Show DRAGONS DRIVE YOU CHAPTER XIII continued 20 the doorbell booi bell rang winnie lifted the big bowl to the table and as she was with her apron upon her she went to the front door ohl oh I 1 winnie oh she reached beached tor for her apron and crumpled it in her thin hand band trayou Tl ayou YOU for the dread which had her when carlial came home on the night tins this garl had called him filled winnie again do ye seek me yes said agnes will ye step in agnes stepped into the neat little sitting room where a fe few w old pla plain in chairs and the table told that they were memorable treasured things site she looked about and met V winnies In nies blue eyes will ye choose a chair I 1 none else Is home bome winnie explained seating herself uneasily or rd id call them you are the one said agnes I 1 wanted to see me lie said winnie over him over him and myself said agnes and she waited not knowing what next nest to say im pleased ye are here said winnie nie trying to help her and why should ye not be lies hes gone the many many times to ye too many times was it slie she asked anxiously for she was vas still puzzled not too many for me then what trouble came to him winnie asked crumpling her apron what trouble this week ond and more from the night he fie came home from the murder of that corrle hes lived for ye for naught else but tor for ye it he told you asked agnes he tell me ive me eyes and the blind cud see there was a time he be never knew ye and theres been the time since As different to him as night and day fallen between ye fallen said agnes nothings fallen we mean to be married who cathal your grauds grandson on and L I 1 Wh whist Istl 1 cried winnie whist 1 what I 1 hear bear did ye say ye and he bet lies hes a bit of a book with every word of ye and every pitcher of ye pasted in I 1 looked sure it was printed for all the world to read but lie he pasted them all together at last ye returned from be yant the sea ile he goes to ye then he goes no more and he be passes me these days silver speaking Is that because hell be married to ye it said agnes and no longer could she sit still she arose and winnie arosa aros ile he wont do it so I 1 came here and still ye will said winnie Win tile so proud of him and humble bumble for herself that tears came to agnes eyes whist 1 winnie whispered again ile he was born bryant us all far far abeyant most men scarcely thirty he stands now a single score and ten laid and men twice nice his years the great men of colca chicago 0 o send for him in their need and they lay their bles oo on him blin well as a lad he be was like ilk e that lie he see to us all small as he was he see to us all niver fear he will fall to see to ye 11 oh ob I 1 know him too agnes cried not yet said winnie proudly not yet the halt half of himl him not yet neither how strong nor how tinder he can bet bel once sit down miss glen alth sit down let me tell ye far away a school bell beat and for the first time it meant nothing to winnie and agnes heard beard nothing else at all so the back gate had swung and the children trooped into the kitchen before winnie remembered them the cakes that day were never baked for winnie had left them in batter but there was the hot fresh bread to cut and butter and hand about with the mugs of cold milk so winnie omara did that this day with agnes Glenel th helping her at five that afternoon the reception clerk at carthals Cat hals office looked across his bis desk at a slight straight white haired little woman in black silk dress new black bonnet and gray gloves 1 I see she announced stead uj mr cathal omara point me his door and rii ill th thron rouble ble ye no more taink now I 1 see gee it IL and forthwith she strode to it and opened IL winnie 1 ill cried cathal rising happened she faced him fair and told him 1 I had a caller today cathal th agnes Glenel denelta th come to see gee me over yet yel cathal could not bring himself back to hla his desk after his grandmother had tone gone he tood half the rooms width way staring without recognition at the open books book and the papers which a few minutes ago had bad absorbed him one meaning one and none other was possible was declared in what agnes A Glenel G le alth th had dooe done this day ia and d which had told him agnes ird had broken down the last false barrier between them it existed in he her r no more in him what still held wm him A lifetime of feeling the in meted upon p ila a little atle boy ot of no tortu fortune and no birth but which winnie from the carst so valiantly ad steadfastly had denied tor for him when winnie had opened his door he fie had been studying how he might save saie from the penitentiary and utter degradation philip lansdale dale this week eek another gentleman to la desperate straits not a neighbor to the glen alts tl t l hs bu certainly known to them llad appealed to cathal to save him by EDWIN EDWI N BALMER copyright by edwin balmer service from prison today cathal omara of no birth and background had to refuse to take a like case F for or banks in the city and about chicago were falling failing great companies and corporations could not meet their debts great men g great reat names damps of the city dropped in dishonor they who had held themselves above and beyond cathal omara were calling to him what had dails Ayre forth all but done 0 ne how secure nere m ere robert glen G tend eltris own fortunes cathal stepped to his desk he laid pap paper er markers between the pages and closed his law books one last moment he hesitated he press pressed sed his buzzer ask mr parry he said to his secretary if he can step in here then jim im going aw away ay for a couple of weeks now said jim on what case no case said cathal but its two weeks before I 1 have myself to be in court you can carry on tor for me till then cant you you see jim I 1 hope I 1 hope to be married north from the city he drove and no doubts dragged upon him he drove pilfering his bis dreams for a practical plan of that which agnes and he agnes and he bet 1 might do ue he never gained her door for she awaited him by the road just within the gates it was dark clouds floated boated below the noon moon clouds not of storm but of concealment but in the dark he saw her white figure before he pointed toward her ile he switched off his lights and stepped down she said no word nor did he be ne ile grasped her hands speaking then her name but his breath went from him and she wals I 1 4 0 pe P great names of the city dropped in dishonor there in the dark of the lawn clinging to him youre here youre herel here I 1 ile he released her so that she