Show Y k by evelyn campbell Copy copyright sy by evelyn campbelL 1 rom service CHAPTER XIV continued 21 lie he did not inot know why he was there except that his body no longer subjugated jug cited by mind brought him without volition into a poor tragic comedy of the dreadful night people had been killed lobes and blankets blanhe blan Lets ts brought from souie where covered coined the still things with a spurious decency ambulances were corning their distant clamor dulled by the die of theair the air bent beat upon tile the silence A poor creature onee once woman gasped at brians elbow Three of cm de bend threele SOM something ought to to he be donn don about it three of em cm just ahle th it I 1 slit slip snapped tier her fingers lie ile saw that there were three women beneath ben elith a blanket on ibe he ground their feet in high heeled slippers protruded from the shallow covering tile the edges of their dresses ses showed and a ad their thin stockings drawn over slender terrible limbs the black hulk bulk of the patrol wagon told rholin them and then he saw close cloe to his feet a larger mound that must have been a i mitt man ile he was a poor girl in slithered Bli a voice served him right too but he let her in tor for jt it same as himself hirn self A advanced upon them that none 0 that now or up you go clear ile ar out you nn an you I 1 monotonous with the duty of a hundred such the womans comans voice faded whining aw an ay three 0 lern cm all at oncel As if that abere were a matter of mourning then brian heard another sound too faint to be a sigh but breathed against his ear like the echo of a lost ile he turned his face and saw sav her standing where she had been all tills this alj time ne close beside him so that lie he could hie have touched her if ho he had known Lin linda linola fla lie he said and site she put out her hand to film like a lost child as he be had known she would do they took the few steps to the pavement side by side as if they belonged to one another and had come there together the line of quest questioners loners closed in behind them it was a dark street of closed shop windows and little businesses where women did not belong A wide open poolroom was flooded with yellow light A fruit stand open to the world worl I 1 d offered public shelter they walked on a little way wordlessly then all at once there was a door opened to them A broad white coated arm drew them without contact into injo the lie warm fragrance of a narrow place pin ce where one must walk in single tile die or be edw en lapped wrapped in the steamy vapors of buge coffee urns and frank griddles friddles gr iddles therell be a little corner back be beyond ond explained coffee john signaling over his shoulder with a mas sive she curled thumb they went as lie told them coffee john had been there so BO many years that no one remembered when tie lie came ills shop was large enough to turn a window and a door to the world id and deep enough to shelter his philosophy lill from his narrow counter he had fed the great ones of the city and offered the cup of charity to the lost children of god cod ne lie had not moved moed from this place so that he had grown wide and heavy and tits hla trice nee wits was livid with the moisture of his s sua us cenance te nance but he bad seen the world go by and he be knew of all its faces even een the false ones and what was hidden chidden behind the papier binche his brond broad back turned upon brian and linda shut them into a narrow crevice of their own and stranded them upon a shallow wooden bench wedged behind a little table spread with pate pale slipping oilcloth and pewter spoons rut but he was there and she was there and that was enough why you tell nie me linda linda I 1 what do you know of love if you could throw it away for such little reason lie he said she dropped in her corner fragile and bending front from the of the her face was a small white dangle against the blackness of her urs somehow he got hold of her fiands ands and held them warming them lilt the thread of life came back tell me linda 11 and she told him meaningless things lat at were freighted with the tragedy if t the world dark noisome things the lle paths through a fever swamp 31 nold of tier her shame that was and her pride that was without onor she abased herself with words 10 cruel that he vas abased with tier her nd in the narrow cell they clung to ether like wind driven moths not en tiring luring the blue white light rut but brough it all he fie believed in tier and farmed armed tier her hands bunds and through her finds to tier her heart 1 I could not let you be hurt through ke e brian she wanted to go in spite smite of hi hla 8 site she struggled to be free know 4 9 that them the endom all ings for her you could not leadir leavere lea veme me yoe you never nevar nil MY mi acet my iny sweet there Js jg thin olae else but you yon Tb there ereIs Is no her life than busl ours listen atee linda re e will it will wili d fin inland pa and seel and it 11 will belong belon P lust just ourselves tate ahil beno be no rain deur huil there will be no lies alea hose little douses in th chesnow the esnow enow that cht dont bont you yoo r im 4 A ri reporter porter finished his coffee in the lighted front shop and slammed down the cup not much news in a up itaco that he fie complained no news after ati all the boys got it A cop an a couple of trails auh did you see it off john coffee john nodded polishing a cup yas I 1 was lookin lie was a fine find man though Ol ohura luru would have been hed have made the grade or beery been down at the be bottom aton for keeps wooden sort of a guy hel bel yas like wood hard the door sla slammed mined tho the reporters face burled sourly in tits ills turned up collar showed allowed palo pale for a moment at 4 j r 1 I could not let you be hurt through me brlan brian k the window ile he glanced sardoni sardonically calli at the broad man in ills his narrow groove and vanished coffee jolin john finished glossing the cup it shone like alku old ivory then he fie glanced at the dark shallow sli allow wall behind the partition the two tivo fig figures ures blurred ile he handled liand led the cup lovingly yet with delicacy filled it with a stream of dark golden liquid touched it with yella cream from a private bottle and laid three little cubes of sugar upon the thick saucer edge one could have been no better served with a light step he went back to them and abd put the cup before her A lady might need war r mint up op on uch a night he be said in a distant rumbling voice and returned to his place she wits was spent and exhausted she had said hit all that she could say and he had listened to nothing at all her hand moving touched the handle of the thick cup wavering but with a sudden poignant longing tor for life she lifted it and drank the door opened from the night A voice whined inquiries coffee john came again your taxis a waltin out front sir iles eles gettin him a bite ol 01 0 lunch they lifted new faces the taxi I 1 by georgel george i tell him were co coming I 1 cried brian THE END |