Show F THE Fin BUBBLE OF DREAMS bREAMS BY WILL IRWIN 1 IJ 01 t i III I y yI t I 37 0 I A J r f I Iw w L Iii fit JiT z fAT It I q i h 4 v y 7 F I 7 Even my magic wand cant conjure up fresh meat and milk on Fire Island In December Fire island telegraph tower was rock I nr eg and dancing In a December wind ind off eff ef the Atlantic which had turned as a eight tame came on Into a 8 gale Except for forthe forthe forthe the chance respite of or a January thaw FIre Island last outpost st of ol the United States Bides for outgoing vessels first sight of home for the incoming would be un ti W t JUr Marh h a lost loet and Isolated corner of the world There would be no newspapers newspaper per pen no letters letteri only the one telegraph ky ke to keep a score of people In touch with New York that of ot their solitude whose lights on or If winter evenings made a aba ba baze elong elon the northwestern horizon In darkness the tower appeared only at as a a splotch ot of light away awa up In n the theair theIr theair air Ir In the regular sweeping flashes of ot the revolving light It appeared as a closed of painted steel rising ninety feet from the sand hill hilt at Its base to the little room all blazing win windows dows do of its summit Summer and win winter winter winter ter the lights behind those windows turn burn all oil night and all night a man manth with th a telescope sits within that New Tork nay May know over Its breakfast cof coffee cofta fee ta how thi liner has been sighted bringing home botne the girls how ho that schooner Is la off otT Fre Island bland with cargoes for the firm His feet flet on the desk beside his toTe tole graph laph key a cushion rush Ion behind him for Jor tom tort Woodford the operator sat gat studying law Presently an alarm clock at it his hl elbow overlaid with curious con contrivances of electric wires gave gae a sharp Ting MOl He dropped his feet from the desk closed Pollock on Torts kicked hut the door of his fierce little stove md nd TOssed crossed to one of the wooden chutes which kept kett the wind from his hla long telescope As he opened the lid lida t a race of wind plunged in stinging his face tse with sand and spume blown from the beach high as a swallow flies mes De tending his hH cheeks with a handkerchief handkerchief chief he hI lid trained his glass on that cor corlIer lIer of or the horizon from which incoming 1856 first m show their lights took a lorR lorg lor look closed the chute Then ho JIO peer d through an unfrosted corner of the seaward leaward window and watched the as It became visible I In the fleshes flashes of or the t e revolving r light Because i it was vas December and he had another on Fire Island bland to face there raire rane t I ever e him again that terror of or the th f tvan Otan an alaI aid of ot loneliness which he had ft feit all tat last winter his first on Fire Island IMand Hn His Hi was an especial loneliness that fiat night for Burke his assistant a graduate surf man who ho handled a tel key ky kp like a belaying bela pin had b bei n al ed ashore with the last boat to the mainland Burkes wife who m io winter away from the Island as si silk sik k If It the Ice lee held hard Burke n be bp h able to get back when she by n R scooter that queer raft Craft is half iceboat and half and master of both ice and water Burkes return Wood fr r rd l by snatches of or an hour arr ar 1 a PI on his hla alarm clock to akl k hun fur observations must keep th all l night and all day da The general manager had assigned mm hIm ht M t Fire Island on his own t m H n J wa studying law he wanted to t bl b DC i re rt than a telegraph operator om J He lie H knew of this billet away aay ala u ut in Ii ij t s pan little to do except to kp p n solitude which would dm ir him to study stud r U It h i nt t been so hard the first first sum lr TI 11 the old operator was train In is hh how hw to catch l tle the topmast of easels to make out their ICI 3 r the unskilled landsman f even a speck on the horizon horizons Iah nere ere al s a summer hotel down on the II c nip parties made their way wa r rom rm m the mainland of Sundays n lid na Ugh Woodford did not care car rueh rUch fr foT the th kind of ot people they the ti rl and aid especially for the tho kind of th gave gae ave an air of or anti and company compan i r tn t tho t beach r came Caine and went The hotel Ise 11 If the I BUrke B It excursions came no more a urb 1 sp nt his hi family over to Babylon 1 vie hI bay ba and winter locked the IaM that t There here came storms like Ilke the one onet t rn s was w S ex king the tower tonight When nen it swayed as in an earth quake h hn it took all his ki manhood to tot th t P him m up there on his perch p And lie ea was full of strange stran e whispering I I the time night air alive with th the e int r colony there were the lle at the lifesaving sta station on a T th the lighthouse people he lie Burk urk re A Among M f them all aU were just lust 1 One n wa wag the wife of the thc theu 1 at th the station a hard and he hehr Ollan she u capable Capable of ot swimming ouI th ti I hr breakers b k ers to Stel J rescue an ex exan i fr a fool an and of slapping him 0 at ater r when hen Tn she had hafi Pu pumped Ped the thc out o of him head Captain Baxter the Se keeper was th tb two t a widower th r h 1 grown