Show fae e bof V b kanka 7 1 cl ane oliver cutko 0 d ell L D doran cv INC i e M 1 0 D V SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I 1 introducing some of at the th people of the pretty little french canadian villas village or of Peri bonka particularly clarl the t crippled lady idol ot or the tample simote inhabitants and heroine ot of an plo destined to live long ions in the v all itle annals annala CHAPTER IT II how the romance of f molly brant sifter of the great indian chief joseph brant and sir william johnson Joh ngon in p t revolutionary days dar cornea comes down to today with the birth of a rou mo paul to molly barke wife of powerful irful new york financier and her beath death when paul 1 a thirteen year old molly kirke was a 0 de pendant een dant at ot of molly brant and her boy bay has ha many of the indian characteristics at thirty two paul marries claire durand daughter of his hi fathers busi bulnes partner he Is in charge of an n immense engineering work on the mistassini river near peri bonka which his hi millionaire father has undertaken bit hi indian blood deplores the destruction st of at the wilderness and his thou thought haj n are more of carla hainan not th then h the crippled lady than of his hia work CHAPTER ill III pauls paula wife Is I 1 in europe she ahe having no inclination ta live in n those horrible woods wooda he comes come to see in carla daughter of a central european immigrant with her devotion to her invalid mother and her work of educating the village children his hi ideal of womanhood CHAPTER IV paul writes to his hl wife urging her to loin iota him though houch carla Is the inspiration of the letter later th ihna t evening fassl passing n g the haldan home home he be hears carla erving ile he enters the cottage mrs haldan hafdan lonn long a hopeless invalid Is dead pauls paula efforts to comfort carla he reels feels bring brine them closer together CHAPTER TER V cesire announces her intention of joining paul on the tha blis tn in short time she also writes write to carla of whom she ahe h has 0 heard beard from paul a letter of kind I 1 v sympathy on the tie death of her mother CHAPTER VI paul faul goes boes to que be 0 a meet claere and brings her to his hi temporary home though the she to Is apparently apparent jy glad to be with him and evinces evince warm carli carl and pauls other friends he feels rho Is 19 only there because she feelo it ber duty she Is not really happy ile he becomes become aware of it a gulf cult between him and his hi wife paul nodded so do I 1 lie said and felt the desire of all the world to take carlas head against ills his breast and hold it ft there al boullt aut fastened itself upon him and a little later inspired by the sweat ness nesi of her manner toward him lie whispered to his wife claire Cl alre you fire ara wonderful wonder full I 1 god knows I 1 hope day to make inake you happy tou kou will the she answered and the lie gentle mystery in tier her voice and eyes stirred him with a deep emotion I 1 until the play grew tiresome they brought sticks and chunks of wood f from mm the edge of the timber and fed thero them to the hidden bidden hands bands of the iiii stream ream the result was always the p same me except that chips and grass and arety light pieces of wood raced swift aly and safely away like the pasteboard oard plate as it if they were too insignificant ibi cant to attract attention from atlow but with the heavier objects 1 there was a variation BO be small in what 1 happened that the watchers on the rode rock were amazed and fascinated and started a little game of guessing how bow many seconds would pass before lucy belles huge snake spat up an object and then swallowed it again to end their sport paul and deri went staggered irom from the edge of the timber with a forty toot foot log which I 1 had lain so long in the drying sun and wind that they could bear its weight on their shoulders and betcie this was tossed over the five made their guesses the loser to entertain the tha other four at dinner the next day tva a notion to ride this log through the tha gorget gorge 1 exclaimed lucy ibelle 1 1 I want to know what Is un nn ir wt and between tosei those walls which jyon oily eay no one has baa ever explored ivoun you suppose can be rherar ther ar bah iah aal inferno of devils I 1 imagine re her hurb husband hAd t TOJI bly abi not fairies might live thap the st jd claire 1 A 4 black blac and sunless place where lover water maids without eyes frolic in IL ta Q darkness added paul W w r a K ingrom of where a are e made and sent out into tha e world said carla derwent was preparing his end of pe tha log 14 for a final heave 1 I insist it U A a place of devils and death still ilka e tucy cy belle le rd id vice like to see apere ere abter or all its fifty million af oil mystery I 1 are you ready paul beady eady 10 I 1 T toa e log pitched down and as it NI ll 11 the end of it swung like a living gwng and struck paul even before att a bi mow 0 W in the lightning flash of time when eyes behind could see it sweeping tr in upon pon him bim a sudden scream his consciousness and as the timber ber caught him he saw it was alastra abose cry had tried to warn war jthn leirl then he be was over with photographic graphic clearness his eyes beheld his big fate tho the