Show The EVERLASTING 1 I S PER P E II By J Gregory gory Copyright by by- c Charles Crl s Sons on Service CHAPTER 11 I 1 II It t 1 I tIT TT IT WAS springtime In the California California Cali Cali- L fornia Sierra Never were skies bluer never ne did the golden sun flood steep the endless forest lands In richer life giving glory It was early June and thus far only had the springtime advanced In Its vernal progress upward through the timbered timbered timbered tim tim- soU solitudes tudes While sitting with his back against a n tawny cedar the man bad had been drawn drown Into the entity of the wilderness to which b obviously he be belonged The worn well-worn tall laced boots were of brown leather much scuffed one In color with the soil dusting them The Tho khaki trousers gathered Into the tops boot the soft flannel shirt were the brown of the tree trunks skin of hands and face and muscular throat were the bronze of ot ripe pine-cones pine and burnished burnished burnished bur bur- pine needles p pHe He stood looking out across the and nad so to the final bulwark against the sky still sUll white with last December He sought landmarks and measured distance not In miles mUes I but In hours bours Then he glanced briefly at nt the sun The eyes which had been keen and alert filled suddenly suddenly suddenly sud sud- I denly with a shining brightness He pl picked ked up his hat and a small canvas canas roll rol And yet again with his hat bat In his hand he stood mo mo- Slowly he drew back Into the shadows to watch and not be seen For abruptly two figures had appeared appeared ap ap- appeared ap- ap upon the rocky head of the mountainside across the lake Inke They had come up from the further furtner side and when he saw them first stood cut clear against the sky They might have hare been hunters since each carried a rifle The two figures separated one goIng goIng go- go Ing tag along the crest of ot the ridge the theother theother other climbing downward cautiously cautious cautIous- ly until he stood at the edge of ot the cliff He cr craned led his body to look ook lookdown down clown as though seeking a way to the lake straightened and star starTed stared d for fora forn a n long time toward the snow t tops ps of the more distant altitudes He turned and mu must t have haye said something something some some- something thing to his companion who leaped down from the b boulder ulder and came to his side The second man man towered over oyer hl him head and shoulders They talked together and yet the I Ionly only sound to c carry rry across the lake Inke and meadow was the rush of air ah through the Innumerable tree The smaller man pointed his arm held steadily The other drew nearer towering above him hini He too pointed or seemed about to point From a distance they looked like one man now It was with star startling tUng abruptness that the two figures were torn apart each cach resolved again Into an Indi IndI- vidual One the towering man had drawn suddenly back the other was falling And yet the silence was unbroken There was never neer a cry or echo through the g gorges from the herror horror horror hor her clutched throat The falling man plunged down a dozen feet teet struck against a ragged rock writhed free fell again a few feet and began to roll over oer and over oyer plunging down the steep flank of th the mountain The man who had watched from across the lake Inke had not stirred The big man on the cliffs came back slowly tc ti brink and crouched there looking down motionless motionless mo mo- mo- mo so long that It was hard for forthe forthe forthe I the eye to be sure of him to know 1 if It were really a human being or ora ora ora I a poised boulder squatting there Then ho stood up holding his hl rifle He had done with looking down now he pivoted slowly lookIng lookIng look look- I Ing off ort In all other directions Presently Presently Pres- Pres I J he began climbing back up the few tew feet teet to the like knife-like crest from which ho lie had descended not five minutes ago He lIe paused for hardly more than an Instant and then went on down the further side out of ot sight The man who had seen all this from his own slope caught up his canvas canas roll roU again and hurried down don toward the lake For the first time he be s spoke oke aloud saying Swen Brodle Theres There's not another another an an- other man In the mountains brute enough for that He Be hastened on taking the shortest shortest short short- est eEl way making nothing of ot the steepest slopes He was going soing straight to the man who had fallen faIlen The sun was appreciably lower when the man carrying the roll roIl earnest at last under the cliffs cUlls Before Before Be lie fore his keen eyes found the manthey man manthey manthey they sought he heard a n voice calling faintly That you Brodle No Brodle's Brodies gone The voice though very ery weak sharpened perceptibly You who are you Not Brodie I INo No rot Not Brodie Brodle He TIe dropped his roll and began begat I his way through th the I bushes Presently be he came to a aspot t L I spot from which he could see a figure figlure figlure fig fig- lure ure propped up against a tree 1 Oh Its It's you Is It King The The man against the tree did not seem overjoyed t there was a sullen note In his voice olce King came on