Skills? 62

What Sets You Up for Reading Comprehension? 62


Take an Active and Positive Approach 62
Organize Your Study Area for Maximum Focus 63
Expand Your Course Vocabulary 63

How Can You Respond Critically to What You Read? 63


Focus on Important Information 64
Ask Questions to Evaluate Arguments 64

How Can SQ3R Help You Own What You Read? 65


Step 1: Survey 65
■ Think Practically Use Step 2 to Get a Step Ahead on Your Homework 66
Step 2: Question 67
Step 3: Read 67
Step 4: Recite 68
Step 5: Review 68

How Can You Be an Information Literate Reader and Researcher? 70


■ Think Critically Examine Your Response to Internet Research 70
Map Out the Possibilities 71
Conduct an Information Search 71
Be a Critical Internet Searcher 71
■ Think Creatively Broaden Your Searching 73
Quick Skill Building 74

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Listening and


Note-Taking Skills? 78

How Can You Become a Better Listener? 78


Issue 1: Distractions That Divide Your Attention 79
Issue 2: Listening Lapses 79
Issue 3: Rushing to Judgment 79

viii Keys to Success Quick


Issue 4: Partial Hearing Loss and Learning Disabilities 80
Issue 5: Comprehension Difficulties for Speakers of Other Languages 80
■ Think Critically Take an Active Listening Challenge 81

How Can You Improve Your Note-Taking Skills? 81


Step 1: Prepare 81
Step 2: Record Information During Class 82
■ Think Creatively Bring Something New to Note Taking 82
Step 3: Review and Revise Your Notes 84

What Note-Taking Systems Can You Use? 84


Outlines 84
Cornell T-Note System 85
Think Links 86
Charting Method 86
Other Visual Strategies 86
■ Think Practically Try a New Note-Taking System 87
Quick Skill Building 88

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Memory


and Study Skills? 91

How Does Memory Work? 91


The Information Processing Model of Memory 91
Why You Forget 92
■ Think Critically Analyze Your Memory Skills 94

How Can You Remember What You Study? 94


When, Where, and Who: Choosing Your Best Setting 94
What and Why: Evaluating Study Materials 95
How: Using Study Strategies 95
■ Think Creatively Focus Despite Frustration 97

How Can Mnemonic Devices Boost Recall? 99


■ Think Practically Plan a Study Session 99
Create Visual Images and Associations 100
Make Acronyms 100
Use Songs or Rhymes 100

Contents ix
Which Strategies Can Make Studying for Test Day a Success? 100
Create a Summary of Reading Material 101
Combine Class and Reading Notes into a Master Set 101
Quick Skill Building 103

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Test-Taking Skills? 106

How Can Preparation Improve Test Performance? 106


Identify Test Type and What You Will Be Expected to Know 106
Determine Where and How the Test Will Be Given 107
Create a Study Schedule and Checklist 107
Review Reading and Study Strategies 107
Make and Take a Pretest 108
Prepare for Final Exams 108
Prepare Physically 108
■ Think Critically Analyze Test Anxiety 108

How Can You Work Through Test Anxiety? 109


Prepare Well and Have a Positive Attitude 109
Test Time Strategies 109

What General Strategies Can Help You Succeed on Tests? 110

How Can You Master Different Types of Test Questions? 111


Objective Questions 111
Subjective Questions 113
■ Think Creatively Create Your Own Test 113

What Can You Learn from Test Mistakes? 115


■ Think Practically Create and Use an Organized Study Plan 116
Quick Skill Building 117

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Cultural Competency,


Communication, and Relationship Skills? 120

x Keys to Success Quick


How Can You Develop Cultural Competence? 120
Action 1: Value Diversity 121
Action 2: Identify and Evaluate Personal Perceptions and Attitudes 121
Action 3: Be Aware of What Happens When Cultures Interact 122
Action 4: Build Cultural Knowledge 122
■ Think Critically Analyze the Effects of Diversity 123
Action 5: Adapt to Diverse Cultures 123
■ Think Creatively Discover Hidden Diversity 124

How Can You Communicate Effectively? 124


Adjust to Communication Styles 124
Know How to Give and Take Criticism 125
Manage Conflict 126
Manage Anger 127
■ Think Practically Manage Technology Use 128

How Do You Make the Most of Personal Relationships? 128


Use Positive Relationship Strategies 128
Plug into Communication Technology Without Losing Touch 129
Avoid Destructive Relationships 129
Quick Skill Building 130

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Stress Management


and Wellness Skills? 133

How Can You Manage Stress? 133


Manage Stress by Managing Time 134
Eat Right 135
Get Exercise 135
Get Enough Sleep 136
Address Mental Health Issues 136
■ Think Critically Analyze Your Sleep Habits 137
■ Think Creatively Reach Out for Support 138

How Can You Make Effective Decisions About Substances? 139


Alcohol 139
Drugs 139

Contents xi
Tobacco 139
Facing Addiction 140

How Can You Make Smart Decisions About Sex? 140


■ Think Practically Evaluate Your Substance Use 142
Birth Control 143
AIDS and HIV 143
Quick Skill Building 144

Quick Check: How Developed Are Your Money


Management Skills? 147

What Does Money Mean in Your Life? 147


How You Perceive and Use Money 147
Needs Versus Wants 148

How Can You Create and Use a Budget? 148


■ Think Critically Analyze Your View of Money 149
Figure Out What You Earn 149
Figure Out What You Spend 149
Evaluate the Difference 150
Adjust Expenses or Earnings 150
Juggle Work and School 150
■ Think Creatively Find Ways to Spend Less 151

How Can You Make the Most of Financial Aid? 151


Know What Aid Is Available 151
Apply for Aid 153
Think Critically About Aid 153

What Will Help You Use Credit Cards Wisely? 154


How Credit Cards Work 154
Look for Credit Pitfalls 154
Manage Credit Card Debt 154
Build a Good Credit Score 155
■ Think Practically Map Out Your Budget 156
Quick Skill Building 157

xii Keys to Success Quick


Quick Check: How Ready Are You for Career
and Life Success? 161

How Can You Prepare for Career Success? 161


Consider Your Personality and Strengths 162
Be Strategic 162
Build Knowledge and Experience 162
■ Think Critically Analyze How Hard Work Relates to Success 165
Investigate Career Paths 165
Know What Employers Want 166
Expect Change 167
■ Think Creatively Look at Careers “Out of the Box” 167

How Can You Conduct an Effective Job Search? 168


Use Available Resources 168
Use an Organized, Consistent Strategy 169

How Will Your Learning in This Course Bring Success? 170


Lifelong Learning and the Growth Mindset 170
Flexibility Helps You Land on Your Feet 170

How Can You Create and Live Your Personal Mission? 170
■ Think Practically Fill in Your 21st Century Skills Resumé 171
Quick Skill Building 172

Endnotes 175
Index 179

Contents xiii
Preface

It’s not just what you know . . . It’s what you know how to do.

