| Show The Crippled Lady H i C of if P eb k B By James Jame t R erl o a Oliver Curwood NU II 4 j Doran Doron A Ii Cu Co Inc Ina JJ CHAPTER X Continued X-Continued Continued 16 15 16 1 could coald not Dot understand her ter then Ihen when she he told me me how gladly she would woold give her ber Ute life were It nol not fur for fortee me tee to Live lite for tor a 8 single Bingle year the ous freedom of ot Molly Brant snit SA Ie Paul PanL But I 1 do now do-now now In t nH one year ear she ahe be knew she ehe would find nd sort thing which would woold more than make snake up op for tor all th the other years jeans she might live Jut jaet Mt as u every hour bour h here re watt witt you Is 18 Ismore Ismore more to m me than ten thousand back bitt there i AM All he be Mid these things and believed belle and felt them there was In ID him a 8 awill awill will to live which wound would not utterly extinguish Itself It was rests scarcely e y more than a spark a s smoldering em ember ember ber that was bound to die for tor his bis I yea ayes his bis brain and every faculty of 01 reason treason which be he possessed d told him there was waa to IJO hope bope of at finding a s way beyond the walls which shut hUI them In tn A few tew minute before when Carla aria had sat lIat at his bis knees with his bis lingers fingers rl feeling the warmth and an sweetness of ot her ber hair this spark had bad leaped Into Inlo flume flame It still remained as Co aria Carls ria yielded at last to his bis demand demon and ond gave herself to the b bed d he hod made mad for lor her ber with his coat Bout ut for tor her pillow It seems almost a sin to sleep oho aha said sald and If It slumber were near nen or even the necessity for tor It It be he could find no shadow of It In her face Sh She might have risen from her ber b bed d an on hour bour ago so 80 freshly clear and lovely lorely were her eyes so BD deep their lustrous content and happiness when she looked at him Yet e after atter a little her lashes drooped as If It to veil the love lo behind them and lay La In Ln velvet darkness dark ness against the whiteness of at her ber cheeks For a while Paul sat close and watched her ber and with each breath the flame In him grew stronger the demand that something happen through force torce of God or man to break hren breakdown breakdown k down the walls of ot death which environed environed en her Alone with Carlas Carla's unconscious form lending faith and Inspiration to his thought he be fixed his bis attention as asa asa asa a dozen times before on the sm smoke which h rose from the burning wood Where did It go Hours ago be he had bad asked himself this question and until he had bad discovered a thin fog tog of ot smoke settling over the water and drifting away awny with the rush of ot it his blood bad had run ron swiftly with a thrill of ot hope And now In spite of ot the fact tact that he be knew where It went the question remained as If It Ifa Ifa Ita a voice inside his head bead had been trained mIned to ask I It parrot parrot like and could not be made to stop He and Carla had d collected a pile of ot As they bad found each stick they bad had acclaimed It a treasure discovered until the thrill of ot ofa ofa ota a game had become part port nf ot their en deavor He chose a stick heavily beaUy weighted with pitch and lighted the end of ot It In the fire lire Then be he walked off art into th the gloom where be he and Carla Carlo had gone many times before It was wasUke like Uke following the Inside of at a 8 great rock drum which was flat on one side flat flat where the water thundered and raced through the mountain When hIs bis torch burned short be he returned returned re reo turned for tor another Carla had bad not nol moved moed In ber her sleep and he burled buried himself in blackness again following the rock so closely that his body touched I It trying at every step to pierce with his vision a little farther Carther into the stygian pit over his bead head It It was into this pit that the smoke wen went mounting In drifting spirals like smoke In an Indian tepee Up there he thought it was taken by a slowly dragging current of air made by the ruction of the stream and descended to exit tr from m the mou mountain with it There was only one break In the cir dr- circular cular wall of ot gruesomely black and worn water rock against which in ages past a subterranean flood had washed any an and roared This was where a 8 small section of it had bad given ghen way from overhead and bad had piled up op a amass amass amass mass of ot broken stone which be he had bad climbed with Carla watching from below Here the smoke from his torch did not go upward but settled set tIed about his head ant disappeared toward the vent In Ln the mountain through which the river r rushed with great force He Be went to this outlet It was a ahole hole which his eyes eres were 1 unable to measure choked to within a foot of at Its upper Jaw by a seething flood of ot water and out of ot which which- though the space for tor sound was small came caine came such a sullen Bullen rumbling that thai his blood was chilled as be he listened to it Alone he would have plunged i Into this To die fighting pitting his small strength against all the forces which might oppose him was the urge which was refusing to subdue Itself within him He flung out his flaming torch and saw It ft swallowed in