breaking his way way through the brush Hello he said a little taken back Its ICs yo you Is It I thought It would wO be be- be But he did not say who He came on and stood over oyer the man on the ground stooping for foran foran an nn Instant to peer close Into his face tace Hurt Burt much he asked aske The answer was a long time com corn ing The face was bloodlessly I gray A tongue ran back and forth I between the colorless lipsIts lipsIts lips Ups Its my ray leg he said I 1 dont don't know If Its It's broke And Im I'm sort of ot bunged up He Be looked up sharply Oh Til rn be all right he grunted and dont don't you fool your your- self Did Brodle Brodle- The man began to tremble Yes rot his soul He lIe began to curse at first softly then with a straI strained ed voice olce rising Into a storm of ot windy Incoherence Suddenly he broke off oft eyeing King with suspicion upon the surface of his shallow eyes What are you after I 1 came to see 1 If I could lend you youa a hand You Yon know I dont don't mean menn that i I The Man Against the Tree Did Not Seem Overjoyed I What are you after here In the mountains King grew angry and burst out bluntly The devil take you Andy Park Park- e er r I wanted to help you If you dont don't take my Interference kin kindly dIy I Ill I'll ll be on my way He turned to be off oft If It the fellow fel- fel l low ow was able to shift shUt for himself I It t suited King Icing well enough But Parker called to him and In an altered voice a whine running t through the words Hold on King rm Im hung up here acre for the night an anyhow how And AndI I aint got a bite of grub and already already already al al- al- al ready Im I'm burning up with thirst Get et me a drink will you i King found where a trickle of clear cold water ran In a narrow rivulet and presently returned to the Injured man with a brimming cup cuI Parker drank thirstily and sank back with a long sigh The things thing's unlucky you know King he said queerly Is It said King coolly It was like him not to pretend that he ho did not know to what Andy Parkers Parker's thoughts had flown Parker arker Jerked his head up and muttered Theres been the devils devil's luck on onit onIt it It for tor moren sixty years and maybe maybe maybe may may- be a thousand nd years before betor that I 1 Oh you know knowl 1 He paused and then spat out venomously Oh It'll get Swen Brodie and It'll get I you too Mark King ICing You'll see sec I King went for more water this time filling his one cook pot When L he returned Parker was trying to stand He ITe swayed and fell feIl King standing over him thought at first he was dead dea so white and still stUl was he But Parker had only fainted And despite all that Mark King KIn could do the sunset glow had gone gon and the first star was shining before be before f fore re Andy Parker stirred His first call caU was for tor water Thereafter he was never neer coherent again though for ine ie most pan part parthe he babbled like Uke a noisy brook He Ec spoke of ot Swen Brodle Brodie and old Loon Loony Honeycutt and Gus Ingle all In on one breath and King knew that Gu Gus Ingle was sixty years dead h he dwelt deIt hectically on the luck of th the i unlucky Seven Seen And when fur far on or i In the night he at length grew silent silent si sI- I I I lent and King went vent to peer Into his hL 3 face by the light of his fire camp j Andy Parker Panker was dead j Mark Hark King made the grave grae In the thi J dawn He Be put pot his own blanket blanke j I down laid the quiet figure gently gentl r j I upon It bringing the ends over oer h to i j cover er him He lIe marked the spot t i with a pile of ot rocks he blazed tb the a two trees It was all that he lie could coul I Ido do far more than An Andy y Parker Parke r j would have hare done for him or for an any any other man The sun was rising when he made his way to the top of the rIdge and came to stand where he had seen Parker and Swen Brodle BrodIe side by side Just where had BrodIe Brodle gone He wondered Tho The answer came before the question could have been put into words He saw the flare of a fire camp shining bright through the dark of a lying low-lying flat two miles or more from his vantage vantage van tan tage point Brodle Brodie would be cookIng cooking cooking cook cook- ing his breakfast now After that King moved moed along the ridge steadily and swiftly like a aman aman man with a definite objective who did slid not care to be spied on In twenty minutes he came to the disintegrating dIsintegratIng disintegrating dis dIs- dis- dis integrating ruin of ot a cabin Here he made his breakfast from what was ready cooked In his pack dispensing with the fire which would Inevitably Ine tell BrodIe Brodle of ot his presence Kings King's first Interest was centered on the ground under underfoot foot He Ho went back and forth and about the ruin of ot the cabin several times seeking any sign that would tell him If it BrodIe Brodlo and Andy Parker had been here before him But there were no tracks In the softer soil soli no trodden down grass It was very likely that no foot had come here since Kings King's own last October A Alook Alook look of satisfaction shone for an Instant In his 1115 eyes He Be was sure that he had left no sign of his bis visit here not so much muchas as a fallen faIlen