Show ty to acl le alak ct 40 MARTHA by 0 MARTHA SERVICE I 1 CHAPTER XII XU continued 16 florian shot autumn a quick look from beneath lowered brows its brude bruce landor of course he said with a sharp inflection bitten with hopelessness autumn avoided his bis eyes her gaze upon the window where the curtains drawn back the redolent piny air of 0 the mountains drifted gently inward 1 I knew it he said disconsolately ive 1 known it for weeks why youre going away youre running abey from him autumn got up and stood by the window looking out across the hills bills where evening was already settling down shi she had been standing there a long time neither of them speaking when florian got impatiently au out ot of his bis chair lets eat he said suddenly youre probably starved she looked at him and smiled dimly ly 1 I could do with a attle lit 4 something she agreed what Is there ill get it ready 1 do nothing of the sort he retorted sit down and have another drink while I 1 fry the bacon end eggs fifteen minutes later they were seated amicably across from each other at the little table before the fireplace feasting on bacon and eggs bread and butter and marmalade and the really excellent coffee florian had made florian Fl orlan remarking with a derisive smile that they M might ight as well have it as romantic as possible had bad made a fire in the fireplace and had moved the prosaic lamp to a secluded alcove their talk was desultory and was concerned arned chiefly with the parrs since e autumn was reluctant to speak of 01 her der impending journey linda he be told her had found herself a new passion the object of which was a berne daled war veteran who had come to the okanagan Ok anagan and bought himself a fruit ranch just a matter of changing from sheep to fruit for lin he remarked its great to have an easy conscience be and so they talked in quiet amiability while the firelight flickered pleasantly on the ruddy pine beams of the ceiling and coquetted with the shadows that lurked about the furnishings E ever ver a since ince autumn had left that morning an inexplicable sadness had lain upon jarvis dean a heaviness of heart that was more than mere regret at her going she would be back again tomorrow he told i himself and they would still have a few ew brief days together before she left the castle tor for good it would be tor for good this time and when he joined her in england in the tall fall that would be his own farewell to this land in which he had known the heights and depths of all passions searching his heart for or the cause 0 ot f his melancholy he came with acute anguish upon the truth jarvis dean had reached an end an end of everything that had bad really mattered in life an abyss of nothingness yawned dawned before him without these stark hills and valleys that had witnessed with silent compassion the drama of his life he be would be as a player upon a stage without an auci audience ence frequently during the day his eyes had hadi roved hungrily over the noble prospect that had been his for more than a quarter of a century by ton toil of mind and body and soul he had made it his own and his being in turn had been delivered over in its entirety to the magnitude of this earth all that he had known of joy and sorrow hatred and love the saga of his failure and triumph was written across the bright tablet of this land inscrutable to all but himself when he left it his epitaph would be graven there the sun sim marked noon and the less explicit hours of the west toward the latter end of the day jarvis went on toot foot to the temporary camp where his young irish herder clancy shane was tending the few hundred sheep he had brought down from the range to be sold it had been a matter of great pride to the boy that he had brought the band down single handed and jarvis had expressed his dr dry pleasure by raising the lads salary in a wooded hollow before he reached the therise rise from which the flock could be seen jarvis halted abruptly to listen lisien an unwonted clamor or of excited barking was coming in lam from the direction of the flock mingled with the mad bleat of sheep in alarm jarvis scrambled rambled tc up through the woods to the crest where a furious spectacle met his eyes the low red sun aim shone obliquely across a turbulent livid sea of gray bodi bodies es a sea which while jarvis stared at it aghast seemed to become ca me spinning closer and closer to the brink of a deep arroyo a sandy deft chieft in the ground that had been washed deeper by freshets fresh ets of the last spring the dog in a fren aywas striving to head the crazed flock away away from the danger suddenly the irish lad leaped into the maelstrom and began bea beating ting his way toward the churning center arvis shouted a hoarse warning and b began gan to ron rim before he be reached the arroyo however the outer fringe of the band had bad run off tangent wise and were plunging headlong into the gaping earth instantly the whirlpool broke the main body of it following the mad course of the first few into the arroyo when jarvis came at last and looked over the edge of the clett cleft he found the pit filling with writhing kicking screaming bodies A few had escaped and were straggling up the steep bank bleating dementedly their oblique crazy eyes in the thick of