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Show The Everlasting Whisper By Jackson Gregory Copyright by Ch&rK- Scrlbner'a Son (WNU Survlcu) FROM THE BEGINNING In the California ilrra M nrk KliiK, proa put: lor. Hues An'ly I'ark-r I'ark-r killed by Swen Jirudiu, l';uk- r' ouUaw coni;i.ni(jii. Kuitf 1 on hU wu.y to the home of his friend, Jien Gay nor. K. i u k ati'l G;iynor 1 uhure with Urodii k now. 1?I . of a VuHt Mtnri of hidden (filti. Kin; ! nme I a Mrs. Cay nor an Is Irn-p Irn-p refined by her daughter f lloria'H you thru I bdiiu ly. Jin d i m 1 ik-s a Fiouxe visitor named (iratlon. Wi'h Gloria, Ktntf rlilun to Cnlnma, Intending In-tending to "aound" I f onuy'TUlt. lie flndM lirod ! with the old prospector, pros-pector, and animosity tin res. Th'-ir companloiiHhlp for a day drawn K Intf doner to Gloria. Gloria and her moth or return to San Fr;m-ci.ioo. Fr;m-ci.ioo. la a Hplrit of adventure Oloria accom panics Gnition on a "buMliiOH.i" trip. At Coloma she flnda her father bad ly li urt. He tfives her a message and a pack-, pack-, age for Kiny, urging her to get tti cm to him at onco. Oloria realize real-ize how ah has compromised herself her-self by her Journey with G rat ton. He proposes marriage, and Gloria apparently accepts hi in. G rat ton arrange for the marriage by a country "Judge." Kin? cornea to the houae, unseen by Gloria. Informed In-formed of the coming' ceremony, he watches It from a window. At ttie lant moment Gloria refuses to utter the requisite "yes." In the resultant confusion King enters the room and Gloria ao peals to him for protection. Oration, dismissed, dis-missed, reveals his knowledge of the hidden gold and makes threats. CHAPTER V Continued 11 "lie will do whatever I ask htm to do," something sang within her. "Won't you sit down with me, Mark?" she smiled at hlin. "I have eaten," he said a trifle harshly, harsh-ly, she thought. "You are so good to me." She stirred her coffee and he saw only the lashes and their black shudows on her cheeks. The human comedy had begun, or the comedy begun long ago was resumed re-sumed smoothly In Its third act After that It was neither Gloria nor King who played the part of stage director; that time-honored responsibility was back In the hands of the oldest of all stage managers. King saw lying on the table the package done up In an old cloth which she had brought Further, he knew that he had seen It before and where he had seen it. lie knew that at last he had old Loony Iloneycutt's secret where he could put out his hand to It, with none to gainsay him. He knew that with It was a message from his old friend Ben; that Ben, himself, lay at this moment In Coloma hurt. And yet his eyes clung to the eyes of Gloria and all of these things were swept aside In his mind. There are urges which must be obeyed, the urge of spinning worlds to circling suns, the urge of man to maid. "Gloria I" he said huskily. "Gloria!" "Yes, Mark?" she said quietly, trying try-ing to speak very calmly and as though she did not know, oh, so well, all that tumult that lay behind his calling her name. She knew what was In his heart! His soul exulted as the certainty rushed upon him. And the color merely mere-ly deepened in her cheeks while she hid her eyes from him. He came to her swiftly. She rose as swiftly to her feet. Like magnet and steel they were swept together. He felt her body tense but unresisting In his arms; suddenly she relaxed, her head was against his breast. Gloria In his arms Gloria's sweet face hidden from him ngainst his rough shirt "Gloria I" he cried again. "Gloria!" She freed herself, and while he let her go he stood watching her with the new look In his eyes. Scarlet-faced she flashed her look at him from across the table. "Please, Hark," as he moved toward her. "You haven't read papa's letter yet. And and I'm dying to know what Is In that funny package. Aren't you?" "If I'm dying at all," he told her gravely, though he found a smile to answer her own and two very serious smiles they were "it Is of quite another an-other complaint. And this time " "But please, Mark ! I am here all alone with you and " "I know. I haven't forgotten. But, Gloria Some time you are going to give yourself to me, aren't you, dear? While Summerling Is still here, won't you let him marry us? It will give tue the right to shut that fool Grat-ton's Grat-ton's mouth for him and Oh. Gloria, my dear, my dear Will you, Gloria?" And then from lips which did not smile he heard the very faint but no longer elusive "Yes." "Now, Gloria?" ' "Yes, Mark. If you are sure that you want' me." She spoke humbly; at the Instant she was humble. "But," she added hastily, "still you haven't read poor papa's letter. He was very anxious. Let me go a minute, Mark. I am going upstairs. I I want to phone to mamma first. And while I am gone you can read papa's letter, and and " Her face was hot with blushes. "And arrange with the judge," he said, his own voice uncertain. "Yes, Gloria." She ran by him then. He heard her going upstairs, he heard a door closing