Show r The Thee II I I Crippled r tr i I t Lady 0 of e 0 o 0 oBy By James Oliver Curwood I Service c 1030 1929 Doubled Do Dornn Domn ran ft I Co Inc CHAPTER IX Continued IX-Continued Continued 15 15 As It If she had be been n a partner In the e few tew seconds of ot his thoughts Car Carla la a spoke softly giving him ber her hand d again In the night eight which shut them InI In I U 1 want to bear benr you say soy It Paull Paul I II 1 I have e dreamed and ond even prayed In to tomy my w wickedness and have fancied your voice telling me the story For that r I have many times limes asked God to forgive tor for give me But Bur now It Is La right and Just I want to hear you say you say you love me f i HI 1 do said sad Paul I 1 know now know now r that 1 l have ve loved you from the beginning be be- beginning ginning of ot time before I came corne to the thet t before 1 J was born In ID this life a life a thousand or a million years I 1 Iha ha have ve worshiped tb the soul that Is you yon Sometime It may have ha been ages ago ngo I fi know that belon you yon belonged ed to me I 1 hn have ve always belonged to you yon said BOld Carla Caria Tours Fours Is the love J I thought was hopelessly gone from me up up there Rut to dlf with you Is my right Can Cnn there be such a n hung Jiing as 85 doubt for us ns now I rz am om sure there cannot annot be he said sold You would like to lye live Without you n And there Is no chance no chance no hope of sn saving ourselves yes it I ul can con conceive e ot of none No force torce could contend with the maelstroms Inthe Inthe in inthe the throat of the chasm At the other end all ull physical matter Is ground to pulp as ns the water comes out through the gorge We are caught between the two He LIe calmly and frankly spoke the truth to her She made no reply In words but be he could feel her ber response creeping through her ber finger tips to him could feel the tremble and und thrill of ot It In to her body He tie had not frightened frightened fright fright- ened her but had bad dispelled from herthe berthe her ber herthe the beginning of a tear fear She did not want to live The truth seized upon and helped him with a 8 kind of shock Yet It was a simple thing one he should have known without Intuition or discovery ery For Carla was was not not only a woman but a soul Back ack there in Claires Claire's world she would be lost to him him no no matter what he might do clo In Inthe inthe the way other men had bad solved such problems only here IL a 0 be beginning find and an end all ail their own 0 could she belong to him Again she was In his its heart beart Usten-r Usten t Ing to his thou thoughts It uIt is strange but hut 1 t want to sing In InI Inthis Inthis I this darkness she said I did not know that blindness could uld be so beautiful beautiful beau beau- 1 1 I INor I t Nor II lit be he answered CHAPTER X r- r During the night following Pauls Paul's Pauls accident and Carlas Carla's leap men were active below the Jol gorge e Derwent lost loste no time In racing hack back to the Istas sin and the presence of ot a hundred men below the chasm before midnight ht was the result Every device of engineering en engineering science and unlimited resource resource resource re re- source which might be employed came carne with them The big pool at the toot foot of the gor gorge e was a glare are of illumination tion and men went down the river with their flaming torches afoot along Its banks and In canoes between them questing for tor a a shred of ot something which a few hours bours before might have have- been a part of ot Paul 01 or Carla J Lucy Belle shocked Into sickness was taken to her home tome But Claire remained Men who saw her In the weird glow of the lights will nevertie never tie be able to forget torget the lma Image e of her face lace as It was photographed upon their r memories Her blue eyes were a so wide open and staring so filled tilled with an unwavering sapphire flame Jame that at timeR times Derwent nt thou thought ht of ot her as a spirit-goddess spirit Instead of a woman Could Paul have bave seen her be he would have ve known that at last she bad had conQuered conquered con con- her fear feor and repugnance nance of ot the wilderness She had come conic with the first men before a trail was cut cutHer Her dress and nd shoes wore were torn turn her soft skin bruised and bleeding Where the water crashed awl and thundered loudest loud est out from between veen the chasm walls she stood unafraid until D Derwent went r-went twice drew her back from the nearness