the struggle flailing out with both arms and sobbing frantically clancy shane bobbed a bout about with hideous ludicrousness like a cork jarvis yelled to him bun and plunged down the embankment hurling out of his way the few half stunned animals that rushed up at him with ill all the strength of his powerful frame he be fought his way to the boy lifted him bodily above the descending stream of gray forms a and nd fl flung ung him free As he did so a dozen grizzled shapes came down upon him and jarvis fell back among them bruce landor was driving home from town on a sharp decline in the road where it approached the dean place his gaze was arrested by a wild figure that rushed frenziedly toward him apparently from nowhere bruce drew to th the s side ide af 0 the road and stopped hi his as c car r the madman was young clancy shane the boy collapsed against the running board his breath a raucous wheeze bruce leaped from his car and lifted him to a sitting position whits wrong clancy he demanded the boy flung out an arm toward the pasture over yon yonder derl he gasped the master in the gullye go quick with only a swift glance of horror into the bloodstained blood stained face of the youth bruce sped away the sight that met his eyes in the arroyo froze his veins there was a scattering of sheep running and bleating idiotically still with the dog valiantly struggling to bring them together but across the gap in the earth there had risen a solid isthmus of dead or dying bodies of 0 jarvis dean himself there was no sign bruce stood in stony horror the sheep lay in the arroyo te ten deep two men came running from the direction of the dean place aiace A strange quiet seemed to have fallen upon that land when it seemed to bruce an eternity later the western sky drew down an emerald curtain upon the glory that had been there three men stood back from their work their bodies wet and lowered their heads the battered still form of bt jarvis dean lay la where they had placed it on the ground at their feet clancy shane had told them the brief and tragic story of what had occurred an ain eagle had bad flown down on the sock flock and terrorized a few stragglers that had wandered a short distance from the others they had raced back and spread the contagion of tear fear in the flock the rest of the story they could read tor for themselves in the havoc that had been wrought during the brief moments of the hopeless struggle hannah in the kitchen of the C castle as lifted her tear drenched face ace from her hands you will have to go and fetch her bruce she sobbed s she is stopping the night with the parrs at their lodge you know the place bruce looked down at her yes I 1 know where it is he replied will you go then his lips tightened ill go he said in a few moments he was on his way the dusk thickening about him as he sped along the winding trail that led southward into the mountains two hours later he climbed up out of the troublous dark heat 0 of the valley into the sheer cool starlight of the hills now the road became narrow and capricious and the black spires of the dense pines made a cathedral against the sky how like autumn bruce thought with frowning admiration to have driven over this road alone one false swerve of the wheel and she would have been at the mercy of this solitary wilderness until someone found her and brought her out he strove to keep his mind on an the deviousness of the way so that he might he be possessed of a measure of comp composure asure for the difficult task that lay before him he was glad with a self effacing bleakness that her friends were with her linda parr and florian they would be able to offer her comfort as he himself was not qualified to do he had atef telephoned to hector cardigan from the dean place it had seemed proper that hector should be the first to be informed of the tragedy and it if poss possible ble to break the news to autumn bruce would I 1 have given much to have had the old friend of the family with him on this sorry mission but hector had not been at home and hannah had urged that the tragic nea news should be carried to autumn without delay the road began to treacherously as bruce approached the comparatively open shelf on the mountain where the parr lodge stood from somewhere in the shrouded darkness far above hirn him came the sinister leral feral wall wail ot of a cougar a trailing sound ot of wounded malevolence closer at hand an owl hooted boated as though in mockery of 0 that other more menacing cry of the wild A gleam of light through the dark weft of the pines and bruce was driving in at the open gateway to the lodge he turned his car about deferring for a painful moment the duty that was before him and for mu mulattos lating in his mind with all the gentleness he could muster the dolorous words that he must speak As ai he got down from his bis car he could hear a door opening in the lodge behind him A moment later he was face to face with florian parr even in that instant when his distress of mind was uppermost bruce detected embarrassment in flor I 1 tans ans manner hello florian he said as he extended his hand florian took the proffered hand in a brief clasp th then en seemed to draw back hesitantly brucel bruce I 1 he e exclaimed x softly youre the last person I 1 expected to seq see here