clos-ing after her. Then like a man who treads on air he went to the window and threw It up and called: "Jim I Tell the Judge not to go. I have business with him. I want him and you here In ten minutes." And then when Jim's voice had answered an-swered him he thought to take up the parcel on the table. A hurried letter from Ben and the parcel from Iloneycutt's. Iloney-cutt's. Something here for which he s . had been seeking, working, for years, remembered now only because Gloria had made the request that they be not forgotten. But Ben's words caught him when he had read the first line. He had opened the packet, ripping off the old encasement of cloth. There was a book, a Bible that looked to he centuries cen-turies old, battered, the covers gone; Caynor's letter was slipped Into It: DEAR MARK: Iloneycutt's dart. I've got his socret. Hut lirodle came near dolnp: me In. Honoycutt, dyini, sent for me. I KOt there Just In time. He pave me the niMe; It was the "parson's" and then Gus lnple's. As I was going out of the cabin Urodie and two of his pranff swooped down on me. In the dark I pitched the Bible clear and they did not see; It was Just that near! They came close to killing" me; when I came to I found they'd been throuKh my pockets. I don't know how much Brodle knows. I do know he is working with Gratton, the dirty crook. I think you can beat them tr It, hands down. And, for Cod's sake, Mark, and for my sake If not for your own, don't let the grass prow! I am on the edge of absolute bankruptcy; laid up this way I don't see a chance unless you find what we've been after so long and find It quick. Will you Btart without any delay? de-lay? As soon as you gret this phone to Charlie Marsh at Coloma. Leave word for me. And let that word be that nothing on earth will stop you! Then I won't go crazy here with worry. BEN. A bit of the old Interest swept back over King as he read; the old excitement excite-ment raced through his blood. He dropped Ben's note Into the stove and "He Will Do Whatever I Ask Him to Do," Something Sang Within Her. eagerly took up the old Bible. There was the "secret" at last Gus Ingle's message come to him across the dead years: Good god I never see such gold nor no man neither and when he come Into camp you could reed In his look he had found It because no man could have looked at that Mother load and not look like Jimmy. And big Brodie grabbed him by the throat and shook him and nearly killed him until Jimmy Jim-my told. We went down the gorge to the narrow place over on the big seedar that had broke off and that was how we come to the First Calve, and then we come to Calve number thre and two. And for two weeks maybe may-be thre we lost track of time until this grate big pile of gold was dug that I am setting right on top of right now how can a man eat gold when he is dying of hunger and burn It when he Is freezing. And it was big Brodie killed pore Manny I seen him and the next day or maybe it was two days Dago was gone and never come back was It Manny's goast got him and drug him down the cliffs screaming horrible and in the gorge anyway that was Two. and I am all that is left and I am going I trlde to get out and the Big storm drov me back and all I can see is Jimmy Kelp and the parson par-son If I had not of killed them they would killed me sure and big Brodie's gone he is crazy and cant never make it back across the mountains in this storm, and Baldy Winch he took a big nugget and went off, and he stoled what handful of grub there was. If I write all this in the Bible that was preacher Elsons and tie it up safe In oilcloth and canvas and make a bote out of a chunk of wood and throw it in the river maybe It will get to one of the camps down there and a good man will find It and lie give him half. You come up the old trail past where the thre Eytalians had their camp last year and over the big mountain etrate ahead and about another seven miles strate on and then there is the pass with the big black rocks on one side and streaks of white granite on the other and down into the gorge and strate up four or five miles where the old seedar broke off and fell acrost. My god here goes. GUS INGLE. To any man who knew the Sierra hereabouts less Intimately than did Mark King, Gus Ingle's message would have brought only stupefaction. But to King now, as to Ben Gaynor before him, the "secret" lay bare. Old names held on; the three Italians had given a name to what was now known as Italy Gulch. The ca-ves were on a certain cer-tain fork of the American river then, and King had approximately the distances dis-tances and direction. He thrust the old Bible Into his shirt. There were steps on the porch. Jim and the "Judge" were coming CHAPTER VI "It strikes me," said Summerling sarcastically, "that there's mighty funny goings-on here tonight. I show up to marry one man to a girl and nex' thing I know " "Never mind that," cut In King hastily. "You are going to marry her after all. Only to another man." "Meanin' you, Mark?" demanded Jim. For the lif if UItd he