d daughters when uhe 1 en th first l lon longIngs n of ot soll soil r tame ramp over Oer him had hadt t th through P sand d and aUd SnOW to C cal Baxter axt girls M of 0 1 an evening Lt we 1 a little surprised n teed Their was hi his watch off sat In the room all through the visit and did most i of oj the talking He learned in time that solitude begets the habit of solitude that by b a n kind of perverse etiquette these exiles never troubled one another except In time of or necessity 1 It was perhaps January and the season had settled down over Fire Island when the hardest pain of or soil soJI tude came c me upon Woodford It began as a longing which made him quiet and moody drove droe the law out of his head as fast as he learned it sent him on long walks In which he bucked the At Atlantic Atlantic Atlantic lantic winds until the breath was out of or his lungs Hatred of ot the solitude became an Insanity Burke used to watch him sometimes of o nights Youre too much said Burke One night he added Its HIts the girl idea youve got In your our head Ive had it Just to stad on Broadway or maybe mabe even een in Jamaica or Babylon and arid see women passing and think about somebody to take care of you rou and tidies on the backs of the chairs and the helping hand when youre oure sick You aint four yet youre ouro young for this kind of thing When Thien hen he had chewed upon this and convinced himself that Burke was right Woodford had done a sweetly foolish thing Although he h b was waa a n t pleasing youth with a fine clean lean face a aI I code of honor square and ani true rue if f un undeveloped developed v and gentle manners manner tier there had never been any girt girl really riy into i fl life He resolved resoled to make a girl to create her out of thin Js girl Step tep by b step he built her up tip She was tall taU talland and dark She had all aU a mans vir virtues virtues tues tu s with all a omans womans comeliness and sweetness She liked all the things he liked books and sailing salling and doors He decided to call caU her Helen because he hf liked that name So every night and especially on the nights when the longing was strong upon him he wrote TOtE to Helen His fancies born of the bright winter air how ho the as aspect aspect aspect of ot the Atlantic changed day by day da the ways wa s and doings of ot Burke his Mi own longings and aspirations and hopes all these he set down for her Now winter and solitude were before him again ln It would be his last l st winter on Fire Island he consoled himself with that Would Helen tide him through he wondered He looked up at atthe atthe atthe the compartment w ere he kept the letters She was growing a little dim He could not seem to imagine her so plainly aa as In the early days of or their fairy fall Intimacy He the law book however drew a packet of or paper toward him and began Dear ar Helen Presently he looked up from his writ writing writIng ing and sat pen in mouth sensible that there was something wrong In the reg regular regular regular ular rocking vibration of ot the tower It is as though some one were shak shaking shaking shaking ing the door downstairs he said aloud and his own voice oIce came tame out of the soli aol solitude solitude tude with a ghostly queerness Qu erness Am AmI I 1 getting g the bug again It was a foolish idea but It stuck so that shaking a shoulder Impatiently at athis athis athis his own folly he took tok his hi lantern slipped through the manhole and plod plodded plodded plodded ded down the spiral staircase that wound perilously through the closed tower As he unbolted Its single ledoor door he was w vaguely vague ashamed to think that his night terrors were coming back ISo So quite angry with himself he threw It violently open The lantern went out with th the rush of or ofa ora ofa a mighty wind As though blown be before before before fore the gale In tumbled a dark body that struck him full in tn the tho chest stag stal staggered staggered ered him and Itself slipped and fell feU at athis athis athis his feet With the astonishment he war Wu sun still a moment there in the dark darkness darkness ness nes He Hp waited for tor the sound of ot a movement there was none So gathering his nerve he forced the door shut against the wind and lighted a match The Th figure lay where It had fallen failed Justa bundle of or wet rags Before the match had burned to his fingers he made it out to be bea a woman He lit Ut the lantern held It above aboe her Wonder held him only a n moment He tore at the stiff stitt furs Her heart was wag beating His HI first thought was to get gether gether her hr to light Tight and warmth The fire fife in his cabin was out but he had a fire In the room above He gathered her a dead weight and up the shaking stair he tolled toiled Twice the failure of his breath made him stop and rest He HI had left let his hi lantern but at the second stop he felt her flutter She hune closer to him seemed med to Tighten lighten in his arms with witt returning life if Collecting the last strength In his body he pushed open the trap door of the manhole with his head reeled Into his tower room and dropped her on the sofa As he h stood off regaining his breath and ard getting the reeling back In his hl arms he saw her eyelids opeL ope She half bait turned put