Your time and money are valuable, limited resources—and this book will help you
make the most of both. Our most streamlined student success text to date, Keys to
Success Quick takes the skills and techniques instructors and students have come to
love from our bestselling Keys series and condenses them into 174 pages of essential
information.
Quick gets right to the point with each important topic, providing the tools you’ll
need to build top-notch academic, self-management, and thinking skills for use in
college, career, and life. Other than putting all this in a super-short package, what
makes Quick so special?
3 Critical, creative, and practical thinking skills. The text is organized around these
three active and goal-focused thinking skills, based on psychologist Dr. Robert
Sternberg’s research on the types of thinking necessary for goal achievement.
They are introduced in the first chapter, reinforced in chapter exercises, and
referenced throughout the text. Research proves that building these thinking
skills increases student achievement, no matter what your age, culture, gender,
or life experience.
3 Self-knowledge focus. With self-assessments opening and closing the text, as well
as chapter-focused self-assessments that begin each chapter, Quick promotes
self-knowledge and awareness from start to finish.
This text is designed with features that deepen and solidify learning. Quick
features include:

QUICK CHECK. This brief self-assessment helps gauge knowledge and aware-
ness of each chapter’s material before it starts. It asks questions designed to
inspire thinking about what readers will learn.

quick!
n
CHECK

How Develop
ed Are Your
Self-Managem
ent Skills?
For each statem
ent, circle the
statement is for number that bes
you, from 1 for t describes how
for me.” “not at all true true the
for me” to 5 for
“very true
3 Periodically, I
take time to thin
k through aca
demic and per
3 I read each syl sonal goals.
labus carefully
to understand 1 2 3 4
the course go 5
3 I have a system als.
for reminding
myself of what 1 2 3 4
my goals are. 5
3 I find ways to mo
tivate myself wh
en I am workin 1 2 3 4
g toward a go 5
3 When I set a lon al.
g-term goal, I
break it down 1 2 3 4
into a series of 5
3 I’ve been lookin short-term go
als.
g into majors
that might app 1 2 3 4
eal to me. 5
3 I know myself
as a time manag
er and which str 1 2 3 4
ategies work bes 5
3 I record my tas t for me.
ks, events, and
responsibilities 1 2 3 4
and refer regula 5
3 When I procrastin rly to my notes.
at I k

xv
THINK ACTIVITIES. Three activities appearing in each chapter—Think Practi-
cally, Think Creatively, and Think Critically—apply chapter skills immediately to
everyday life. Through a mixture of brainstorming, journaling, and action, readers
are encouraged to think outside of the box and put their developing skills to work

n
in real-world applications.
ze how pieces e your educati mber, your
your ability to on forward of
capture inform ten relies on
ation in the m
oment.

think
PRACT
I C A L LY

Try a New N
ote-Tak ing System
Identify a class
for which you
regularly take
notes.
Name the note-
taking method
you generally
has a particula us e in this class
r name, describ . If you don’t us
e how you go e a method tha
about taking no t
tes and what the
y look like.

When is the ne
xt meeting of
this class?
During that ne
xt meeting, ch
oose one note-
used or do no taking method
t regularly use, from this chap
and take notes ter that you ha
using that me ve never
thod. Which me
my ac ad thod will you us
e direction of e?
about th Finally, after the
class period,
briefly describ
your notes, yo e your reaction
ur concentratio to the experie
n, your focus? nce. Did it impro
Would you use Did it distract ve
it again? you or cause
other problems
?

think I V E LY
CREAT
ieving a Goal
Imagine Ach
CHAPTER 6
rtant goal: List i
ting to an impo
ck wa rd” path connec guidelines
Crea te a “ba SMART goals
l go al for thi s year, using the
na
important perso Frame Linked).
1. Name one ealistic–Time w your
le–Achievable–R you feel and ho
(Specific –M ea su rab Describe how
alr ea dy ac hie ved your goal.
t you have
2. Imagine tha
al. List at least
life is different. mplished the go
to de sc rib e how you acco
you
t a friend asks ish line.
3. Imagine tha t you to the fin
als that helped ge the next
three shor t-te rm go plan to work in
n pla n. Co ns ider putting the
tial actio inspire you.
created a poten motivate and
You have just you will create
the im ag e of the success
u do, let
year. When yo

Q i k
think
C R I T I C A L LY

Analyze Distractions

According to Dr. John Medina, director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research,
people who are interrupted take 50 percent longer to complete a task and make 50 percent
more errors.1 How do you deal with distractions? In a journal entry, briefly describe and
evaluate two or three main ways you handle disruptions. For each, consider how successful
the technique is and how you could improve (or change) it to maximize your future
success.

xvi Keys to Success Quick


THINK BACK. This
end-of-chapter synthe-
sis activity provides an
opportunity to review the

n
text for understanding, Think Back
prepare for tests, and pur- Solidify your
knowledge an
tions on a sep d prepare for
sue personal growth. Task arate sheet of
paper or electr
tests with thi
s review. Answ
3 Revisit the ch onic file. er the follow
ing ques-
one involves revisiting the answer for eac
apter-opening
h.
questions on
page 77. Scan
the chapter
chapter-opening questions, 3 As you review
the chapter,
and write a
short
outline. For take notes on
and task two builds on method.
the second sec
tion, use a vis
the first sectio
ual method,
n of material
usi ng an inform
such as the mi al
one of those questions to nd map or ch
arting
Analyze, Crea
create and map out a per- te, Practice
Identif
sonal goal.

ANALYZE, CREATE,
Analyze, Create, Practice PRACTICE. This multistep,
Identify Listening and Note-Taking Conditions That Work for You
end-of-chapter exercise is an
Put your thinking skills to work to improve your listening and note-taking skills:
opportunity to apply the three

n
Analyze. Describe a recent class in which you were able to listen effectively and take notes
(course title, type of classroom setting, and so forth). thinking skills to chapter mate-
rial in a way that relates directly
to personal, real-life needs. The
Describe the instructor’s style (lecture, group discussion, Q&A) and any listening barriers. yellow portfolio icon signals an
activity that you can use to build
a personal portfolio demonstrat-
ing skills and self-knowledge
you’ve acquired in the course.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
IN ACTION. This end-of-

M
uItipIe
chapter exercise encourages the Intelligences
development of practical strate- in action
gies relating to strongest and
weakest intelligences. Build- Write three intelligences in the left-hand column—two that are highly developed for
n

you and one you would like to build. Then, in the right-hand column, brainstorm a
ing on the information and strategy for listening and/or note taking that relates to each intelligence.
self-assessment results from
the learning styles chapter, Intelligence Use MI Strategies to Come Up with Solutions
this activity encourages both Example: Naturalistic Use the chart method to categorize pieces of information
your instructor discusses. Later, identify relationships among
creative thinking and problem- the points.
solving skills while addressing
day-to-day needs.

Keys to Success Quick


Because your time is valuable.

