Show baiz ADE A DE by velyn evelyn E campbell by evelyn erelyn Cani ervice CHAPTER XIV continued 21 tle lie did not know why he was wag the there re except that ills his body no longer subjugated ly bi mind brought him without volition into a peor poor tragic comedy of 0 the dreadful night people had find been killed robes lobes and blankets brou brought glit from somewhere covered the still things with a spurl spurious decency ambulances were coming rile g their distant clamor dulled by bv the heaviness of the air beat upon the ash shrinking silence A poor creature once woman gasped at brians elbow three of em dead tb three ree I 1 something ought to be done about it three of em just like that 1 she snapped her lingers lie ile is saw n w that there were three women 0 in beneath a blanket on the ground their feet in high heeled slippers protruded from the shallow sli allow coverly covering the edges of their dresses showed and their thin stockings drawn over el slender en terrible limbs the black bulk built of the patrol wagon told about them and then he saw close cl 08 e to tits his feet in n larger mound that must have been a man lie he was a poor girl in slithered 11 a voice served him right too but he let her in for or it same its as himself A helmet advanced upon them none 0 that now or up you go ac clear e 1 r out you an you youl I 1 monotonous wit ith h the duty of k a hundred such td ats the womans comans voice faded whining away three 0 ern em all at once I 1 As if that were a matter of mourning then brian heard another sound too faint to be a sigh but breathed against hla his ear like the echo of a lost summer ne lie turned ills his face and saw her standing where she had been all this time close beside him so that lie he could have hae touched her if he had known alln linda da he said and site she put out her hand to him like a lost child as the be had known she would do they took the few steps to the pavement ime t side by side as it if they belon belonged geil to on one e another other and had come there together tile the line of questioners closed in behind them it was a dark street of closed ah shop op windows and little businesses where re women did not belong A wide open poolroom was flooded with yellow light A fruit stand open to the wort world d offered public shelter they walked on a little way wordlessly then all at once there was a door opened to them A broad white coated arm drew them without cont contact net into the warm fragrance of a narrow place where re one must walk in single file or be en wrapped in the steamy vapors of huge coffee urns and frank griddles friddles gr iddles therell be a little corner back beyond explained coffee coatee john signaling over ner ills his shoulder with a mas she curled thumb they went as lie he told them coffee john find been there so many years that no one remembered when he fie came ills shop was large enough to turn a window and a door to the world and deep enough to shelter sli elter his philosophy from his narrow counter lie he had fed the alie great ones of the cl city t and offered the cup of charity to the lost children of god ile he had not moved from this place so that he had grown wide and heavy and his face ace was livid with tile the moisture of his sustenance but he had seen tile the world go by and he knew of all its faces even cen the false ones and what was hidden behind the papier mache ills broad back turned upon brian and linda shut them into a 8 narrow crevice of their own and stranded them hem upon a shallow wooden bench wedged behind a little table with pale slipping oilcloth and pewter spoons nut but tie lie was there and she was there and I 1 lint hint was enough why you ou tell me linda linda I 1 what do you cu know of love if you could throw it away an ay for such a little reason he said site she dropped in her corner fra fragile fie and bending from the of the storm her face was a small white whit triangle against the blackness of tier furs somehow he be got hold of her hands and held them warming them until the thread of life came back tell me linda and site she told him meaningless thill things s tb tant I 1 were freighted with the tragedy of tile the world dark noisome things like paths through a fever feer swamp she told of her shame that was weakness and her pride that was without honor bonor site she abased herself with words so cruel that lie he was A as a based abused with her and in the file narrow cell they clung t aft gether get her like wind driven moths not enduring tile the blue white light but through h it all he believed in her and warmed lier her hands and through her hands to tier her heart 1 I 1 could not let you be hurt through me brian slie she wanted to go in spite of hla his arms she struggled to be free know ing lint flint freedom meant the end of all things for her anu Y ai couii not leave me you never will my a sweet beet my sweet I 1 there Is s else ele but you there Is no other lift life than ours os I 1 listen linda we e will find our own it t will be small and line and sweet ond and it will belong to just ourselves there will bp be ni at grit wid there will be on DO lies those little bouses in the snow that ilant sou m rem remember eMerl A reporter finished his coffee in the lighted front shop and slammed down the cup not much news in a smashup like that lie he complained no news newa after all the boys got it A cop an a couple of frails nun did you see it off johnl john coffee john nodded polishing a cup yas I 1 was lookin he was a fine man though ohara 11 would have been hed have made the grade or been down at the bottom tor for keeps wooden zort sort of a guy he be yas like wood nard hard the door slammed the reporters face burled buried sourly in ills turned up collar showed pale tor for a moment at 4 0 w 0 11 could not let you be hurt through me brian 11 the window he glanced sardonically at the broad man in his narrow groove and vanished coffee john finished glossing the cup it shone like old ivory then he glanced at the dark shallow wall behind the partition the two figures blurred lie ile handled the cup lovingly yet with delicacy filled it with a stream of dark golden liquid touched it with yellow cream from a private bottle and laid three little cubes of sugar upon the thick saucer edge one could have been no better served with a light step he went back to them and put the cup before her A lady might need war r mial up cp on uch a night lie he said in a distant rumbling voice and returned to his place she was spent and exhausted esli austed site she had said all that she elie could say any and lie he had listened to nothing at all hand moving touched the handle of the thick cup wavering but with it a sudden poignant longing tor for life she sha lifted it and drank the door opened from the night A voice whined bleed inquiries coffee john came again your taxis a walan out front sir oes iles gettin him film a bite ol 01 0 lunch they lifted new faces the taxi I 1 by george I 1 tell him were coming I 1 I 1 cried brian THE END enda |