THE, OMINECA HERALD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1934

their eyes devoured each other, Carla
was like ap angel. Love, trausform-
Ing death into a happy incident, was
eo uncovered glory”in her eyes at
lust, clearly revealed for him to see.
He knew that only the positiveness
of their fate could make her look at
hia ike this, with Claire Uving and
wuiting im another world outside.
Chire seemed infinftely removed from
hon, @ century away, a glow of mem-
ary--like star dust, yet he thought of
her as the match went out. His wife
weld go an Ilving. He and Carla
were about to die. He had seen un-
eovstinding and sureness in the shin-
ins depths of Carle’s eyes when the
tliy flame had- illumined their faeces,
‘he had let him know, without words,
that earth bonds were stricken from

6Ot fevanra GMs oFAR La tobger ah
earth for elther ef them. For a few
Hours they were to be in a wurld all
thelr own. Then—thefr couch of
evetiusting sleep—together, He felt
a spiritual reaction from the appres-
sion of horror and fear which had
come. thon him, ‘To feel sure that
Carla knew, and that she had given
herself to him because of her. knowl-
edge—that she wag not afrald, but waa
happy in the freedom which an ap:
proaching termination of life made
possible for them, filled. him with an
emotion which took from their brief
future its stark and ugly grimness
and gave to it an almost joyous as-
pect.

As [f she had been a partnér In the
few seconds of his thoughts, Carla
spoke softly, giving him her hand
agaln In the night which shut them in,

“I want to hear you say it, Paull
T have dreamed, and even prayed in
my wickedness, and have fancled your
voice telling me the story. Yor that
I have many times asked God to for-
give me. But now it Is right and just,
I want to hear you say—you love me,"

“T do,” said Puut,
that T have loved you from the be
ainning of time, before I came to the
Mistassin!, before I wag bern In this
life—a thousand or a million years 1
have worshiped the soul that is you,
Sometime, [It may have been ages ago,
I know that you belonged to me.”

“T have always belonged to you,”
said Carla, “Yours ts the love I
thought was hopelessly gone from me
—up there,
right, Gan there be such a thing as
doubt for.us now?"

“7am sure there cannot,” he anid.

“You would like to live?”

“Withont you,.. ho”.

“And, there ig.no chance—no hope of
saving ourselves?” |

‘47 can concefve of none, No force’

could contend with the maelstroma In;
At thie other .
end all. physical matter ig ground: to |. :
pulp as the. water: comes ‘out through’ ..-*:
We. are caught between.

the throat.of the chasm.

the SOTge.
the two." |... are’

He calmly” “and: frankly spoke “the:
She made no reply in*’.
words, but he could ‘feel’ her ‘response |

truth to her,

eveeping through her finger. tipa: to

him, could feel the tremble: end: thrill:

of it in her body. He had not’ ‘fright
ened her, but had dispelled: from’ lier
the beginning of a fear. She did not
wint-to ive. The truth seized upon
and helped him with a kindof shock,
Yet it van simple. thing, ® one ; he |.
should: ‘h

Claire's .. world, , phe’ would; ba, lost. to

him—no’ matter what ‘ho. smaight: ‘doin |

the way other men ‘had’ ‘golved ‘such
problems, Only -here, in a ‘beginning
and an end all thelr own, could she
belong to him,

Again she was fn his heart, llsten-
Ing to hla thoughts, , ;

have known | without: intuition |
or discovery. ok: ‘Carta ‘wa——not. only
a woman, but-a- Boul: ° Back’ there,’ in:

‘was taken to her home.

“Tl know—now— .

ie-Crt ipplea=
Lady ¢ OF —

Deribonka
7 DSS
Oliver

Cut ‘wood |

WINLU.
Service}

“It Is strange, but I want to sing In
this darkness,’ she sald. “I did not
know that blindness could be so beau-
tifnl ! Lad

“Nor [!” he answered.