Preface xvii
Acknowledgments

This significant revision has been produced through the efforts of an extraordinary
team. Many thanks to:

3 Our reviewers, for their responsiveness and invaluable input: Sheryl Blahnik,
Richland Community College; Castell Burton, Valencia Community College;
Gary Corona, Florida Community College at Jacksonville; Mo Cuevas, West Texas
A&M University; Russell Davis, Southwest College, HCC; Karen Droms, Luzerne
County Community College; Lewis Gray, Middle Tennessee State University; Lois
Hassan, Henry Ford Community College; Angie Rataj, University of Missouri;
Amy Reese, Baton Rouge Community College; Kerri A. Sleeman, Michigan Tech-
nological University; Iris Strunc, Okaloosa-Walton College; Voltaire Villanueva,
Foothill College; and Candace Whitney, Gavilan College.
3 Robert J. Sternberg, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University,
for his groundbreaking work on thinking and intelligence and for his gracious
permission to use and adapt that work for this text.
3 Chelsey Emmelhainz, editorial assistant to the author team, for her insightful
comments and hard work.
3 Our editor Sande Johnson, her editorial assistant Clara Ciminelli, and develop-
mental editor Charlotte Morrissey for their dedication, vision, and efforts.
3 Our production team for their patience, flexibility, and attention to detail, espe-
cially production editor Greg Erb, director of production Elaine Ober, cover
designer John Wincek, and Diana Neatrour and the entire team at Omegatype.
3 Our marketing gurus, especially Amy Judd, Executive Marketing Manager;
Margaret Waples, Vice President, Director of Marketing; and our sales director
team—Connie James, Director of Sales Programs; Deb Wilson, Senior Sales
Director; and Sean Wittmann, Missy Bittner, Lynda Sax, Chris Cardona, and
Hector Amaya, Sales Directors.
3 Editor-in-Chief of Student Success and Career Development Jodi McPherson,
President of Pearson Teacher Education and Student Success Nancy Forsyth,
CEO of Teacher Education & Development Susan Badger, and Prentice Hall
President Tim Bozik, for their interest in the Keys series.
3 The Pearson representatives and the management team led by Brian Kibby,
Senior Vice President Sales/Marketing.
3 The staff at LifeBound for their hard work and dedication: Heather Brown, Kelly
Carson, and Cynthia Nordberg.
3 Our families and friends, who have encouraged us and put up with our com-
mitments.
3 Special thanks to Judy Block, who contributed research and writing to this
book.

Finally, for their ideas, opinions, and stories, we would like to thank all of the stu-
dents and professors with whom we work. Joyce in particular would like to thank
the thousands of students who have allowed her, as their professor, the privilege
of sharing part of their journey through college. We appreciate that, through read-
ing this book, you give us the opportunity to learn and discover with you—in your
classroom, at home, on a bus or train, and wherever else learning takes place.

xviii
Supplemental Resources

INSTRUCTOR SUPPORT
Resources to simplify your life and support your students.

Book-Specific Resources
Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank (ISBN: 0-13-138209-8). This
online manual is intended to give instructors a framework or blueprint of ideas
and suggestions to assist them in providing their students with activities, journal
writing, thought-provoking situations, and group activities. The test bank, organized
by chapter, includes multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions
that support the key features in the book. Each test item is correlated to a chapter
learning objective and is given a level of difficulty based on Bloom’s taxonomy. This
downloadable version of the Instructor’s Resource Manual is available from the
Pearson Instructor’s Resource Center (IRC) at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.

Online PowerPoint Presentation (ISBN: 0-13-13138205-5). A comprehensive


set of PowerPoint slides that can be used by instructors for class presentations or
by students for lecture preview or review. The presentation includes visuals from
the textbook. The presentation also contains bullet point slides for each chapter that
highlight the important points to help students understand the concepts within each
chapter. Instructors may download these PowerPoint presentations from the IRC at
www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.

MyTest Bank (ISBN: 0-13-138206-3). Pearson MyTest offers instructors a secure


online environment and quality assessments to easily create print exams, study
guide questions, and quizzes from any computer with an Internet connection.

Premium Assessment Content


3 Draw from a rich library of question test banks that complement your Pearson
textbook and your course’s learning objectives.
3 Edit questions or tests to fit your specific teaching needs.

Instructor-Friendly Features
3 Easily create and store your own questions, including images, diagrams, and
charts using simple drag-and-drop and Word-like controls.
3 Use additional information provided by Pearson, such as the question’s difficulty
level or learning objective, to help you quickly build your test.

Time-Saving Enhancements
3 Add headers or footers and easily scramble questions and answer choices all
from one simple toolbar.
3 Quickly create multiple versions of your test or answer key, and when ready,
simply save to Word or PDF format and print!
3 Export your exams for import to Blackboard 6.0, CE (WebCT), or Vista (WebCT)!
3 Additional information is available at www.pearsonmytest.com.

xix
Are you teaching online, in a hybrid setting, or
looking to infuse exciting technology into your
classroom for the first time? Then be sure to
refer to the MyStudentSuccessLab section on pages xxiii–xxv to learn more. This
online solution, designed to help students build the skills they need to succeed, is
at www.mystudentsuccesslab.com.

Other Resources
Easy access to online, book-specific teaching support is now just a click away!

Instructor Resource Center. Register. Redeem. Login. Three easy steps open the
door to a variety of print and media resources in downloadable, digital format. Avail-
able to instructors exclusively through the Pearson IRC: www.pearsonhighered.com/
irc.
Choose from a wide range of video resources for the classroom!

Pearson Reference Library: Life Skills Pack (ISBN: 0-13-127079-6). Contains


all four videos, which may also be requested individually as follows:
3 Learning Styles and Self-Awareness (ISBN: 0-13-028502-1)
3 Critical and Creative Thinking (ISBN: 0-13-028504-8)
3 Relating to Others (ISBN: 0-13-028511-0)
3 Personal Wellness (ISBN: 0-13-028514-5)

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3 Reading Effectively (ISBN: 0-13-028505-6)
3 Listening and Memory (ISBN: 0-13-028506-4)
3 Note Taking and Research (ISBN: 0-13-028508-0)
3 Writing Effectively (ISBN: 0-13-028509-9)
3 Effective Test Taking (ISBN: 0-13-028500-5)
3 Goal Setting and Time Management (ISBN: 0-13-028503-X)

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3 Skills for the 21st Century—Math and Science (ISBN: 0-13-028513-7)
3 Managing Money and Career (ISBN: 0-13-028516-1)

Complete Reference Library—Life/Study Skills/Career Video Pack on DVD


(ISBN: 0-13-501095-0). Our reference library of thirteen popular video resources
has now been digitized onto one DVD so students and instructors alike can benefit
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the videos help to reinforce the course content in a more interactive way.

Faculty Video Resources


3 Teacher Training Video 1: Critical Thinking (ISBN: 0-13-099432-4)
3 Teacher Training Video 2: Stress Management & Communication (ISBN: 0-13-
099578-9)
3 Teacher Training Video 3: Classroom Tips (ISBN: 0-13-917205-X)
3 Student Advice Video (ISBN: 0-13-233206-X)
3 Study Skills Video (ISBN: 0-13-096095-0)

xx Keys to Success Quick


Current Issues Videos
3 ABC News Video Series: Student Success, Second Edition (ISBN: 0-13-031901-5)
3 ABC News Video Series: Student Success, Third Edition (ISBN: 0-13-152865-3)

MyStudentSuccessLab Videos on DVD (ISBN: 0-13-514249-0). Our six most


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tors alike can benefit from the array of video clips. Featuring Technology, Math and
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offerings and available on VHS.

