Riders of the Pale Horse Read Online Free PDF

use it up in a matter of days.”
    â€œMonths,” Wade corrected. “It was a pretty large sum of money.”
    The parson stifled a rebuke and instead ordered, “Go find the manifest. I am sure our Mr. Robards would like to see what we wish for him to carry.”
    As soon as the door closed behind Wade, Reverend Phillips leaned closer and said, “I want you to take that young man with you.”
    â€œInsurance, sure.”
    The parson showed confusion. “I beg your pardon?”
    â€œAs insurance that the goods arrive where they’re supposed to,” Robards said. “No problem.”
    â€œOh yes. Of course. Of course.” The parson gathered himself. “I absolutely must have some peace and quiet around here. You saw the disorder he causes. It is the same day in and day out. I simply cannot carry out my work under such conditions. Things cannot be allowed to continue as they are.”

    Wade Waters would never have described himself as a missionary. A missionary in his eyes was somebody who knew enough about God, the Bible, and plain simple faith to feel a sense of purpose. Wade was far too honest to consider himself a good Christian. As far as he was concerned, he was where he was not by design, not even by chance, but rather by sheer mistake.
    Wade’s mother had spent his early years convincing everyone within reach that she was a legend in her own time. Dinner parties were a chance to place Wade on a pedestal and proclaim, “See what I raised, the missionary-to-be, no doubt he’ll go off somewhere and give his life to the unwashed heathens.” She had made monumental scenes at family gatherings over her baby boy’s upcoming demise in darkest wherever. Wade had endured it all with quiet resignation and the feeling that he had learned to hold his breath for hours.
    His father was a lab technician, a nearsighted, quiet littleman who felt distinctly ill at ease with anything that could not be studied at the safe distance of a microscope. He had watched his son grow from embryo to teenager with rising confusion, never interfering with his wife’s ideas of child rearing.
    In his final year of high school, Wade had emerged twice from his own protective shell of silence. The first time had come after a ringing sermon from a visiting minister, on a Sunday when his mother had been bedridden with the flu, when he had walked forward and given his life to Christ. The second time had been when he had adamantly refused to remain at home and go to the local university, opting rather for an upstate Christian college. His mother had stomached this surprising burst of independence only because such an education would prepare her boy for his chosen destiny.
    But throughout his college days, Wade felt as if he was a little gray shadow flitting through a scary gray world. He didn’t fit in anywhere. He never felt God’s guiding hand. In fact, Wade was basically convinced there was nothing inside him of any real interest to anyone—not to his parents, not other students, and certainly not to God. He looked into other students’ shining eyes, heard the fervor and joy in their voices, and decided he just wasn’t important enough for God to waste much time over.
    Strangely enough, however, he never saw in any of this a reason to doubt God’s existence. Nor did he question his own sense of eternal salvation. Wade more or less decided all he had to do was endure the next sixty or seventy years, and then eternity would be as much his as the next guy’s. In his darker moments of lonely wishing, it was almost enough.
    Pushed by feelings he could not understand, Wade studied public health and minored in French and Spanish. Having nothing better to do, he signed up for optional courses at the local college of nursing. To his surprise, Wade showed a strong aptitude for the work. He loaded up his last two years, and earned dual degrees in public health and