| Show the cri P pled lady of Peri bonka dijames by james oliver curwood 1020 doubleday Dou bledar dor doraa c co inc CHAPTER IX continued 15 As ii if she had been a partner in the few seconds of his thoughts carla spoke poke softly giving him lier her bond band again in the night which shut them in I 1 want to 0 o hour you say it paul I 1 I 1 have hare dreamed and even prayed in my wickedness aud and have fancied anclee your voice telling tile me the story for that I 1 have many times asked god to forgive me but now it ir fit right and just I 1 want to hear bear you say you love me 1 I do sold paul 1 I know now that I 1 have loved you from rora tile the beginning of time before I 1 came to the before I 1 was vas born to ID this life a thousand or ir a million years I 1 have worshiped the soul that to la you yon sometime it may have been ages ago I 1 know that you belonged to me 1 I have always belonged to you said aid carla yours youra li is the love I 1 thought though wits was hopelessly hopeless tj gone from roe me up there rut but to ill elep with you to Is my right can an there aln re be such a hang as aa doubt tor for us now anuw 1 I am sure there cannot be said bald you would like to lle live without you n dt and there Is no chance no hope of saving ourselves 1 I 1 van can conceive of none cone no force could contend with jhc thc mael maelstrom stroms in the throat of the chasm at the other end all physical matier mailer la 19 ground to pulp as the water comes out through ish the gorge we are caught between the two Us ue calmly and frankly spoke the truth to her she made DO reply in words but he could feel her response creeping through her ber linger finger tips to him could feel the he tremble and thrill of it in her body lie he had not frightened her but had bad dispelled from her the beginning diming be of a fear she did not want to live ahe the truth seized upon and helped him film with a kind of shock yet vet it was a simple thing one be should have known without intuition or discovery for carla was not only a woman hut but a soul back there in claires Cl alres world she would be lost to him no matter what he might do in the way other men had bad solved such problems anly aly here IL a beginning and an end nil their own could she belong to him film again she was in his heart listen ing to his thoughts it Is strange bur I 1 want to sing in this darkness she said 1 I 1 did not know w that blindness could be so beautiful ticul t V nor 11 he be answered CHAPTER X during the night following pauls accident and carlos carlas leap men were active below the gorge derwent lost no time in racing back to the hastas and the presence of a hunti hundred ted nien men below the chasm before midnight was tile the result every device of engineering gi science and unlimited resource which might be employed came with them the big pool at the toot foot of the gorge was a glare of illumine illumination and men went down the river with their naming flaming tor torches bes afoot along its ita banks and in canoes cunora between them questing for a alired of something which a few hours before might have been a part of paul of 01 carla lucybelle lucy belle shocked into sickness w was as taken to tier her home but claire remained men blen who saw her in the weird glow low of the lights will never be able to forget the image of her face as it was photographed upon their memories tier her blueeyes blue eyes were so BO wide open and staring so filled with nn unwavering sapphire name flame that at times derwent thought of tier her as a spirit go goddess 1 I less instead of a woman could baul an have seen he her r be would have known that at last inet she had bad conquered her fear and repugnance of the wilderness she had bad come with the first men before a trall trail was cut her dress and shoes were torn her soft skin bruised and bleeding where the water crashed and thundered loudest out from between the chasm walls she stood unafraid until derwent dement twice drew tier her back bach from the nearness and danger of it she resented his appeal to leave cae the search to others and detrent ninde made it only 0 once A white face wat watching phing for its dead that was what men would remember mem beir eyes byes blue hungrily searching the black stream as it came from the mountain A fragile form that seemed as steel A woman and yet morp corp than woman an unforgettable spirit a vision aslon that was wag like tragic music always to be remembered she did not give up with the first hours ours of evening but con continued tinned to watch atch through the night she did not move from tile lie foot of the gorge slid and tile the pool ns as if she were sure that whatever ruin came to tier her would lie ile found there forwent was frequently alth ft ith her ona and tried to talk hut but her lips framed few words not until day came again did something give way in her and hopelessness take its ite place then he took tier her home borne to 09 lucy belll 1 waited too long the she said to him bilm and nd afterward hack back with the searching a 9 men dien he be wondered what she had bad meant these searchers could they have looked ti through rough the rock would have seen a fire it was the second night for paul and carla in a place where night and day were the sane same paul lad had found drifts drift of wood wod along the edge of the sand mixed with pitchy pine and a little spot la in their I 1 world was illumined by tight light in the lie tire glow sat out carla combing tier her long silky hair with her fingel paul watched tier her as she and braided the tresses benl enl employing ploy I 1 rig as an grent care ns as she were lo in her bedroom at home tills this was the third time she had given it such attention in thet their r thirty six hours of entombment ment at other times be had bad held a light tor for her at the edge of the water white while she her face and hands bands and once she had said to him it la Is wonderful water waler almost as soft as that which comes with tain rain 11 she spoke as if they might have been camping on one of the streams they loved with the sky alove and flowers about them thein it was her utter otter ile acceptance capt ot of their fate as a thing of bap which transformed what would have been a hell for him into i i heaven in the fire glow sat carla combing hr her long silky hair with her fingers she had sat in the soft sand at his feet a few moments before with her hend head pill billowed pillowed owed against his big knees and there she had unbranded her hair for him to caress as she watched and pointed out for him the unusual and beautiful pictures that built themselves in the changing coals and crumbling embers of the ore fire now she was a little distance from him and no sense of dread or fear oppressed him as he ha followed the rhythmic movements of her slim allm white fingers tim braiding iding her hair again if it were madness which possessed him it was a beautiful madness a sense of joyous living where there should have been despair at first the fighting part of him had instinctively struggled against it it but now he be accepted it fully until seeing carla as she was death seemed vague and far away and the glory of life very near they had made no effort to hide bide from themselves the coming of the end and carla thought bought of it as a beautiful thing a little journey which they were making gladly together never bad paul believed so surely in a god ile eie bad found himself fond of telling her bow he be loved her hair more than any other physical thing about her and she had bad sold said 1 I am going to spread it out so you way may put your face in it when we lie ile down to sleep this was the way she spoke of what was to come as sleep to drift off like this his bla arms about her seemed to paul the fruition of a great privilege and aal joy and not a triumph trI i of fleshly dissolution he bad told her little stories about his mother and of bf the time they hall had spent sun filled hours in the indian burial place at brantford where the proud eat of her forest ancestors were burled buried TO bill BB CONTINUED |