tonight bruce glanced toward the house ive come with some pretty bad f lin here florian said heavily news florian he said in a low tone autumns father was killed this evening florian fell back a step killed good godt godl how he was over visiting the flock young shane brought out to be sold the boy says an eagle frightened the sheep and they got to milling shane tried to break up the jam and they got into a ditch on top of him jarvis jumped in and saved the boy but he never got out of it himself florian ran his hand across his brow speechless from shock bruce saw him glance abstractedly toward the house my godl he groaned at last la this will just about kill aut autumn nl better go in and fetch lin bruce said tersely shell be the best one to break the news to her but florian was regarding him in blank consternation bruce puzzled began to feel an impatience at his singular attitude theres no sense in delaying it florian he said harshly she has to be told and lin is the one to talk to her As he spoke he glanced toward the house it came to him that there was something strange st range about the place it seemed deserted somehow and although the windows were open no voices came out to them from within t lin here florian said heavily autumn and I 1 are alone bruce stared at florian through the gloom with eyes that seemed to t 0 go dim and lifeless with the du dull 1 1 flush that had suffused his w whole being after that first sharp stab or of incredulity ohl oh he ha said then in a voice that had died before the sound issued sue d oh I 1 seel see florians face was turned toward him ir the darkness for a moment he did not reply you dont see at all you damn tool he broke forth at last lin get here we were just getting ready to leave when we heard your car coming up the hill it if you think shut dupill up bruce rasped you dont have e to apologize t to 0 me go in and tell her ashes needed at home tonight ill drive ahead I 1 dont think I 1 can be of any more use with his fists doubled up so that his nails were like blades in his palms bruce tore himself away he had experienced tor for the first time in Ms his life the exhilarating and horrible to kill blindly he staggered to his car swung it through the gate so that tt it lurched crazily toward the wink 01 ink of the trail before he righted it then paused to await the sounds lounds that told him that florian and autumn had started from the lodge all the way back down into the valley with the shameless and heartbreaking sound of ct that other car f following 0 u ing behind him it seemed to D bruce that the stars itan rocketed through a delirious sky iky and that the night with it its burden of mad ness would descend and annihilate him CHAPTER XUI strange autumn thought with the objective detachment that emotional exhaustion brings how this gold and white drawing room that had been Milli cents preserved its aloof and reticent singularity impervious t to any unwonted experience ot of the other quarters of the house she sat huddled listlessly in a deep chair part of her consciousness attending hannah who was bidding a smothered goodby good by at the front door to snyder the lawyer the other part aimlessly adrift on that curiously attenuated sunlight that filled the room sunlight no shadows here in the room that had been peculiarly Millicen how oddly Ironi ironical call even now when the rest of the house teemed seemed to mourn in sympathy with the lairds deserted study upstairs where saint pat alone kept his dumb brokenhearted broken hearted vigil this room was a mystically serene denial of death or rather it was an affirmation of life beyond temporal things autumn pressed her fingers against her eyes at the feeling of light head edness that was coming over her the ordeal of listening to snyder read her fathers will had undone her completely and that extraordinary codicil that footnote that he had written into it to bruce landor only a short time since but here came hannah with a steaming pot pat of teal snyder had refused tea had helped himself generously to the lairds choice brandy instead funny how resentful one could become in times of emotional U upheaval phe aval over a small and irrelevant she glanced at the tiny watch that hung on a cord about her neck hector cardigan would be here again soon he had been coming faithfully every day and now she felt that without him she would be utterly lost A shadow unobtrusive gentle tell fen across the threshold and hector entered through the french windows from the lawn autumn rose and drew another chair close to her own beside the low table on which hannah with a silence that marked her own personal grief and not the decorum of a servant in the house of bere bereavement bereaved avem t had placed the tea things with pale humor autumn had noted how hannah had taken the loss of her master unto herself a after f ter a due observance of the amenities in consoling the masters daughter hannah withdrew noiselessly and hector seated himself beside autumn one sugar I 1 believe hectorl hector sh she said with an effort at briskness and lemon Q quite u te so hector returned her very hands she thought as she poured the tea with an unc agn troll able tremble seemed to have lost their character they looked weak ani and purposeless setting her cup on the table beside her |