crust of ot bread caught up hi his pack and found the familiar way down the cliffs cUffs striking 01 off toward toward to to- ward the higher mountains and the high pass through which he would travel tra tonight By the time he got d down wn to the timber Umber line the moon oon was up Ho He left the country of Five Lakes well to his left heading beading tenaciously toward toward to to- ward the tiny which so far faras faras as he knew had been nameless un un- until until til his old friend Ben Gaynor had built a summer sommer home there two years ago and had christened the pond among the trees Lake Gloria I Though he had never neer so i I much as set his eyes on either I Gloria or her mother King had his own opinion of both of ot them Nor did he lie In the least realize that that opinion was based rather less on actual knowledge than molded by his own peculiar pecullar form of Jealousy that Jealousy which one tried time f friend feels when the other allows l love ove of women to occupy a n higher place than friendship And at nine o'clock next t morning he stood on the bench of ot a timbered tim Um- slope whence he got his first glimpse of Lake Gloria and of the thera ra rambling log house which Ben Gaynor Gaynor Gay Gay- nor had been prevailed pre on to build here in the wild a dozen miles from the Lake Tahoe road An hour hoor later he lie came to the grove gron of sugar pines back of the house He ne saw a number of persons per per- sons song coming out of the house a n dozen dozen or more pouring out brightly as ns gay gny as butterflies men and wom worn en He Be wanted to see Gaynor not nota a lot of ot Gaynor's San Francisco guests No not Gaynor's rather the friends of Gaynor's womenfolk It was Kings King's hope that they were going down toward the lake thus he would avoid meeting them He stood very ery still where he was unseen as he leaned against a lIght lIght- shadow and dappled pine A girl broke away from the knot of sum sum- mer clad figures ran a few steps down the path toward the lake Inke poised gracefully executed a stagy little pose with head back and arms as though in an of delight that the world was so fair Then as ns In sheer youth she yielded her young body up to an extravagant extravagant gant dance whirling away as light as thistle-down thistle across across' the meadow The guests went trooping gaily after her King seized his chance and went swiftly toward the house Ben lien Gaynor had seen him through a window and met him at the door Their hands met In the way of old friendship gripping hard My ry wife has been saying for years that youre you're a myth said Gaynor Gaynor Gaynor Gay Gay- nor the gleam in Ia his e eyes es as youthful youthful youth youth- ful as It had ever eer been that you are arc no more flesh and blood than the unicorn or the dod bird Today Ill I'll show her In the meantime we can talk said King Ive something to tell you Ben u Gaynor led the way through a room where were piano and and from the floor of ot which the rugs were still rolled through a dining room and Into nto what was at once a small library and Gaynor's study A chair pulled forward a box of ot cigars offered and the two friends took stock In each others other's eyes of what the last year had bad done for tor each flY You ou look more fit tIt than ever eer Mark Mark and and younger King wanted to say the same thing of his friend but the words dId did not come They had been friends together since King could remember since Ben Den had big big- him carried him on his back taught him to swim and shoot Then one year while King was off ore at school his lila friend took unto himself a wife King did not so much as know of the event until Gaynor after a month of honeymooning honey mooning remembered to drop him hima a brief note King was hurt and grew angry and resentful with all of the unreason of a boy He went off oft to Alaska without a word to Gaynor With the passage of ot time the friends had again grown Intimate had been partners In more than one deal and the youthful relationship had been cemented by the years But But it had happened seemingly throughout chance although King knew better that he had never met Gaynor's wife or daughter What King said in answer t to o his friends friend's approval was by way o of f a bantering Miracles do happen I 1 Heres Here's B Ben en Gaynor playing hes he's a bird of p paradise Or emulating Beau Brum- Brum mel mcl Which is It Ben And w whence hence the fine Idea 7 Gaynor with a strange sort of ot s smile mile King El-ag thought half sheepish a and nd the other half tender cast a d downward glance along the encasement encasement encase encase- ment of ot the outer man Silk shirt a aCry very pure white bright tie very n new ew white flannels very spick and s span pan silken hose and low white t ties ies This garb for Ben Gaynor t the he lumberman who felt not entirely entire entire- l ly y at nt his ease hence the sheepish g grin rin a fond father decked out byis by h his is daughter as King well guessed h hence ence the gleam of ot tenderness Glorias doings he chuckled I I guess Id I'd wear a n monkey Jacket I if It f she said so Mark But none t the he less his eyes as they appraised the the- t rough garb of his guest were e envious I can breathe better just t the he same in boots like Ilke yours he |