could lead him toward the lake they descended sc cautioning each other of the steps to the shore and no one else was near no lightning threatened tonight the lake lay calm ripples ran up op on the beach which sighed as the sand released the waveless wavelets wave waie lets and let them retreat over tin tiny T shifting shells and stones dare you do it dare you what he swept her up in his arms the one thing left to us to do go on from this moment together theres nothing else she said for me nothing 1 he denied tor for her theres any 0 one ne in all the world for you no she said very simply kiss me they went up together to th the house ehouse where lights betra betrayed Y ed her father figuring at his desk under the antlers anglers and trophies of his gun room her mother seemed to be upstairs cathal alone sought her father nello hello omara bob Glenel th turned on his chair you came awhile ago yes sir the two men looked at each other and cathal knew that her father was well aware of why he was there and it was Gl glendith Glenel eneith tb not he that avoided it youve ormstead now I 1 hear bear 0 omara mara bob Glenel glen alth th said charged him wl with th fraud fraud and larceny too hes heg taken for his private purposes they say any to save himself two millions caught him so go hes come to you yes sir air bob Glenel th somewhat ruefully smiled you see seem a to be collecting my friends omara 0 mara cathal said nothing and Glenel th suddenly rose what can you do tor for them will they spend the rest of their lives in a cell they were good men YOU know had T 1001 I 1 dont mean luean khov good but they ability they built things and now you rou stand beaw between een them and 1 prison ue he struck at the wall beside him i which re sounded at the blow os some ome times omara I 1 feet feel that even eren the walls walla we built must most be of paper you came to ask me something yes tes sir I 1 want to marry agnes she will marry me 1 I supposed ased so and I 1 suppose whatever I 1 say any youre both going to do it IL well one tiling thing youre not paper omara whatever else you are or arent youre not paper when are arc you planning t this his tiling thing tomorrow 1 tomorrow you sou waste no time omara OS Iara well ive had bad one big formal wedding in my family announced weeks ahead a thousand guests this Is hardly the time for that again and im willing that my other daughter try another sort of thing her mother wont be you know that thal but let me stand up with my daughter and give her away even en it if its before a justice of the peace CHAPTER XIV fools they we were re for the they y ate the cattle of the sun were they fools do you think what were the cattle of the sun agnes asked days days they devoured the days the cattle of the herder of the heavens without counting them must we count them you dont want to either cither 1 I cant bear to tol I 1 I 1 cant bear to know when this must come to an end it will never come to an end agnes between us no but you must go back to the people that need you so many people that so desperately need youl you and youre so young so young she caught his hand and kissed it so he be caught her to him and for several moments both of them forgot about the cattle of the sun then he said defiantly we wont count them either well throw away the calendar and never mark the days but she weakened can we see that great gray crag down there cathal gazed into the valley it was noonday and they rested side by side far up on the flank of their mountain at the very edge of the snow line above them rose rock and snow beside them a single stout little dwarf pine clung in a cleft a brave outpost of the forest below the sun herding his cattle through the pastures of time had climbed to his highest slope in the sky and his radiance caught the gray crag so that it shone above the mountains shadow sli adow agnes gazed at the great rock and she followed Cat carthals Cathal hals 8 feell feeling ng until that falls into the shadow at noon don 0 let us etayl then we need never count the days only some day that rock will tell us that we must go and so they agreed on it they were far in the west and the north amid the mighty MaJ majestic estle mountains and for five days they had bad I 1 been married and bob Glenel th had stood by his light one in the service at the house of the minister to be married to take your place in the procession of life to realize at last how you had received your life and how it if you willed you would pass life on that was a solemn and also an ecstatically happy situation and there were the mountains lord thou hast bast been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth before these mountains were brought forth I 1 for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it Is past and as a watch in the night A thousand years ago no one had bad ever dreamed of chicago and the forefathers of the millions in the teeming city were to beget sons and daughters and die and they would bear children that would die through six hundred bundred years before a generation grew that would hear of this america and the stock market that now made or ruined so many men what was it A center of scheming through a moment of time your stocks maintained their prices in this enter center of mens schemes and you remained powerful and great like rn in suu bull and eleer and comfortable like leb they declined and you were disgraced like philip linsdale and john ormstead or you must destroy yourself as arthur linsdale lansdale had bad done and davis had tried to do in order to leave a few dollars to bee and the boys thou farriest carr car lest riest them away as with a flood they are as a sleep but the mountain would remain the world continue to apt spin n under the sun aun each year in the spring exposing to the sunshine for a few days that great gray cr crag ag in the valley and immersing iner stag it again in the shadow until another twelvemonth was turned one new reckoned year to add to the uncountable ages of eternal time agnes shivered a little cold ne ile clasped her closer have we been mad cathal are we all insane in the cities here he said it seems so but you and I 1 are going back not before we must I 1 oh why do we ever leave here ile he looked down at her all my life ill remember how you said thail and a thousand thousand other what magic youve made of my days dayal you think I 1 havel have it seems seema to me youve done it all ive mer merely ely moved cathal into Y your our kingdom mine he sal said mine ainer W with I 1 th your words that n night ight you in mads ade its walls ile TO BE CONTINUED |