Show 1 1 tit 1 in it I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 i ll 11 II 11 the story t S of a grave I 1 j sy WILLIAM ALLEN ra jil I 1 I 1 1 5 r Copy pohl 1 1922 by lh as maccollan Mac 1 rollan I co t Is a place in tha th tl a groat gilreat thrass american desert where green grass grows at tile bead of sart stuary estuary of the great dry s ca x here Z long loo arin of 0 white alkali runs up mons on tile fo cathilla cat hills of tte the mountains A std tends A in inviting tit tai tavern iera it Is upon the hillside just below it the alic garden hose and the landscape gerdener with water carried in troughs from the mountains have wrought a miracle of green frees trees bluegrass blue grass lowers flowers wax was strong and beautiful in the artificial oasis Is children and young nien men and maidens romp ou on the verdant mat spread pread at the point of the estuary and upon neon tile the hillside a score of languishing 5 divests tests sit in the beating ealing li sun and look down upon the picture and out get into the endless miles of white I 1 arid tad that stretch billowy and fantas 1 tie lc into the blue of the horizon host of these idlers on the broad vinzza of the tavern are invalids it la is a place of invalids here hundreds of wretched bodies are dragged by a tragic love of life here scores of souls watch other souls flicker and die out and still hope on and walt while the oil of life bums smudgy and low there are those whom the sunshine find and the dry clear air win back to life but the dead are there on the broad veranda ver randa a very citadel of life the dead are embattled fighting with time it is a most hideous battle rand all so hushed and sepulchral are its maneuvers that life takes no heed of th the empty pageant armed la in such a combat sat hawkins s the chief clerk a grim man dark pallid sinister of what out in the world of life hawkins had been chief blerk it does not matter now lie ile had been a busy man firm taciturn teu self contained repellent lie ile sat now tat it his post in the battle sneering at the folly of those about him who were trying to wrest a few mortal moments eternity for a long time as days go hawkins land had been sitting in this sentry box when his captain captala the doctor ordered him into the infantry and told him to march for dear afe hawkins left the guards upon tile terrace v with ith loathing during the first week of his in marching arching orders order he made exactly tile tame same journey every enery day ile he noticed everything along his path lie he was in te rested in nothing not liing in its ills the objects he saw were nere catalogued cataloguer catalo gued but never referred to by his memory there was a huge bluff a railroad bridge a quarry a barbed wire fence enclosing it grave crave a mud house a herder some sheep a steep hill a i water trough a cross road and a pine little grove groe on the hill over which he tame came back to tits his starting point none of these objects was dignified by a prominence in ids his mind one day nt at by the most unimportant detail in the lands landscape cupe hawkins started to walk a few rods from his path that lie he might examine more closely the grave fenced in with barbed wire to keep desert beasts away A second thought thou glit made the digression fram acm the path the line of an ellipse and he followed ills his course without deerin veering there were days when hawkins hawking it i spoke poke to none it if tile hotel guests and the lack of interest in the place weighed heavily apen upen him As lie sat tor for hours after ill hi walks gazing be tween the hills that lat penned out the HIP r desert the spot where the grave dotter the surface of the plain kept drawing his eyes to it in ill nn an annoying manner inan ncr As he took his lonely walk at the end of that fortnight the grave began to irritate him film it aroused a certain curiosity within him which was very distasteful one night after his return from a walk raging at ills his folly tile the grave began to haunt his wakeful night fan des cleg the next afternoon lie walked over to the enclosure thinking that he would be no longer disturbed by the thing if t lie examined it closely hawkins hawking saw only an adults grave with alth a cactus upon it at the head 5 WIS wa a wooden board at the foot was 8 a broad peg the barber barbed wire was wag torn tora away at one end perhaps by tome some stray animal wandering in the r night hawkins did not approach nearer hearer than a rod from the fenre fence and he be turned quickly as though he had vr come his hl weakness when 1 lie I had 94 lathered these details in ills his mind the next day he came closer and the day following after a night in which alch he h was wa kept awake frenzied because of it a gnawing ache to pick i the cactus root out of the dead mans eifle hawkins came to the fence and leaned upon the post looking buck black j toward the hotel to see sec if the alie group on the veranda could see him ho he did vit lot touch the cactus and not until lie i ad d up to so go did he be so 0 o inch nn as glance at tho mound ire he road the name on the headboard and i hurried away with fear dogging ills steps teeg ile he looked behind by force orce of will it was the one name in the world that hawkins loved to bete with fill it came the