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Show there's mgtp; always hm$mM ANOTHER. U((MMMlt YEAR. HmW MARTHA feZJ't X W.N.U.SC WICE COPYRIGHT MARTHA OSTft.SO CHAPTER XIII Continued 13 In the parched air, Silver felt strangely cold. "Nothing made uie change my mind, Corinne," she said haltingly. "I I Just couldn't go through with it." Corinne sank down upon the hed. "Oh what's the use!" she sobhed. "I've done my best but you're all against me because you all hate me !" Silver looked at her half in sympathy sym-pathy and half in anger. "Don't be such a fool," she said, then stepped to the edge of the bed and laid a hand gently on Corinne's shoulder. "Does Roddy's affection niean nothing to you?" "Affection !" Corinne cried. "Don't talk to me about affection. What 'can you know about It? I'm losing ?ny mind in this hell and you talk fo me about affection. Leave me alone! Go away !" And Silver, thinking of Sophronia, went without a word out of the room. ' - CHAPTER XIV TN LESS than two days, the invad-A invad-A ing army of locusts had been almost al-most completely destroyed and the hot, brooding air was full of an awesome awe-some peace. But it was the peace of death. The Willards' huge cornfield corn-field had been converted Into a shambles of maimed and ugly stalks. On the following Friday evening, Jason and Taula drove down In time to have dinner with the old folks. Sophronia, feeling more like herself now, determined to make their visit an occasion for bringing the family together. "We'll celebrate!" she announced. "There's been enough grief around here the past two weeks, Lord knows! What with me dyin' and the crops burnin' up and the hoppers hop-pers eatin' what's left, there hasn't been much celebratin' In this place. I'll ask Roddy and Corinne to come down for supper and bring old Steve along." When they were ready to sit down, Sophronia went to the window win-dow and looked out. "There they are now," she said. "We'll get the things on the table, Silver." She hesitated and thrust her face closer to the window. "Where's Corinne, I wonder? She isn't with Koddy and Steve." "Probably putting on her best dress for the occasion," old Roderick Rod-erick suggested. In a moment Roddy stepped Into the house and greeted Jason and Paula. "What's keepin' Corinne?" Sophronia So-phronia inquired. "Supper's ready to go on." Roddy frowned. "She's not coming," com-ing," he said. Sophronia folded her hands In her apron. "She's not comln'? What's the matter, then?" "She was ready to come down with me when she told me that she would have to leave Immediately after supper to go over to Harry Richter's place! I told her it might be a good Idea If she moved her things over there and she went off Into one of her tantrums. I can't do anything about It." "Well let's sit In, then," Sophronia Sophro-nia ordered. They took their places at once and Sophronia forbade any talk of the plague or the hard times that loomed ahead. "We might give our Ideas of what kind of a grandfather we're going to make out of pa," Jason suggested, with a wink at Taula. "He'll be pretty green at it for a while," Roddy laughed. "I might have had a little practice, prac-tice, my lad," old Roderick retorted, retort-ed, "If you'd done your duty." Silver glanced at Roddy and caught the look of embarrassment that darkened his face as the others ! laughed. 1 "Hold your tongues, now all of j you !" Sophronia spoke up. She I turned to Silver. "I clean forgot ' the Jar of pickles I set out. I wish i you'd bring them In. I'm fair run : off my feet." ' Silver was grateful for the oppor- tunity to leave the table. "How are those young Herefords standing the hot weather, Jase?" Roddy asked. I And so the talk turned easily to the small concerns of the farm. On the following morning Silver j went to the Michener farm to spend the day with Freda. She left be-! be-! fore anyone In the stone house had heard of what had happened In Gerald Lucas' "back room'' the night before. I Hut when she stopped for a mo- meat In Heron River to buy seme peppermints for oid Grandma Mich j cner, Ilaber's store was buzzing with the news. Dave Erickson, who was in the store at the time, drew Silver aside. "This Lucas used to be a friend of yours, didn't he?" he asked with some embarrassment. "Yes," Silver replied. . "What has happened, Dave?" Dave tilted his hat and scratched his blond head. "Well, It might have been worse, of course. Two fellows from Minneapolis got into a poker game over at the club last night. There was a row and one of them pulled a gun and plugged the other one. He didn't do much damage, I understand, but the news has leaked out and the cops will