water seemed to reach up and cato cata him on oa tta its oily breast and ifor for a k brief instant afifa this there was TL about atoll ita field for some unac unaccountable goUn tabie reason ho czi felt no aio sons sense e of fear or terror terro r even wha n erces that wre were Irre irresistible alst lift but anye pulled him down ile he kul w lit it was death the death they had bad aloyed with and lightly talked about yet its presence sence closing about him did no no rob his mind of its ita vision and judgment I 1 nor frighten him into genie lets leks wrestling with it IL he would come up agoo again ilive alive near the jagged tooth of rock after that would be hla his end andin such an hour as this seconds second became eternities of life his wife caria barla lucybelle lucy belle and derwent were still nearer to him than the final stroke of death he be would soe them especially claire and carin caria when he looked bade back in thoss those few moments of grace which the monster of the undertow would give him these two find and the sti supreme preme faith chieh had bad wrought a comradeship between him and nil the forces of nature gave him instinctively and without effort the courage not to be afraid the tha undercurrents under currents In draughts and rea refluxes fixes carried him with a quiet and deliberate leisureliness which gays gave him no physical discomfort except that of holding his breath yet they were wera so powerful so BO utterly sure eure in their grip that when he made an experimental effort to reach the surface it ft was as if he be were struggling against a wooden wall to save gave the air in h his lungs he restrained himself from tur further exertion and when at last he came up near the rock and felt fresh air in his face he bad suffered no greater inconvenience than if 1 he had bad taken a long dive his first thought was of tile the log his second of the granite snag against this after a moment he felt himself being slowly lifted and throwing out his bis hands he was thrilled by the fibrous slimy touch of a ropelike rope like substance which had gathered thickly about it just under the surface of the water river weeds and flag had wrapped themselves in a tough belt about the tha rock and so firmly had they attached themselves to it that he knew they would tor for IL a time at it least hold bold up his weight from the sucking undertow which wu was already beginning to drag at hla bu limbs he ha looked toward the cliff aal raised one hand to wave tit at the r ddn al who stood there bere with the matsu dt stanca paul saw adv the swift deliberate P plunge una through space of the slim 0 body and the water in his eyes he could not make out which was claire or carla or lucybelle lucy belle but bat something told him it was Us his wife who stood nearest to the edge with her arms reaching out toward him and then on the cliff one we jomaa mail sa said ld to another are you geini W with fill him tile the woman spoken to gazed wide wd A eyed motionless voiceless anti anil after a moment of tense waiting the other said then I 1 am ami I 1 i CHAPTER VIII 1 paul saw the swift deliberate plan plunge through space of the slim body which la in the uncertainty ot his vision an instinctive and positive impulse told him was claires Cl alres A comans womans piercing cry came from the cliff but bat no no responsive echo of horror escaped big awn lips so no sound but an articulate artl cult gasp ns the figure struck the water lind and disappeared an appalling and diva devastating stating weakness seized upon him blin a deadly sickness of shock A thing that loosened the grip of his hl fingers the clinging belt of weeds weeda ond find enado arado him limply impotent against tha T force of the undertow ro for ba filo instant tAlt Us his brain reeled in dark se jeas sile sha began to go down easily anil zed eloway pt 11 f the cruel and aad mur derous hands be daic ven t fea rul of the inertness to which hii he had momentarily succumbed then water struck into hla his face and startled him heart and brala brain leaped la in rs re aponta to its warning and ho he thrust up wildly and caught the weeds again they bull huns closely to the rock allowing him to drag his body up op until his bis shoulders wore were out ot of water once inori anore he heard derwent shout as if from a mile away but he paid no attention to the cry nor did he look toward tile the cliff the thought in his mind blind was that claire would b be e with him in another moment or two she would come fo co the surface near the rock and he be must be ready to seize and hold her with him until the weeds weeda gave way or a miracle happened five or six feet from him where the witter was like a pool of oil that had bad no motion a little disturbance sud bud denly denY necked flecked its surface a change of light a drifting up of something in tangible and shadowy a nebulous blotch which changed under hta his eyes to substance a floating mass of hair alitar the sun was the water was almost black but there was wag no glint i of gold in what he saw tile the hair was dark carias face ace became a part of it in a ino moment ment it seemed to him that tile monsters who lived about the tha rock held her up for him with a smile ou on tier her lips and in her eyes her face hpward him film and her arms reaching