near ness Jess and rl danger nger of ot It She resented his appeal to leave the search to others and Derwent made It only once A white face watching for tor Its dead that dead that was what men would re re- member Eyes Els blue hungrily hun bun searching th the black stream asit as asIt asit It came from the mountain A fragile form that seemed tireless as steel A woman toman and anci yet more morp than woman woman- an nn unforgettable spirit n a vision that was like tragic music always to be re re- She did not give up op with the first hours hour of evening e but ut continued to watch through b the night not move from the foot toot of at the gorge orge and the pool as fiS If she were sure that whatever cr came to her Iter would be found there there Derwent was frequently with her and tried to to talk Ik hut but her lips framed few words Not until day l t came again did cUd something give way In her and hopelessness take its place Then he took her home to Lucy LucyBelle I waited wafted too long she said eald to him and afterward back with the searchIng searching searching search search- ing men he wondered what she had bad meant These searchers could they have looked through the rock would have seen a fire It was the second night for Paul Poul and Carla In a place luce where night and day fluy were the same Paul had found drifts of at wood along the edge ede of the sand mixed with pitchy pine and a little spot In their world was lII illumined Illi by light In the fire glow sat Carla combing her long silky hair with her fingers era Paul Panl watched her as she smoothed and b ald d the he Jre tresses s s. s employing as great reat care care as us as thou though she were In to her bedroom at fit home This was the third time she had given Iven It U such attention In their thirty six hours of entombment entomb entomb- entombment ment At other he had held a alI alight alight lI light ht for tor her at nt the edge of ot the water while she bathed her face and ond bands hands and once she had bod said to him It Itis is s water almost as us is a tt as that which comes with rain She spoke as If It they might have haye been camping on un one of ot the streams they loved with the sl sky y stove above and lowers flowers about them It was her er utter acceptance accept accept- ance of ot their fate as fiS a thing of happiness hap which transformed what would have been a hell for him Into i 1 heaven A Ar r 1 1 t In the Fire Glow Sat Carla Combing Her Long Silky Hair With Her Fingers She bad had sat In the soft sand at his bis feet n a a. a few moments before with her head pillowed against his knees and there she had bud her hair for him to ca caress ress as she watched and pointed out for him the unusual and ond beautiful pictures that built themselves themselves them them- selves In the changing coals and crumbling crumbling crumbling crum crum- bling embers of ot the fire Now she was a little distance from him and no sense of dread or fear oppressed him as he followed the rh rhythmic movements ol of o her slim white while fing fingers rs braiding her hair again If It were madness which possessed h him ni It was a beautiful madness a sense df Joyous living where there ther should have been despair A At At t. t first the fighting lighting part of him had Instinctively instinctively struggled against a It but now he be accepted It fully until seeing Carla as she was death deuth seemed vague and far away and the glory of life Ufe very ery near They had made no effort to hide from frum themselves es the coming of ot the end and Carla aria thought bought of It asa asa as asa a beautiful thing a little Journey which they were making gladly to to- settler gether Never had Paul Eaul believed so surely surly In a God Cod Ue Ile hod had found himself himself him him- self fond fon of telling her how bow he tie loved lo her hair bair more than and other ph physical thIn thing about her and anel she bad had said I UI am going goIn to spread it t out so su you may put your face in it wh when n we lie down to tu sleep This was the way she spoke e of what was to come come come-as as sleep To drift off lII like e this his arms about her ber seemed to Paul the fruition of a great greot privilege and Joy and not a of or fleshly dissolution He had told her little tittle stories about his tits mother moth moth- er and of the time they h had d spent sun filled hours in the Indian ogling burial place at Brantford where the proudest proud proud- est eat of ot her ter forest t anc ancestors ton were burled buried TO BE nm CONTINUED I |