be on Lucas' neck before night. Mr. Lucas will have to get out and fast or he'll be taken In before he's another day older." As though she had been there Silver swiftly reconstructed the scene. Gerald could afford no such publicity, no investigation. He would have to get out immediately. "I see," she said absently. But she had become quite unconscious uncon-scious of Dave's elaboration of the episode. One thought occupied her mind. With Gerald safely out of the way, there would still be a chance of Corinne's becoming reconciled recon-ciled to her life with Roddy. It was all working out for the best, of course. And next week Silver would be leaving to take the position posi-tion that was open to her in Chl- IB A New and Sinister Stillness. cago. Sophronia had been curiously curious-ly resigned last night when Silver had told her of her decision to go away. "I think I understand, child," she had said, in a voice that was all sadness. And it was Silver who had cried. By midafternoon the sky was a sullen, gray-white glare of heat, and the leaves of the MIcheners' shade trees drooped like flakes of lead. . "It's goin' to storm!" Grandma Michener predicted. Silver was preparing to leave for home when Phil Michener came back from Maynard. The incident at the Emerald Bay club had been the talk of the town during the day. "Strikes me," Phil added, "Roddy "Rod-dy ought to keep that pretty wife of his away from such places though that's his business, not mine." "Corinne wasn't over there last night?" Silver put In. "She was there with the Rich-ters," Rich-ters," Phil told her. Silver hade a hurried farewell and started for home. As she spurred Rusty over the short-cut and through the fields, she fund herself shivering with some nameless name-less apprehenslveness that had no connection with the approaching storm. Here and there alongside the grassy, almost unused road, the Cottonwood leaves rus-tled fitfully. There was no one In the yard as she approached Roddy's house. Roddy and Steve. Silver knew, were cutting hay In the south held, almost al-most a mile away. The whirr of the mower cam; faintly on the dead stillness of the later afternoon. after-noon. In the driveway, before the door of the big house, stood Roddy's car. As Silver passed it. she glanced into It and saw a large black suitcase suit-case lying across the sent. Could Corinne possibly be planning to go somewhere with the storm coming on? She (lung open the kitchen door i ml almost collided with CorlLoe I hatted and gloved, and rearing a tailored dark silk dress suitable for traveling. In one hand she car ried a small leather case and her purse. I'nder her other arm snuggled snug-gled ..laebeth, her red Pomeranian, li.ese details Silver took In with alarmed comprehension. "Where in the world are you going. go-ing. Corinne?" she asked. "Don't you see there's a storm coming up?" Corinne laughed nonchalantly, although her eyes flamed In reckless reck-less defiance. "I haven't time to tell you," she replied. "I have to hurry. hur-ry. .. . What are you doing? Let me go!" "For God's sak, Corinne!" Silver panted. "Have you lost your senses completely?" "Take your hands off me!" Corinne Cor-inne burst out. She had gone white with fury as she struggled to release re-lease herself. Silver dropped Corinne's arms and stepped back from her, aghast and bewildered. "Are you going away with Gerald Lucas?" she demanded. de-manded. "How dare you Interfere with me?" Corinne stammered, with something of her old Imperious manner, which was to Silver merely mere-ly pathetic now. "You must be crazy " "It's you who are crazy," Silver interrupted coldly. Corinne seemed to regain control of herself. "Think what you like," she said in a calmer tone. "I have never cared much about what you think of me, anyhow." She pushed back her sleeve with a trembling hand and glanced at her watch. "All I want now Is to get away. That's all I've wanted from the first day I came here. I've left a note telling Roddy he can find the car In front of Haber's store. Let me pass, please !" Silver did not move from her place before the door. "I can't let you go like this." "Have your own way, then," Corinne Cor-inne told her. "I'll go out by the front door." Silver burst suddenly into tears apd clung to Corinne. "Corrie I implore you ! Don't do this to yourself! I know what life with Gerald will be. I've seen enough of It I've been through it. Your life will be ruined. Corinne. darling please please please 1 won't let you go !" Silver caught her arm, but Corinne, Co-rinne, with a sharp little Jerk of her body, disengaged herself. Her small, piquant face was frozen with" determination. "I tell