out ile he was halt half in a daze and might have funded fancied some of the things he saw hut but carlo carla was there she not his wife lind find corn come e to joint join him in death the quiet terrible drama of it held him from calling her name as he waited tor for tier her to come within his reach but the undertow brought her no nearer for a second two ot of them three or four it held her away from him and each of these seconds was IL a lifetime in passing then be saw the distance between them widening and as aa it widened the things below began to drag carla down she made no struggle did not cry out to him but only raised her hands so that be might see they were waiting tor for him and wanting him as aa she went to her kingdom ot of her land of dreams he swung himself out thrusting against the rock and when the ogres agres of the water pit dragged drained at their victims carla was in his arms his brain was keenly alive again and he knew that teams of 0 oxen have pulled ull d but futilely against the under currents which one after another were transporting them irresistibly and yet without great haste baste through watery space thought of physical salvation scarcely filtered in a ray ot of hope through his bis mind and ills his senses were by the suffocating presence of death in carla were ills bis strength and courage he locked his him arms about tier her closely ile he could feel eel her clinging to him with the tha game bame desire to remain inseparable when the end came strange A kingdom of a land of at al haschar a place of fairies a boril of dreams they were going to it all between the walls where no man bad ever looked death t A magnificent adventure with carla in his arms I 1 A roaring filled his ears th they were traveling swiftly now his tenses grew less distinct like color colom merging one into another in a sunset city queer why it should end like this after years of life be and carla caria together as it must have been intended from the beginning A glorious graciousness of fate an all immortal symphony of fulfilment fulfillment to pass on like this with carla no matter how bow many hundred centuries had bad gone before had 1 and some gome ono one ills hla wife had aid that seconds meant more than years ears when like this the roaring was an enormity ot of sound its willing wailing was like the wind in the cave of 0 aeolus its thunder like ilka ito stenfors Sten tors blasts rumbling through the empty bowels of the earth they numbed and anesthetized yet left him with a shred of living thinking cells which told him they were tearing through the gullet of the gorge and which at the same time held his arms unyielding as bands of steel about carlas body although close to the edge of an abyss of utter darkness consciousness not quite leave him vaguely he ha I 1 experienced the thrill thrift of being transported arted out of a hell of tumultuous abound bound into a soft and gently drifting bea aea which was without noise or violence lence for an interval he fancied his arms were wings and that he be was trying to fly making rather a bad mess mes of it because one side of him refused to ordinate coordinate co with the other this was the arm aria only one rm rin now which held carta carla with the other after a little lie he found himself clawing and digging into something A man may live a hundred years but when he to is ready to the die and looks back over the th path he has traveled it be seems e ma very short abort and the hundred years no do more mora than a few hours paul had bad reflected upon the illusory and baseless fabric of time its inadequacy and the hollowness of its human measurement one who Is happy lias has but a fleeta fleeting ng vision n of life carla had said bald to lam him once once to live long and terribly one must be unhappy la in prison it was odd why he should be thinking of this its as he continued to claw and dig but time tj e eeck bad d fastened itself upon him like a 1 lee cli i and it each second of his bis wideawake wide awake life had bad been as aa long its is these few seconds he would have lived a thousand yeam during this cycle of his bis e existence XI stence he slowly and tediously progressed until with air lining ailing his bis lungs again and the smothering folds of tear near breaking way away from him blin he be knew that eliat he was no longer in water that ills his lingers fingers were clutching at soft sand and that luhar oia bip which he had dragged with mra hiis larla there was scarcely a breath between tills this knowledge and the tha full sad and of every faculty possession poignant of with welb his bla brain was capable but darkness mystery inspired being the defeat ot of death and the fact of L his is own physical salvation were nil all at once la in an agonized bunim submerged arged which dead form limp appeal the 8 spirits ho he clasped la in his bis arms anna about him listened of the sable cable blackness to his bis voice calling carlas name he be struggled to brt bring ng life back into as had worked over once he her body IL little girl who had been taken ta kan from to memory came the water and now him vividly of the first gentle beating of the heart again the slow returning until ot of tile the soul into the tender body the child lived and breathed once but carlas soft breast |