Assessments
Through partnership opportunities, we offer a variety of assessment options!

LASSI (Paper ISBN: 0-13-172315-4; Online ISBN: 0-13-172316-2). The LASSI


is a 10-scale, 80-item assessment of students’ awareness about and use of learning
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Robbins Self-Assessment Library. This compilation teaches students to create


a portfolio of skills. S.A.L. is a self-contained, interactive library of 49 behavioral
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and online (access card) formats.

Readiness for Education at a Distance Indicator (READI) (ISBN: 0-13-188967-2).


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Pathway to Student Success CD-ROM (ISBN: 0-13-239314-X). The CD is


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The Golden Personality Type Profiler (ISBN: 0-13-706654-6). The Golden Per-
sonality Type Profiler™ helps students understand how they make decisions and relate
to others. By completing the Golden Personality Type Profiler™, students develop
a deeper understanding of their strengths, a clearer picture of how their behavior
impacts others, and a better appreciation for the interpersonal style of others and how
to interact with them more effectively. Using these results as a guide, students will
gain the self-awareness that is key to professional development and success.

Supplemental Resources xxi


Pearson Custom Publishing
For a truly tailored solution that fosters campus connections and increases reten-
tion, talk with us about custom publishing.
Pearson Custom Publishing is the largest custom provider for print and media
shaped to your course’s needs. Please visit us at www.pearsoncustom.com to learn
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STUDENT SUPPORT
Tools to help make the grade now, and excel in school later.

Today’s students are more inclined than ever


to use technology to enhance their learning.
Refer to the MyStudentSuccessLab section
on pages xxiii–xxv to learn about our revolutionary resource (www.mystudent
successlab.com). This online solution is designed to help students build the skills
they need to succeed.

Time Management
Time management is the #1 challenge students face. We can help.

Pearson Planner. A basic planner that includes a monthly and daily calendar plus
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Premier Annual Planner. This specially designed, annual four-color collegiate


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which facilitate short-term as well as long-term planning. Spiral bound, 6 × 9 trim
size. Customization is available.

Journaling
Journaling activities promote self-discovery and self-awareness.
Through the Student Reflection Journal, students are encouraged to track
their progress and share their insights, thoughts, and concerns. 8.5 × 11 trim size.
90 pages.

The Student Orientation Series


Includes short booklets on specialized topics that facilitate greater student under-
standing.
S.O.S. Guides help students understand what these opportunities are, how to
take advantage of them, and how to learn from their peers while doing so. They
include:
3 Connolly: Learning Communities (ISBN: 0-13-232243-9)
3 Hoffman: Stop Procrastination Now! 10 Simple and SUCCESSFUL Steps for
Student Success (ISBN: 0-13-513056-5)
3 Jabr: English Language Learners (ISBN: 0-13-232242-0)
3 Watts: Service Learning (ISBN: 0-13-232201-0)

xxii Keys to Success Quick


For Students!
Why is this course important?
This course will help you transition to college, introduce you to campus resources, and prepare you for success in
all aspects of college, career, and life. You will:
• Develop Skills to Excel in Other Classes
• Apply Concepts from College to Your Career and Life
• Learn to Use Media Resources

How can you get the most out of the book and online resources required in this class?
Purchase your book and online resources before the First Day of Class. Register and log in to the online resources using your access code.

Develop Skills to Excel in Other Classes


• Helps you with your homework
• Prepares you for exams

Apply Concepts from College to Your Career and Life


• Provides learning techniques
• Helps you achieve your goals

Learn to Use Media Resources


• www.mystudentsuccesslab.com helps you build skills you need to succeed through
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activities.
• Connect with real students, practice skill development, and personalize what is learned.

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Join www.PearsonStudents.com
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customers can incorporate their
views and ideas into their learning
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out about our programs such as
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Prize (student scholarship!).

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When students succeed, we succeed!
Succeed in college and beyond!
Connect, practice, and personalize with MyStudentSuccessLab.

www.mystudentsuccesslab.com

MyStudentSuccessLab is an online solution designed to help students acquire the


skills they need to succeed. They will have access to peer-led video presentations and
develop core skills through interactive exercises and projects that provide academic,
life, and career skills that will transfer to ANY course.

It can accompany any Student Success text, or be sold as a stand-alone course


offering. To become successful learners, students must consistently apply techniques
to daily activities.

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Is motivation a challenge, and if so, how do you deal with it?


Video Presentation — Experience peer led video ‘by students, for students’ of all
ages and stages.

How would better class preparation improve the learning experience?


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and advanced — leveled by Bloom’s taxonomy.

What could you gain by building critical thinking and problem-solving


skills in this class? Apply (final project) — Complete a final project using
these skills to create ‘personally relevant’ resources.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
must be a beggar, please. Don’t think hardly of me for it, but
my darling that’s so pretty and frale! Oh, Renny, help us. Your
loving sister,
Zyp.”
“What you send, if annything, please send it to me. That’s
why I write for the chief part. Jason would give us his last
crust; but—you saw him, Renny, and must know.”