you I don't care!" she cried desperately.. Her head was proud and high. "I can't let him go away alone. I realized that last night when he told me he would have to leave. I love him and he loves me." For an appalling moment her face became almost shrewish. "If I don't like the way Gerald lives, perhaps I can make something worth while out of him and I couldn't do that for Roddy Willard !" - Before Silver could reach her, Corinne Co-rinne had darted into the front room and out of the door. Silver ran after her sobbing, pleading, clutching at her iu despair, but Corinne, Co-rinne, in stony, Inexorable silence, climbed into the car and drove off. Silver looked wildly after her, and stood for a moment with her hand pressed frantically against her mouth. She was vaguely aware that It had grown much darker, that the earth seemed enclosed in an airless, suffocating sphere. Then she stamped her foot and brushed the teara Impatiently from her eyes. "Go, then you d n little idiot!" she said aloud as she saw the car pass through the gateway and gather gath-er speed in the open road. Suddenly there came Into her mind the clamoring necessity of finding Roddy. The distance to the hayfield seemed immeasurable as she went running, stumbling, plung ing to no avail again and again over the entangling meshes of grass over the familiar and the treaeher ous ruts of a fallow field which -aP wavering strangely now with livid patches of shadow. She paused and glanced over her shoulder to reassure herself that she had come at least half way, when there came a sound that was a shrill, demoniacal demon-iacal whine, followed by a roar that stunned all thought Then rain came. The rain, the rain, the blessed rain! Silver threw her arms wide and laughed In sheer pagan Joy as the rich, drowning flood of It" descended de-scended upon her. It washed away all drouth and hunger and defeat: It washed all error from the human heart and wrong thinking from the human mind. The rain ceased as suddenly as It had begun. Presently, from the direction di-rection of the Willard hill. Silver saw a dark shape plunging toward her. It was Roddy. "What the devil are you doing out here?" be demanded as he came within speaking distance. "I started out to find you when the rain came," she replied haltingly. halt-ingly. "We bit for tlie house when we saw It corning." he said. "You've been home you've found Corinne's letter?" she asked. "I found it," he replied In a clipped tone. "I tried to stop her, Roddy. fought with her but I couldn't do anything. Then I ran to get you so that you could go after her before be-fore it was too late." Roddy smiled bitterly. "II I. they've gone to Mexico!" he said. "That's too far away for me." "You're going to let her go?" "It isn't as had as it looks, kid," he said slowly. "Corinne really left me months ago. But come along. Steve is out looking for you, and Phronie is having fits because you're not in the house." He put his arm about her gently and they walked In silence toward the house. To the eastward, lightning light-ning strode across the sky, and all about them the air quaked with thunder. "Don't you think too much about this, Silver," Roddy said steadily aa they went across the field. "I'm giving Corinne a chance to live the life she wants to live. I've known what she wanted but I've never been able to give it to her. I was a d d fool, I guess. But there's something I want to tell you Corinne Co-rinne Is really in love with Lucas. I have suspected it all along, but when she came home last night there was something about her a sort of glory in her face that I've never seen before. I asked her about Lucas and she told me she loved him. There wasn't anything I could do about it, kid. I told her she could go when she felt like It." Silver's heart beat so rapidly that she could make no reply. They made their way across the field until un-til they came parallel with Roddy's experimental tract of corn. The sky was lifting now as though the lid were being raised from a casket of glowing Jewels. Green and gold and blue, In a cleansed and hallowed hal-lowed world it cast over the heart a spell of awe and wonder. Silver, her eyes upon the field, thought of Corinne. "How could she go away from this Roddy and take a chance on the life " Roddy smiled down at her. "Life's a gamble wherever you live it, Silver," he said. "It's when you live It with someone you love that makes the difference." " He took her shoulders In his hands, and turned her about and looked through almost a year of frustration, despair and defeat into the serenity of Silver's eyes. And across his shoulder, Silver saw a rainbow above the land. THE END. |