an Instant In Ln stant Like Uke that he be would have bave gone If it Carla bad had not been there to go goI I with him He Be turned back to the fire and put on a fresh tresh stick sUck of resinous wood before before before be be- fore be he sat in the sand near enough to Carla to touch her ber with his bis hand He Be wondered if It fear bad begun to seize upon him as he looked at her unconscious unconscious un on conscious form foreseeing the torment torment tor ment rent of ot Impending hours bours when madness madness mad ness would be for tor him Wm alone Unless they died together be he must outlive Carla Carla to to save ber her from a realization of 01 of that which h he in Lila bis greater Dath should bear j CHAPTER XI f Paul Pool knew kne be tee must moving mo or rouse rous urla from frum her sleep The nak nakedness s und and desolation of ut aloneness all were Burning him Into a n coward Not Nota a coward who vas cas afraid of ot death hut hot one OD-e who ho felt increasing rl horror In passively walling for It He went to the debris of 01 rock ruck a again He bad boc no DO reason for tur this no th except that It offered him he the one chance e to todo todo todo do something physical besides his way over u unstable nn and shifty nan nand l The desire for tor a work to 10 do woe was an ache In his bod body ns w well as Lila his brain and be he he begun began Hn to climb the broken mass muss as be he had done one once before He tie had bod gone about thirty or tori forty feet feel above the floor of ot their dun dungeon on then thru but bUI this rime time he found footholds which carried him t p little farther until from trum the point he reached he could look Inuit over the t bulge In the to U k which had previously pre concealed rh their lr fire lire and anil could clearly see flee Curia Carla In 10 Inthe Inthe the glow of It 11 He Ue had hart the desire to call con to her to feel teel her ber glorious life a part f of their existence again Sleeping she gone from him He swung wung his hi lor torch making u a writing o of at tire fire In the rhe blackness black nets ness ne s and ond his lips almost cried her ber name Then he recognized the weal ness of ot hl his hla art act and began to pull him himself himself self s a little more up the broken wull If U Carla Carlo a ad awakened and turned I Ih h her r eyes toward him she would have hove seen a u strange and weird thing The burning piece of 01 was a spout of ot yellow flame Illumining at 81 times the ghostly figure that bore burl it and then Ihen floating alone In a limbo of or midnight emptiness ns as If It borne Dy oy shades that In color und and spirit were a apart apart aport part port of the gloom She might have thought rousing herself herselt tam from slumber that bonds bands which were no longer Pauls Paul's were bearing it toward the fhe rolof ro roni rol of ot their world Steadily up op Into this pit of Acheron It went vent and anet there It II disappeared as If smitten by oy a mighty breath that extinguished It In a fl sec ond and For a time utter darkness lay Iny where the light had been Leen Then Ih the fhe torch reappeared as suddenly as sable sahle wings had engulfed it It and In another mom moment nl It was plunging down through space In a n few tew minutes Paul came come where It bad had fallen s1 uttering stuttering J In the sand and picked d It II up op again More than ever er his face was like Uke that of a ghost His Ills cheek was marked by a bleeding wound Ills His shirt was In shreds on his breast His Uis eyes blazed In a way that thai would have e startled Carla He went to the edge or the water nn and anO bathed his face und and bands hands Then he returned to the lire fire and ond knelt beside beside be side Carlo Carla He Ile raised her head beart gently In his arms and she Ola ma not awoken awaken He fie II held It against his bis breast and kissed ber her hal hair r. r Carla I I he be whispered Her lips Ups moved her ber lashes trembled and opened slowly to unveil her eyes Y You ou have slept a 8 long lorg time be said sold At least least least-It It seemed long and lung and andI I took a torch and climbed the pile of rocks again 1 I went higher than before be be- e. e fore so fore so high that 1 I came to a ledge and followed It and It-and and then 1 J came to a great crack In the wall and there at atthe atthe atthe the end of It It-I It I saw saw light Light I 1 she breathed Yes light From the sun I have bave found a way out our out There was silence then Almost without effort It s seemed med to Paul laul Carla Carlo crept out tut of ot his bis arms He knew that something was going with ber her her- forever Her face tace was whiter than this ibis own What he had bad dreaded to see lay In her eyes eyes eyes-a a thing fighting back and crushing the glory which had bad lived In them for a little while The understanding of at what his bis discovery meant came quickly to her ber and be he besaw besaw saw a fabric of assembled dreams going go ing lag to pieces like one ne of the odd Jumble pictures on a screen n. n When It Its hundred disintegrated parts purls came cume together again they formed Claires Claire's face waiting for tor him at the end of f the trail of ot light sent seat to guide them back to an nn earthly destiny still un unfulfilled tul filled and which for tor a time had passed centuries awn away from them Tb BE DE CONTINUED |