I bowed my head over the queer, sorrowful little note. That this
bold, reliant child of nature should come to this! There and then I
vowed that, so long as I had a shilling I could call my own, Zyp
should share it with me, at a word from her.
I wrote to her to this effect. I placed my whole position before her
and bade her command me as she listed; only bearing in mind that
my father, old and broken, had the first claim upon me. Then I went
out and bought the largest and most fascinating box of chocolates I
could secure, and sent it to her as a present to my little unknown
niece, and forwarded also under cover the order for the £10.
A day or two brought me an acknowledgment and answer to my
letter. The latter shall forever remain sacred from any eyes but mine;
and, unless man can be found ready to brave the curse of the dead,
shall lie with me, who alone have read it, in the grave.
On the morning preceding that of its arrival, a fearful experience
befell me, that was like to have choked out my soul then and there in
one black grip of horror.
All that first day after Jason’s visit my father lay abed, and,
whenever I visited him, was cheerfully garrulous, but without any
inclination to rise. The following morning also he elected to have
breakfast as before in his room; and soon after the meal he fell into a
light doze, in which state I left him.
It was about 11 o’clock that, sitting in the room below, I was
startled by hearing a sudden thud above me that shook the beams of
the ceiling. I rushed upstairs in a panic and found him lying prostrate
on the floor, uninjured apparently, but with no power of getting to his
feet again.
“What’s this?” I cried. “Dad! Are you hurt?”
He looked at me a little wondering and confused, but answered
no, he had only slipped and fallen when rising to don his clothes.
I lifted him up and he couldn’t stand, but sunk down on the bed
again with a blank, amazed look in his face.
“Renalt,” he said, in a thin, perplexed voice, “what’s happened to
the old man? The will was there, but the power’s gone.”
Gone it was, forever. From that day he walked no more—did
nothing but lie on his back, calm and unconcerned for the most part,
and fading quietly from life.
But in the first discovery of his enforced inertness, some peculiar
trouble, unconnected with the certain approach of death, lay on him
like a black jaundice. Sitting by his side after I had got him back upon
the bed, I would not break the long silence that ensued with shallow
words of comfort, for I thought that he was steeling his poor soul as
he lay to face the inevitable prospect.
Suddenly he turned on the bed—for his face had been darkened
from me—and looked at me with his lips trembling.
“What is it, dad?”
“I’m down, Renny. I shall never rise again.”
“You’ll rest, dad; you’ll rest. Think of the peace and quiet while I sit
and read to you and the sun comes in at the window.”
“Good lad! It isn’t that, though rest has a beautiful sound to me. It’s
the thought—harkee, Renny! It’s the thought that a task I’ve not
failed in for twenty years and more must come to be another’s.”
“What task?”
“There are ears in the walls. Closer, my son. The task of oiling the
wheel below.”
“Shall I take it up, dad? Is that your wish?”
I answered stoutly, though my heart sunk within me at the
prospect.
“You or nobody, it must be. Are you afraid?”
“I wish I could say I wasn’t.”
He clutched my hand in tremulous eagerness.
“Master it! You must, my lad! Much depends on it. They whisper
the room is haunted. Not for you, Renalt, if for anybody. Haven’t I
been familiar with it all these years, and yet I lie here unscathed?
How can it spare the evil old man and hurt the just son?”
He half-rose in his bed and stared with dilated eyes at the wall.
“You are there!” he cried, in a loud, quavering voice. “Out of the
years of gloom and torture you menace me still! Why, it was just, I
say! How could I have clung to my purpose and defied you,
otherwise? You will never frighten me!”
He fell back, breathing heavily. In sorrow and alarm I bent over
him. Suddenly conscious of my eyes looking down upon him, he
smiled and a faint flush came to his cheek.
“Dreams and shadows—dreams and shadows!” he murmured.
“You will take up my task, Renalt?”
“Must I, dad?”
“Oh, be a man!” he shrieked, grasping at me. “I have defied it—I,
the sinner! And how can it hurt you?”
“Is it so necessary?”
“It’s the key to all—the golden key! Were it to rust and stop, the
secret would be open to any that might look, and the devil have my
soul.”
“Do you wish me, then, to learn the secret—whatever it is?”
He looked at me long, with a dark and searching expression.
“I ask you to oil the wheel,” he said at length—“nothing more.”
“Very well. I will do what you ask.”
He gave a deep sigh and lay back with his eyes closed. I saw the
faint color coming and going in his face. Suddenly he uttered a cry
and turned upon me.
“My son—my son! Bear with me a little longer. It is an old habit
and for long made my only joy in a dark world. I find it hard to part
with my fetish.”
“I don’t want you to part with it. What does it matter? I will oil the
wheel and you shall rest in peace that your task is being faithfully
performed by another.”
“Hush! You don’t mean it, but every word is a reproach. I’ve known
so little love; and here I would reject the confidence that is the sign of
more than I deserve. For him, the base and cruel, to guess at it, and
you to remain in ignorance! Renalt, listen; I’m going to tell you.”
“No, dad; no!”
“Renalt, you won’t break my heart? What trust haven’t you put in
me? And this is my return! Feel under my pillow, boy.”
“Oh, dad; let it rest!”
Eagerly, impatiently, he thrust in his own hand and brought forth a
shining key.
“Take it!” he cried. “It opens the box of the wheel. But first lower
the sluice and turn the race into the further channel. You will see a
rope dangling inside in the darkness. Hold on to it and work the
wheel round with your hands till a float projecting a little beyond its
fellows comes opposite you. In this you’ll find a slit cut, ending in an
eye-hole. Pass the rope, as it dangles, into this hole, and keep it in
place by a turn of the iron button that’s fixed underneath the slit. Now
step on to the broad float, never letting go the rope, and the weight
of your body will turn the wheel, carrying you downward till a knot in
the rope stops your descent.”
“What then, dad?”
“My son—you’ll see the place that for twenty years has held the
secret of my fortune.”
CHAPTER XLV.
I MAKE A DESCENT.