recollection of the x oman whom abom tile lie grim roan was proud tin iba he be had biad forgotten at tha h road around the hill lie he ills his nervous gait and walked slowly back to the hotel but sill all the efly ay up 1111 the hill hillside tile the headboard kept before him with the word zan maln J ter er the word rii 11 0 dwal laii tat mat in hi lax ar on she he veras n ajima iua awil h 1101 1 vu 1113 uni looked over tile white floor in III the ill ilis dis bauce it ir seemed ma illet I in ili ills his eyes he funded fancied lie he could the headboard from the fence then lie avan ix gan to light with the spell lit reasoned that it was an accident aident and it came over him with a chill that he had ix lice drawn to I 1 tile lie place by an irresistible force at this conclusion life lie smiled led sardonically and lighted a cegal r lie ile believed d lie he had conquered the ali hallucination by cilny it full rein then lie he began to hate ills his old enemy hawkins land nt not known that the man was dead until that thai day ile he mused mn ed pleasurably upon the ci ictus the doctor seeing Hair klas in tile the sunset air with a cigar swore snore at him and the grim erlin man went indoors lie ile was proud to be alive ills ilia pride amounted almost to a thrill went to sleep early that night light when the lights in tile the botel wore cre extinguished he wakened from a dream about figures and business and felt that there was something ian laor tant on oil his mind then he remembered the discovery on tile headboard ile he trailed oer llis his treasure with the harrow barrow of ills his hate ile he tried to think of something else lie bagain counting finally it clime came A sentence formed in his mind initial was it the dead mans spirit when lie aroused himself ills his mouth wits dry and tie rie was ivas wet with per stal ration hawkins normal mind then own took control of ills his fancy and his liale hate for tile hie conquered toe foe burned fiercely ncr cely the woman kept coining into tits his malignant speculations lie wondered 1 it she had taken the mans name ile he was curious to know it if she had come with his enemy into the desert where he died hawkins awkins II pictured them together on the terrace then liis his sick fancy painted them in the very room where lie he was lying for a moment lie was in mental hell A footfall startled him lie ile sprang to the floor to ring uie me bell and to ascertain it if tits his imaginings had tiny any foundation in ili fact when the by came cacie hankins haw kins asked for ice fee water land and upon getting it sipped it as lie he stood looking out at the quiet stars stairs and the moon and listening to the sliced bells and to the dogs barking out on the floor of tile the desert beyond the grave tills ThIs soothed him and lie he slept the day following that night and for ninny many days thereafter stood gazing at the ugly sand heap leap in ulu hilka vf u take all ut U his bit heart the visits to the grave grew brew necessary to ills hs happiness for the first time in III his life hawkins felt ile as desolate us its lie really was I 1 lie ic vs visited ted the graie araie rs a of ordinary pern ment won 1 l vian cull upon a comrade when ills his strength pet witted 1 I i trip trill aery ciery other day only lie iw sat in lila hilt room looking rit out beleen bartu en tin the hills at a the plain and rt at tile dm 0 upon tl 11 1 cretah or nf liina arld HIM lil kaill it vas tit at these times that begun began to try to recall the po Is abi e sool good qualities ot it ills bend enemy liow how lie told lind con on demney the ninn main out oni of 0 hand when lilt ills name nas first brought brou glit ii lucante lc cante unite it 11 copybook copi cop book blind annd hawkins remembered th that it lie he tin bad if sneered nt lit tile main un on account of 0 a cerwin curl of 0 the mustache and that tile the fellow had inclined a husbandly hale haie by oilIng how to play tile hie piano these hawkins tried to make some entries on the other side ot of the account As the shadow flirted flitted nearer and nearer to tile grini grim man now con confined filled to ills his barren room more closely than before lie began to ase the horror lie once felt nt at eliat hat lie fancied might be the presence ot of the dead one day lie be found himself curiously li listening tit to some token from the dead man mall in the grave ills mood was not one ona of horror but of longing lie ile reasoned that lils ills strange finding of the grave crave the inexplicable pomer that drew him against ills his will and against his nature to the alie lonely spot und tile the influence which it had froug wrought lit upon lils ills life indicated the presence of some outside power lie ile built up a theory ot of hypnotism from disembodied spirits spirl ls and sat ant watching for a signal to verify ti through ills his material senses the existence of the supernatural force N with ith which his spirit seemed to have been communing in tills this frame fraine of mind he forant tile wasting of tile the flesh ile he sat eat by its ills wIn window clow overlooking the tie desert anal mused by the alic hour upon life rind the coming of the end ills whole being ens softened by the approaching dissolution of lils ills body lie longed for some