CHAPTER X

Puring the night following Paul's
accident and Carla's leap, men were
actlve below the gorge. Derwent: Lost
no time in racing back to the Mistas-
alni, and the presence of a: hundred
men below the chasm before midnight
was the result, Every device of en-
gineering sclence and unlimited re-
source which might be employed eame
with them. ‘The big poo) at the foot
of the gorge was a glare of Ilumina-
tlon, and men went down the river
with their flaming torches, ofoot along
its banks and In canoes between them,
questing for qa shred of something
which a few hours before might have
been a part of Paul or Carla,

Lucy-Belle, shocked into sickness,
But Claire
remained. Men who saw her in the
welrd glow of the Lights will never

be. able to forget the image of her:

face as it was photographed upon their
memories, Her blue eyes were so
wide open and staring, so filled with
an unwavering sapphire flame that at
times Derwent thought, of her as a
splrit-goddess instead of a woman,
Could Panl have seen her he would
have known that at last she had con-
quered her fear and repugnance of
the wilderness. She had come with
the first men before a trail was cut.
Her dress and shoes were torn, her
soft skin bruised and bleeding. Where
the water crashed and thundered loud-
est out from between the chasm walls
she stood unafrakf, until Derwent
twice drew her back from the near-
ness and danger of it, She resented
his appeal to leave the search to
others, and Derwent made it only
once, A white face, watching for its

* dend—that was what men would re-

meniber. yes flamingly blue, hun-

erly searching the' black stream as

it cume from the mountaln. A fragile
form that seemed tireless, as steel,

. A woman, and yet more than woman—

But to dle with you is my: -

an unforgettable spirit, a vision that
was like tragic muste, alwuys to be re-
membered,

She did. not: give up with the first
haurs, of - - evening, but. continued to
wate through the nlght. She did not
nieve. from the foot, of the gorge and
‘the’ pool, BR. ‘if. she were sure Chat
whatever came to her would be found
there. . Derwent was frequently with
_ her’ and tried to talk, but her lips
‘framed few words. Not until day
came again did something give way In
her, aud. hopelessness tuke ita place.
Then. he took “her home to Lucy-Belle,
‘I waited ‘too. long,” she sald to him,

‘and ‘afterward,’ back- with the search-
ding mei, he wondered whal she had

meant,
“These searchers, coulu they have

tooked through the rock, would have
seen active. It was the second night

‘for -Poul und Carla in «a place where,

nitelit ‘and day were the sume, Paul
hnd: ‘fond drifts of wood along: the
eile - ofthe sund, mixed with pltehy
pine, and a little spot in their world
was. lilumined by Nght, ,

‘Tn the -fire: glow-sat Carla, combing
her long, «silky halr swith, her fitigers.
Paul -watehed.. ler as .8he. smoothed
~pnd braided: the., presses,
-preat. care..a8 . though. she! were in Fer
bedroom, at, home;’ Thid was ‘the third
“time. she had given’ it stich attention

‘in ‘their thirty-six hours ‘of entomb- |

ment, At other times he had held a
light for her at the edge of the water
while she bathed her face and hands,
and once she had sald to him:

a

‘gether,

miploying as

“It.

is- wondertl water, almost ag Soft ag

(n the Flre Glow Sat Carla, Combing
Her Long, Sifky Hair. With Her
Fingers.

‘hat which comes with rain,” She
spoke as if they might have been
camping on one of the streams they
loved, with the sky above and flowers
about them. {ft wag her utter accept-
ance of their fate as a thing of hap-
piness which transformed what would
have been a hell for bim Into a heaven,
She bad sat tn the soft sand at’ ‘his
feet, a few moments before, with’ her
head pillowed ngaingt his knees, and
there she had unbralded her hair for
him to caress, as she watched ‘and
pointed out for him the unusual and
beautiful pictures that™ bullt them-.
selves in the changing coals and crum-
bins embers of the fire.

Now she was a little distance: from
him, and no sense of dread or: fear
oppressed him’ ag he’ followed the
rhythmic movements of. her slim white
fingers braiding her halr again.