If it had many a time occurred to me, since first I heard of the jar of
coins, that the secret of their concealment was connected somehow
within the room of silence, it must have done so from that old
association of my father with a place that the rest of us so dreaded
and avoided. The scorn of superstitious terror that he showed in his
choice; the certainty that none would dream of looking there; the
encouragement his own mysterious actions gave to the sense of a
haunting atmosphere that seemed ever to hang about the
neighborhood of the room—these were all so many justifications of
the wisdom of his choice. Now I understood the secret of that
everlasting lubrication; for had anything happened, when he might
chance to be absent, to choke or damage the structure of the ancient
wheel, the stoppage or ruin ensuing might have laid bare the hiding-
place to any curious eye; for, as part of his general policy, I conclude,
no veto except the natural one of dread was ever laid on our entering
the room itself if we wished to.
“Well,” I said, stifling a sigh that in itself would have seemed a
breach of confidence, “when am I to do my first oiling, father?”
“It wasn’t touched yesterday, Renalt. From the first I have not
failed to do it once, at least, in the twenty-four hours.”
“You would like me to go now—at once?”
“Ah! If you will.”
“Very well.”
As I was leaving the room he called me back.
“There’s the oil can in yonder cupboard and a bull’s-eye lantern
fixed in a belt. You will want to light that and strap it round you.”
I went and fetched them, and, holding them in my hand, asked him
if there was anything more.
“No,” he said; “be careful not to let go the rope; that’s all.”
“Why do you want me to go down, dad? Let me just do the oiling
and come away.”
“No, now—now,” he said, with feverish impatience. “The murder’s
out and my conscience quit of it. You’ll satisfy me with a report of its
safety, Renalt? There’s a brave fellow. It would be a sore thing to
compose myself here to face the end, and not know but that
something had happened to your inheritance.”
My spirit groaned, but I said to him, very well; I would go.
He called to me once more, and I noticed an odd repression in his
voice.
“Assure yourself, and me, of the safety of the jar. Nothing else. If
by chance you notice aught beyond, keep the knowledge of it locked
in your breast—never mention it or refer to it in any way.”
Full of dull foreboding of some dread discovery, I left him and went
slowly down the stairs.
I paused outside the ominous door, with a thought that a little
whisper of laughter had reached my ears from its inner side. Then,
muttering abuse on myself, for my cowardice, I pushed resolutely at
the cumbrous oak and swung it open.
A cold, vault-like breath of air sighed out on me, and the marrow in
my bones was conscious of a little chill and shiver. But I strode
across the floor without further hesitation and fetched from my
pocket the iron key. The hole it fitted into was near the edge of the
great box that inclosed the wheel. Standing there in close proximity
to the latter, I was struck by the subdued character of the flapping
and washing sounds within. Heard at a distance, they seemed to
shake the whole building with their muffled thunder. Here no
formidable uproar greeted me; and so it was, I conclude, from the
concentration of noise monopolizing my every sense.
I put in the key, swung open the door—and there before me was a
section of a huge disk going round overwhelmingly, and all splashed
and dripping as it revolved, with great jets of weedy-smelling water.
I say “disk,” for the arms to this side had been boarded in, that
none, I supposed, might gather hint of what lay beyond.
The eyes into which the shaft ends of the wheel fitted were sunk in
the floor level, flush with the lintel of the cupboard door that lay
furthest from the window; so that only the left upper quarter of the
slowly spinning monster was visible to me.
It turned in an oblong pit, it seemed, wooden in its upper part, but
going down into a narrow gully of brick, at the bottom of which the
race boomed and roared with a black sound of fury.
If the hollow thunder of the unseen torrent had been dismal to
hear, the sight of it boiling down there in its restricted channel was
awful indeed. From the forward tunnel through which it escaped into
the tail bay, a thin streak of light tinged the plunging foam of it with
green phosphorescence and made manifest the terror of its depths.
For all my dread of the place, a strange curiosity had begun to
usurp in me the first instincts of repulsion. Though I had been in the
room some minutes, no malignant influence had crept over me as
yet, and a hope entered me that by thus forcing myself to outface the
fear I had perhaps triumphed over its fateful fascination.
Leaving the door of the cupboard open, I hurried from the room,
and so to the rear of the building and the platform outside, where the
heads of the sluices were that regulated the water flow. Here,
removing the pin, I dropped the race hatch and so cut off the stream
from the wheel.
Returning, I left open the door of the room that the wholesome
atmosphere outside should neighbor me, at least, and means of
escape, if necessary, readily offer themselves; and, lighting the
lantern in the belt, strapped the latter round my waist.
When I came to the cupboard again the boom of water below had
subsided to a mouthing murmur, and the spin of the wheel was lazily
relaxed, so that before it had turned half its own circumference it
stood still and dripping. The sight when I looked down now was not
near so formidable, for only a band of water slid beneath me as I
bent over. Still, my heart was up in my mouth for all that, now the
moment had come for the essaying of my task.
Oiling such parts of the machine as were within reach, I next
grasped the rope, which I had at the first noticed hanging from the
darkness above down into the pit, just clear of the blades, and set to
peering for the broader float my father had mentioned. Luckily, the
last motion of the wheel had brought this very section opposite me,
so that I had no difficulty in slipping in the rope and securing it by
means of the button underneath.
Then, with a tingling of the flesh of my thighs and a mental prayer
for early deliverance, I stepped upon the blade, with a foot on either
side of the rope to which I clung grimly, and in a moment felt myself
going down into blackness.
The wheel turned gently under my weight, giving forth no creak or
scream; and the dark water below seemed to rise at me rather than
to wait my sinking toward it. But though the drip and slime of the pit
shut me in, there was action in all I was doing so matter-of-fact as to
half-cure me for the moment of superstitious terror.
Suddenly the wheel stopped with a little jerk and thud of the float
on which I stood against a bend in the tackle that passed through it.
Holding on thus—and, indeed, the tension necessary to the act
spoke volumes for my father’s vigor of endurance—the light from the
lantern flashed and glowed about the interior structure of the wheel
before me. Then, looking between the blades—for the periphery of
the great circle was not boxed in—I saw revealed to me in a moment
the secret I had come to investigate. For, firmly set in a hole dug in
the brick side of the chasm at a point so chosen within the sweep of
the wheel that no spoke traversed it when it lay motionless, and at
arm’s reach only from one standing on the paddle, was a vessel of
ancient pottery about a foot in height, and so smeared and dank with
slime as that a careless grasp on its rim might have sent the whole
treasure clattering and raining through the wheel into the water
below.
Cautiously I put out a hand, grasped and gently shook the jar. A
dull jingle came from it, and so my task was accomplished.
By this time, however, I was so confident of my position that I got
out the oil can and began to lubricate deliberately the further shaft
end of the wheel. While I was in the very act, a metallic glint, struck
by the lantern light from some object pinned on to the huge hub that
crossed the channel almost directly in front of my line of vision,
caught my eye and drove me to pause. I craned my neck to get a
nearer view, and gave so great a start of wonder as to lose my hold
of the oiler, which fell with clink and splash into the water underfoot.
Nailed to the great axle was something that looked like the
miniature portrait of a man; but it was so stained and flaked by years
of dark decay that the features were almost obliterated. The face had
been painted in enamel on an oval of fluxed copper; yet even this
had not been able to resist the long corrosion of the atmosphere in
which it was held prisoner.
I could make out only that the portrait was that of a young man of
fair complexion, thin, light-haired and dressed in the fashion of a
bygone generation. More I had not time to observe; for, as I gazed,
suddenly with a falling sway and a flicker the lantern at my waist
went out.
CHAPTER XLVI.
CAUGHT.