sign that would tell him that lie he had fellowship real and palpable with the spirit ot of the man mail in the deserted grave dut but the sign did not come ile he traced false signs to their natural causes and was wn sod sad the habit ot of a lifetime as a scoffer strangled credulity evan 4 ji W V 2 V J 41 4 11 G CA CA upon the hillside languid guests sit in the healing sun its barked barbed wire prison exulting in ills his heart ul at the doad dead mains destitution desolation the loorents loo ments lie spent thus were nr ill most happy ones for the lie grim ninn man ills ilia buncy arade morbid pictures and the hie figures ot of tile the man limn and danced before ills ekes eien in it n thousand horrid daydreams day dreams once tie he kicked tile the headboard sinis rind mic leered erod nt himself for so doing then saw how like u cur ili hr wm will after that there were three in its his circle of liate hate one raa loathing himself lil he began to wonder what land had ever induced the woman to promise to loe land honor inner him he recall d cowardly words he had bad spoken to her revelations of tits his own cruelty cruelly and mer anness were nude made to him nail anil ghostly memories that lie he lind had strang fed years before rume flitting back lie he was wag oppressed with a sense of having done alone a terrible wrung wrong the face of the wornall woman whom lie had for gotten rose riwe find and floated on hla 1119 stagnant fancies dialogues nia loues that tie find crowded crow tied into what seemed to him ob lilon cuine came trooping back and whispered into ill his ear in each of these theae pictures and olca tie he saw his own selfishness seini liness bankins tegan to know himself out a he be was known A 4 loie that he had trampled tram out with his physical heel la in a i fit fl of rage iegan to clow and nunu lila hilt being A rail uns ins wrought on tile the day that a shriveled tear trembled in ills his eye ile he went to the grave land and stood a longer time than usual after that lie he left the place with a land nil walked aalf aly with willi ills his eye I 1 upon u pon tile the gronna lie walked t lowly partly dom choice partly because bec his former gait cult flipped his etli on the chamla they were counting the weeks left allm ire ile pw pow eisent ent to the mound every day for company cotta pany to those whom lie met in the routine of 0 his physical life hawkins preserved his cold exterior ill ahli babit of austerity was not broken yet el il lange auga were working within his breast lie he had lived his life alone und no one though it was the child of hope so hawkins sat in tle ilie silence S listening and walting waiting for the greater silence there came it 11 time lime when lie he rallied milled when lie left tile window for the veranda then it wes that a great real yearning came to his lapart to go and lie ile patine pi one upon the grave and to be as simple us its a 1 child in III arief lie ile coufa could not cr liln this yearning he did not try to nn analyze ilze it ile he felt some way that it nina a tiling thin the woman would have done and the lie desire became a nibbler passion it seemed cold to him film on tile the porch but out colt on the desert the fun bun shone gaily and seductively dry DI after day lie walked tile lie length of the pranda lie ile seemed to be gaining strength there was a day when lie he walked the entire distance around tile ibe hotel twice without sitting bitting tin or resting it was vas a day of trl liin griph that night he planned his journey to the fence and the mound between tile the foothills ills mental strain brought a light flight re lape in ills his malady ile he did not drat 10 tice it the lie next nest morning ile he kept his hl plans to himi himself telf that afternoon lie li f awny sloney slowly lie he crept down the lie ferrace fer rac ile ho sat down donn often ly by the A notion that he was wa making it that she hawkins only thaing ht of the woman as aa sloe glie now would mould brave min him make warmed something in its his grim heart not dot unlike it tenderness JIP HP wim very wan rinal and his emotions were jbf sp once lie he alien lie he pat eat dian by n stone when lie he returned to con s lie he hurried on oil in ca dazed fumbling sort of way lie he felt then that it would be tits his last isit to tile hie rave but he wits was not iad i ad ile he was only glad that he had come in her name pride illde was purged from hla his flesh ills his heart was that of a little child ile he uttered littered little prayers ohrt were bargains bar galna with god for strength to reach tits his front coal when lie reached it he crawled into the wire weak and panting there they found hawkins at the close of rany grim brim repellent of feature apart from his kind alone in III alb very dath men hen said ald it was wa a fwing ad 04 far hilt the boomerang my most ambat embarrassing moment was ca at E a unity fehilly gallic ilni vibeke al lot of cousing sousing stepsisters step sisters anil and half ballf sisters were present we had not met lit in tev sev t ev arall years and there mis as a little jealousy among us its I 1 heard them mention tho the name marle several times so finally asked who Is marle Is that mary with ith her name styled up to marle A sarcastic old stint replied yes ves |