one hand t to her face with a n pretty feminine gesture Wonder flowed in on him again She was no daughter of the beach whom he had hd found here on Fire island The ankle beneath her skirts where whre one foot had fallen lUen f from the sofa was delicate and slender lender So o were the wrists above her little brown gloves Her Hr H r furs and her turban were expensive even a could see that She was as moving again He H the bottle of ot whisky which Burke kept kep In 10 the cupboard rosa sacred red to emer emergencies emergencies Woodford poured out a glass glassful glassful glassful ful and diluted it with some idea that thata a woman wom n could not stana tand its He full tull i strength Tenderly but awkwardly he lie lifted her and put the glass to her lips Drink he commanded Her eyes peeped open at the word She gulped It like a child and nd coughed He took off her furs rubbed her wrists And pres presently presently presently she spoke How good you jOU are she said Your Tour hands arc are as gentle as a womans i Are you hurt anywhere he asked She moved her limbs tentatively I 1 think k not But how do I come to tobe tobe o obe be so 80 wet and cold Let me see aee ee your our do they the tingle or are they dead when I pinch them Oh no she answered quickly I Iam Iam Iam am not frostbitten I am sure I know frostbite Then you must get out of Dr those clothes as soon as you OU can enn Mrs Burke Burken a n woman who lives below has left some tim going get them now 1 fd af lh hata t away Y get too tot cl t l tire fire he C from the n p lila Ills rm Jull full of oft t rom the Burite Burk ard robe a on tHe I 1 did I could You to put up with th my golf stockings and Ive le brought my rain coat to go over oer everything Heres a knife to cut things away awa which Ji h wont come quickly be because because cause you must hurry and not think of 01 cloth S Youre quite sure that youre enough en c cOh Oh On f I think thinks so soOne o One more This Is a tele telegraph telegraph graph office and ana a akey keys key I l have havea a recel i in r my house hons below When youre ready for Cor me rattle the time key He was gone go e through the trap door again When Then he had threaded the time stair fought the wind for the e passage to uia I cabin found a light tho and sat down d wn be beside b side the key wonder flowed in on him again Who was she and most m st of all hll how did she get there Unless she was indeed a fairy Cairy a vision of the night what with the bewilderment of that ghost land of his he was almost ready to believe that she was the only possible ble passage was vas to Point o 0 Woods by bJ scooter Given that some scooter cap captain tain tam had been fool enough to try tr it no woman alive could have beaten down the six miles of Intervening beach against such a gale What Vh t unimaginable unimaginable in able circumstance had sent him through the snows that flower of wo womanhood womanhood manhood so he flushed at the tho thought was running in and out of his mind against his will so like Helen If this was a vision he would not break the spell He H would wait walt for her to tell him who she was and how she happened to be on Fire Island The receiver beside him rattled with the touch of an unpracticed hand As AI Ashe Ashe he climbed the stairs he was afraid lest she should burst out at once and tell telI him everything When W en he be poked his hT head through the trap door she was buttoning the throat latch of his great raincoat It fell to her feet teet giving only a n frontal glimpse of ot Mrs 1 Burkes black silk skirt She he had rolled up the sleeves leeves which were w ere re inches too long These details detail he saw later for tor he was stopped and held by b 1 the expression of oC her eyes They were looking straight nt at t hIm with a frank baby stare but there was wall terror in the look Jook too and something else some something thing Indefinable chilling Not until afterward did he understand that ex expression expression expression It meted melted presently present into the lights and dimples of a smile I must look ridiculous she said Well hardly that he answered She became a little confused confuse t he thought and she covered it by bt turning toward his book shelves As A a t new gust rattled sand and spume against the time windows she he looked back over her shoulder and asked ask Tell me what makes your building I shake so I 1 was almost frightened 4 when you ou were away awa Oh I forgot You Tou ou notice when t when you came up We Ye are ninety feet in the air In the air Were at the top of a tower She laughed like a child and turned to peer through the seaward windows A Abroad Abroad broad white hit streamer from the Uie light lighthouse lighthouse lighthouse house edged Its Ita way along the the sands Kinds and illumined the th ocean cean before them showing the breakers reaching up to toward toward toward ward the time sea fringe of pr the land Oh pea and that the sea fea wind tt our windows How Hov It almost al makes ke keme me coW cold again She shuddered and ml back t ro b the book shelves Somehow Im n t afraid she added For half a minute she stood fingering the book O U IT fl l A Ji 3 1 j A Jl AOh Oh Spenser And Ive Jve a acour course in InI I him this term She Sh went en from book bock to book patting pat them coo cooIng |