In the first horror of blackness I came near to letting go the rope


and falling from my perch on the blade. My brain went with a swing
and turn and a sick wave overwhelmed my heart and flooded all my
chest with nausea.
Was I trapped after all—and just when confidence seemed
established in me? For some evil moments I remained as I was, not
daring to move, to look up, even; blinded only by the immediate
plunge into cabined night, terrible and profound.
I had left the matches above. There was no rekindling of the lamp
possible. Up through the darkness I must climb—and how?
Then for the first time it occurred to me that my father’s directions
had not included the method of the return journey. Perhaps he had
thought it unnecessary. To clearer senses the means would have
been obvious—a scramble, merely, by way of the paddles, while the
wheel was held in position by the rope.
In the confusion of my senses I thought that my only way was to
swarm up the dangling rope; and, without doubt, such was a means,
if an irksome one, of escape. Only I should have left the tackle
anchored as it was to the wheel. This I did not do, but, moved by a
sudden crazy impulse, stooped and turned the button that held all in
place.
It was good fortune only that saved me then and there from the full
consequences of my act. For, pulled taut as it was, and well out of
the perpendicular, the moment it was released the rope swung
through the slit like a pendulum, carrying me, frantically clinging to it
with one hand, off the paddle. Then, before I had time to put out my
free hand to ward off the danger, clump against the wheel I came in
the return swing, and with such force that I was heavily bruised in a
dozen places and near battered from my hold.
Clawing and scratching like a drowning cat and rendered half-
stupid by the blow, I yet managed to grasp the rope with my other
hand, and so dangle there with little more than strength just to cling
on. Once I sought to ease the intolerable strain on my arms by
toeing for foothold on the paddle again, but the wheel, swinging free
now, slipped from under me, so that I was nearly jerked from my
clutch. Then there was nothing for it but to gather breath and pray
that power might come to me to swarm up the rope by and by.
Drooping my head as I hung panting, the blackness I had thought
impenetrable was traversed by the green glint of light below that I
have mentioned. The sight revived me in a moment. It was like a
draught of water to a fainting soldier. Now I felt some connectedness
of thought to be possible. With a bracing of all my muscles, I passed
my legs about the rope and began toilingly to drag myself upward.
I had covered half the distance, when I felt myself to be going
mad. How this was I cannot explain. The fight against material
difficulties had hitherto, it seemed, left tremors of the supernatural
powerless to move me. Now, in a moment, black horror had me by
the heart. That I should be down there—clambering from the depths
of that secret and monstrous pit, the very neighborhood of which had
always filled me with loathing, seemed a fact incredible in its
stupendous unnature. This may sound exaggerated. It did not seem
so to me then. Despite my manhood and my determination, in an
instant I was mastered and insane.
Still I clung to the rope and crawled upward. Then suddenly I saw
why night had fallen upon me in one palpable curtain when the
lantern was extinguished; for the door of the cupboard was closed.
Had it only swung to? But what air was there in the close room
beyond to move it?
Hanging there, like a lost and fated fiend, a bubble of wild, ugly
merriment rose in me and burst in a clap of laughter. I writhed and
shrieked in the convulsion of it; the dead vault rung with my
hysterical cries.
It ceased suddenly, as it had begun, and, grinding my teeth in a
frenzy of rage over the thought of how I had been trapped and
snared, I swung myself violently against the door, and, letting go my
hold at the same instant, burst it open with the force of my onset and
rolled bleeding and struggling on the floor of the room beyond.
After a minute or two I rose into a sitting posture, leaning on one
hand, half-stunned and half-blinded. A dense and deadly silence
about me; but this was penetrated presently by a fantastic low
whispering sound at my back, as if there were those there that
discussed my fate. I turned myself sharply about. Dull emptiness
only of rotting floor and striding rafter, and the gathered darkness of
wall corners.
The sense of fanciful murmuring left me, and in its place was born
a sound as of something stealthily crossing the floor away from me.
At the same instant the door of the room, which I had left open,
swung softly to on its hinges, and I was shut in.
Then, with a fear that I cannot describe, I knew that the question
was to be put to me once more, and that I was destined to die under
the torture of it.
I had no hope of escape—no thought that the passion that
prompted me to self-effacement might, diverted, carry me to the door
in one hard dash for light and liberty. The single direction in which
my mind moved unfettered was that bearing upon the readiest
means to my purpose—to die, and thereto what offered itself more
insistently than the black pit I had but now risen from? A run—a leap
—a shattering dive—and the murmuring water and oblivion would
have me forevermore.
I turned and faced the dark gulf. I pressed my hands to my
bursting temples to still the throb of the arteries that was blinding me.
Then, spasmodically, my feet moved forward a pace or two; I gave a
long, quivering sigh; my arms dropped inert, and a blessed warmth
of security gushed over all my being.
Pale; luminous; most dear and pitiful, an angel stood before the
opening and barred my way. A shadow only—but an angel; a spirit
come from the sorrowful past to save me, as I, alas! had never
saved her.
I fell on my knees and held out my arms to her, with the drowning
tears falling over my cheeks. I could not speak, but only moan like a
child for cheer and comfort. And she smiled on me—the angel
smiled on me, as Dolly, sweet and loving, had smiled of old. Oh,
God! Oh, God! Thus to permit her to come from over the desolate
waste for solace of my torment!
Was all this only figurative of the warring clash of passion and
conscience? The presence was to me actual and divine. It led me, or
seemed to lead, from the mouthing death—across the room—out by
the open door, that none had ever shut; and then it was no longer
and I stood alone in the gusty passage.
I stood alone and cured forever of the terror of that mad and
gloomy place, whose influence had held me so long enthralled.
Henceforth I was quit of its deadly malice. I knew it as certainly as
that I was forgiven for my share in a most bitter tragedy that had
littered the shore of many lives with wreckage. For me, at least, now,
the question was answered—answered by the dear ghost of one
whose little failings had been washed pure in the bountiful spring of
life.
Presently, moved by the sense of sacred security in my heart, I
passed once more into the room of silence—not with bravado, but
strong in the good armor of self-reliance. I closed and locked the
door of the cupboard and walked forth again, feeling no least tremor
of the nerves—conscious of nothing to cause it. Thence I went out to
the platform, and, levering up the sluice, heard the water discharge
itself afresh into the hollow-booming channel that held the secret of
the wheel.
And now, indeed, that my thoughts were capable of some order of
progression, that very secret rose and usurped the throne of my
mind, deposing all other claimants.
What weird mystery attached to the portrait nailed to the axle?
That it was placed there by my father I had little doubt; but for what
reason and of whom was it?
I recalled his wild command to me to never make reference to
aught my eyes might chance to light upon, other than the treasure I
had gone to seek. In that direction, then, nothing but silence must
meet me.
Of whom was the portrait, and what the mystery?
On the thought, the attenuated voice of old Peggy came from the
kitchen hard by in a cracked and melancholy stave of her favorite
song:
“I washed my penknife in the stream—
Heigho!
I washed my penknife in the stream.
And the more I washed it the blood gushed out—
All down by the greenwood side, O!”
Old Peggy! When had she first established her ghoulish reign over
us? Had she been employed here in my mother’s time? I only knew
that I could not dispart her ancient figure and the mill in my memory.
I pushed open the door and walked into the kitchen. She was
sitting darning by the frouzy little window—a great pair of spectacles
on her bony nose—and looked at me with an eye affectedly vacant,
as if she were a vicious old parrot speculating upon the most
opportune moment for a snap at me.
“That’s a pretty song, Peggy,” I said.
“And a pretty old ’ooman to sing it,” she answered.
“Were you ever young, Peggy?”
“Not that I remembers. I were barn wi’ a wrinkle in my brow like a
furrow-drain, and two good teeth in my headpiece.”
“I dare say. How old were you when you first came here?”
“How old? Old enow and young enow to taste wormwood in the
sarce gleeted fro’ three Winton brats.”
“That’s no answer, you know. What’s your present age?”
“One hundred, mebbe.”
“Was Modred born when you came?”
“Born? Eighteen bard months, to my sorrow. A rare gross child, to
be sure; wi’ sprawling fat puds like the feet o’ them crocodillies in the
show.”
If Peggy could be trusted, I had got an answer which barred
further pursuit in that direction. She could never, I calculated, have
been personally acquainted with my mother or the circumstances of
the latter’s death. Indeed, I could not imagine her tolerated in a
house over which any self-respecting woman presided.
Elsewhere I must look for some solution of the puzzle that had
added its complexity to a life already laboring under a burden of
mystery.
But in the meantime, an older vital question re-reared its head
from the very hearthstone of the mill, whereon it had lain so long in
stupor that I might have fancied it dead.
CHAPTER XLVII.
SOME ONE COMES AND GOES.