couldn't decide whether b or every one elH had gone crazy. King Hushed under the look, but nodded and managed a calm, "Yes, Jim." He led Summerling and Jim Into the: living room, closing the door. "Now If you folks are ready," said Summerling. "I've got a long ride ahead of me." This time Gloria did not keep them waiting. She came down the staircase to Mark King standing at the bottom. In her pink dress, like a thistledown, floating down to him. He was thinking think-ing she, too, remembered how for the first time they had met thus. She smiled nt him; she put out her two hands to him as she had done that other time. And right there they were married on Gus Ingle's old Bible. "It's done '." whispered Mark, bending bend-ing over her. "You are mine now; mine for all time, Gloria. And, girl of mine," he added reverently "may God deal with me as I deal with you." "It's done!" In an awed little voice came Gloria's response, like an echo. Mark King had seen her across the quicksands. Jim and the "judge" had gone. They two were alone In the still house. Gloria was nervous; King could see that and thought that he understood. So he went for wood, made a cheery blaze In the fireplace, and drew two chairs up to It. "Tell me about papa's letter," said Gloria hastily. Had there not been that obvious topic she would have caught at another, any other. King put out his hand for hers, and while Gloria looked Into the fire and he looked Into her face, he told her. At the end he brought out Gus Ingle's Bible and read to her what was written writ-ten In it. "And you know where If Is?" "I can go to It as straight as a string. Two days to get to It and to stake a claim ; two days to come out with a couple of horses loaded to the guards. And that Itself means a fortune, for-tune, If It's clean, raw gold, as would seem to be the case. We need not fear the poorhouse, you and I, Mrs. King I" "But Brodie? And Mr. Gratton?" "They don't know where It Is! They can't know, since we've got the Bible, and Honeycutt was dead before they got to him 1 If they knew they would have been on their way already. And I'll be striking out before dawn, leaving leav-ing no such trail that they can follow It in a hurry, even If they should seek to." "You are going so soon? Papa wanted that?" "He wanted me to telephone as soon as I got this." He rose, lingering over her. "We mustn't forget him, even for our own happiness." "I I am going upstairs, Mark," called Gloria after him. "All right, Queen of the World," he answered her. "I'm Just to phone hi a message for him. It won't take me five minutes to get it done; just to say: 'Tell Ben that I start at dawn and that he's got my word for It that nothing's going to stop me ! And that I've Just married Gloria !' " He got his message through, and Gloria was still upstairs. When time passed and she did not come, he went up softly and to her door. It was closed and he knocked lightly, then dropped his hand to the knob, awaiting her voice. His knuckles had hardly brushed the door, this door which he approached ap-proached In reverence; Gloria had not even heard him. He called softly, his voice little above a whisper : "Gloria I" He heard her move; for a moment she did not answer. He could not know how she stood, scarcely breathing, breath-ing, her hands at her breast; nor how, now that the great step was taken, she was again half frightened, half regretful, altogether bewildered and uncertain. Of herself, of him, of everything "Is it you, Mark?" "Yes. May I come In, Gloria?" "Please, Mark. It's all so new, so strange ... I Intended to come right back downstairs but I'm so tired. Mark. I want to be alone a little; to think. You don't mind, do you, Mark?" He answered promptly and heartily, refusing to allow himself to harbor a shadow of disappointment. "No. No, of course not. You will go right to bed? I know you must be half-dead for sleep." "Yes. . . . Good night Mark." "Aren't you going to kiss me good night?" he asked, hesitating a little between the words. "Please, Mark ! I am terribly tired out, and and I'm afraid I've mislaid the key, and " That hurt him; his eyes darkened with a quick pain that came to him from her words. He had hoped that Gloria had known him better than that. "You need never lock your door against me, my dear," he told her gently. "I don't want you to be afraid of me. I am going to sit by the fire and think. Just to soak myself in the realization," he added with a happy laugh, "that you are mine." "Before you go in the morning you will come to my door?" "If you want me to. . . "Of course, Mark." "Then good night, dear." "Good night, Mark." King was astir long before dawn. While water heated and bacon sizzled, he rummaged through the storeroom at the rear of the house, gathering what he meant to put Into h pack for the four or five days' trip. As he returned from the last journey to the storeroom store-room he confronted Gloria, fully dressed. He dropped his arm-load and filled his eyes with her. Gloria had come down. "Gloria!" he cried '.TO BE CONTINUED. |