November had come, with early frosts that flattened the


nasturtiums in the town gardens and stiffened belated bees on the
Michaelmas daisies, that were the very taverns of nature to lure
them from their decent homes.
This year the complacent dogmatism of an ancient proverb was
most amply justified by results:
“Be there ice in November that ’ill bear a duck,
There’ll be nothing after but sludge and muck.”
The bellying winds of December were to drive up such clouds of
rain and storm that every gully in the meadows was to join its
neighbor in one common conspiracy against the land, and every
stream to overrun its banks, swollen with the pride of hearing itself
called a flood.
I had been reading one bright morning to my father until he fell
asleep, and was sitting on pensively with the book in my hand, when
I became aware of a step mounting the stairs below and pausing at
the sitting-room door. I rose softly at once, and, descending, came
plump upon Dr. Crackenthorpe, just as he was crossing the
threshold to enter.
He was very sprucely dressed, for him, with a spray of ragged
geranium in his button-hole; and this, no less than the mere fact of
his presence in the house, filled me with a momentary surprise so
great that I had not a word to say. Only I bowed him exceedingly
politely into the parlor and civilly asked his business.
An expression of relief crossed his face, I thought, as though he
had been in two minds as to whether I should take him by the collar
and summarily eject him there and then.
“I haven’t seen your father about lately,” he jerked out, with some
parody of a smile that, I concluded, was designated to propitiate. “I
called to inquire if the old gentleman was unwell.”
“He is practically an invalid,” I said; “he keeps entirely to his own
room.”
“Indeed? I am concerned. Nothing serious, I trust? My services, I
need not say, are at the command of so valued an old friend.”
“He needs no services but mine. It is the debility of old age, I fear
—nothing more.”
“Yet he is a comparatively young man. But it’s true that to
mortgage one’s youth too heavily is to risk the premature foreclosing
of old age.”
“I dare say. Was there any other object in your visit?”
“One other—frankly.”
He held out a damp hand to me. It shook rather.
“I’m tired of this duel of cross-purposes. Will you agree to cry an
armistice—peace, if you like?”
I took him in from head to foot—a little to his discomfiture, no
doubt.
“Is this pure philanthropy, Dr. Crackenthorpe?” I said.
“Most pure and disinterested,” said he. “I claim, without offense,
the grievance as mine, and I am the first to come forward and cry.
Let there be an end to it.”
“Not so fast. You start on a fundamental error. A grievance, as I
take it, can only separate friends. There can be no question of such
a misunderstanding between us, for we have always been enemies.”
“That’s your fancy,” cried he; “that’s your mistaken fancy! I’m not
one to wear my heart on my sleeve. If I’ve always repressed show of
my innate regard for you, you’re not to think it didn’t exist.”
“Why waste so many words? That’s a good form of regard, to act
the bulldog to us, as you always did. It was a chastening sense of
duty, I suppose, that induced you to leave me for years under an
ugly stigma when you knew all the time that I was innocent. Is your
valued friendship for the old man best expressed by blackmailing
and robbing him on the strength of a fragment of circumstantial
evidence?”
“I have made myself particeps criminis. Does that go for nothing?
A little consideration was due to me there. A moiety of the treasure
he was squandering, I took advantage of my influence to secure in
trust for his children. You shall have it all back again some day, and
should show me profound gratitude in place of sinister disbelief.”
“A fine cheapening of cupidity, and well argued. How long were
you thinking it out?”
“As to that question of the suspicions you labored under—
remember that any conclusion drawn from circumstances was
hypothetical. I may have had a professional opinion as to the cause
of death, and a secret one as to the means employed. That was
conjecture; but if you are fair, you will confess that, by running away
to London, you did much to incriminate yourself in men’s minds.”
“I never looked upon it in that light.”
“I dare say not. Innocence, from its nature, may very often stultify
itself. I think you innocent now. Then I was not so certain. It was not,
perhaps, till your father sought to silence me, that my suspicions
were diverted into a darker channel.”
“You put a good case,” I said, amazed at the man’s plausibility.
“You might convince one who knew less of you.”
“You can prove nothing to my discredit. This is all the growth of
early prejudice. Think that at any moment I might have denounced
him and left the proof of innocence on his shoulders.”
“And killed the goose with the golden eggs? I am not altogether
childish, Dr. Crackenthorpe, or quite ignorant of the first principles of
law. In England the burden of proof lies on the prosecution. How
would you have proceeded?”
“I should at least have eased my conscience of an intolerable load
and escaped the discomforting reflection that I might be considered
an accessory after the fact.”
“As indeed you are in the sight of heaven by your own showing,
though I swear my father is as innocent of the crime as I am.”
He shrugged his shoulders with a deprecating gesture.
“Anyhow, my position shows my disinterestedness,” he said.
“And you are growing frightened over it, it seems. Well, take
whatever course pleases you. From our point of view, here, I feel
quite easy as to results.”
“You misapprehend me. This visit is actuated by no motive but that
of friendliness. I wish to bury the hatchet and resume the pleasant
relations that existed of old.”
“They were too one-sided. Besides, all the conditions changed
upon my return.”
“And no one regretted it more than I. I have from the first been
your true friend, as I have attempted to show. You have a valuable
inheritance in my keeping. Indeed”—he gave a sort of high
embarrassed titter—“it would be to your real advantage to hand the
residue over to me before he has any further opportunity of
dissipating it.”
I broke into a cackle of fierce laughter.
“So,” I cried, “the secret is out! I must compliment you on a most
insatiable appetite. But, believe me, you have more chance of
acquiring the roc’s egg than the handful!”
He looked at me long and gloomily. I could feel rather than hear
him echo: “The handful.” But he made a great effort to resume his
conciliatory tone when he spoke again.
“You jump to hot-headed conclusions. It was a simple idea of the
moment, and as you choose to misinterpret it, let it be forgotten. The
main point is, are we to be friends again?”
“And I repeat that we can’t resume what never existed. This
posturing is stupid farce that had best end. Shall we make the
question conditional? That cameo, that you have come into
possession of—we won’t hazard a supposition by what means—
restore it, at least, to its rightful owner as an earnest of your single-
mindedness. I, who am to inherit it in the end, give you full
permission.”
He started back, and his face went the color of a withered aspen
leaf.
“It’s mine,” he cried, shrilly. “I wouldn’t part with it to the queen!”
“See then! What am I to believe?”
I walked close up to him. His fingers itched to strike me, I could
see.
“Dr. Crackenthorpe,” I said, “you had best have spared yourself
this errand. Why, what a poor scamp you must be to think to take me
in with such a fusty trick. Make the most of what you’ve got. You’ll
not have another stiver from us. Look elsewhere for a victim. Your
evil mission in life is the hounding of the wretched. Mine, you know.
Some clews are already in my hand, and, if there is one man in the
world I should rejoice to drag down—you are he!”
He walked to the door, and, turning, stamped his foot furiously
down on the boards.
“You bitter dolt!” he roared, with a withering sneer. “Understand
that the chance I gave you is withdrawn forever. There are means—
there are means; and I——”
He stopped; gulped; put his hand to his throat, and walked out of
the house without another word.
I stood looking after him, all blazing with anger. No least fear of the
evil creature was in me, but only a blank fierce astonishment that he
should thus have dared to brave me on my own ground. What
cupidity was that, indeed, that could not only think to gloss over long
years of merciless torment by a few false suave words, but could
actually hope to find the profit of his condescension in a post-
prandial gorging of the fragments his inordinate gluttony of avarice
had passed over!
However, putting all thought of him from me, I returned to my
father.

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