If lt were madnesa- which possessed,
him {t was a beautiful madness, a
sense of joyous living where. there
should have been despair. At first
the fighting part of him had insiune-
tively struggled against it,.but now he
aceepted {t fully, until, seeing Carla
ag she was, death seemed vague and
far away and the glory of life very
near. They: had made no effort to
hide from: themselves the coming of

the end, and Carla thought of it as

a beautiful thing, a ttle journey,
which they. were .making gladly to-
' Never had Paul believed so
surely In a God, He had fond him-
self fond of ‘telling her how he loved
her hair. more than any other “physical
thing about her, and she nad said:
“Tam golng to spread ‘it out so you
May put-your face-in It when we Ile
down to, sleep.” This was the way she
spoke of what was tu come—as sleep.
To drift off like this, his arms about
her, seenied te Paul the fruition of a
great privilege and joy, and not a
triumph of fleshty dissolution. He had
told her little stories about his moth-
er and of the time they had spent
sun-filled hours in the Indian burial
place at Brantford, where the proud-
est of her forest ancestors were buried,

“Y could’ not understand her then,
when she told me how gladly she
would give her life, were it not for
me,.to live for a single year the giori-
ous freedom of Molly Brant," sald
Paul, “But I do—now. In that one
year she knew she would find. some
thing which would more than make up
for all'the other years she might live,
just as every hour bere with you {s
more to.me thantten thousand back
there."

As he sald these things, and belleved |:
and felt them, there was in him a

will to live which would not utterly

extingnish itself, -. [t ‘was scarcely

“more than a4. spark, a smoldering em-

‘ber that was. bound, ,to, ‘die,, ‘for his

‘ayes, his brala,, and. every fdeulty of

reason which he possessed told ‘him
there was no hope of ‘finding a way.
beyond the walla which shut them

An, ‘A tew minutes, before, when Carla:|'

had sat at his knees, ‘with bis fingers
feeling the warmth and sweetness of
her hair, this spark had leaped into
flame, . It still, remained as Carla
ylelded at last ‘to his demand, and
gave herself to the bed ha had made
for her, with his coat for her pillow,

ee ere een

—

“Tt seeing almpat a “sin to. ‘eep [|

she said; and tf slumber were near,
- OF -even ‘the necessity for it, ha could

find, no shadow’ of it,in her face, She

might have risen’ from her bed an

hour ago, #0. freshly. clear and lovely.

were her eyes, go deep thelr lustrous
content and happiness when she
looked at him. Yet, after a little, her
tashes drooped as if to vell-the love
behind them, and lay-in velvet dark-
ness aginst the whiteness of her
cheeks. For a while Paul sat close
and watched her, and with-each breath

the flame in him grew ‘stronger, the
demand that. something | happen,
through force of God or man, to break
down the walls of death -which en-
vironed her, .

Alone, >with. Carla's  uncansclons
form lending faith asd Inspiration to
hig thought, he fixed his attention.” As
a dozen tires hefore,” on: the, smuke
which rose from the burning’ wood.

Where did it yo? ; ee

Hours ago he had asked himself this
question, and until: he had discovered
a thin fog of smoke settling over the
water, and’ drifting “away. with the
rush of it, his blood had run ‘swiftly
with a thrill of hope, And now, in
spite of the fact that he knew where
it went, the. question | remained, as if
a valce inalde his head chad been
trained’ ta ask it, barrot-like, ans
“could not be made to stop,.

He and Carla shad collected a pile
of pitehwood. As they . hud- found
each’ stick they had reclaimed «lt. a
treasure discoyered, until the thrill of
a game had become part of their en-
deavor. - He chose & “stick heavily
welghted .with pitch” and. lighted “the
end of it fn the fire. . Then he walked
off into the gluom where he ‘and: Carta
had gone many times before, . It was
Hike following the ‘nside-.of.a great
rock drum which was fiat on‘one side
*—flat where the water thundered. and
raced through’ ‘the mountain,

When his torch ‘hurned short, he re-
turned for another, . Carla had: not
moved {0 her sleep, and’ he, buried
himself in blackness again, following
the rock so: closely. that his body
touched ‘it, trying at every step to
Pierce with his vision'a little farther
into the stygian pit over Ais head, It
was. Into this pit, that'‘the smoke
went, mounting iii drifting splrals; like
smoke in an Indian teped, Up” there,
he thought, it was taker’ by ‘a ‘slowly
dragging current of air made by the
suction of. the stream, and descended

to exit from the mountain with’ It. |
There was onty one breok In: the clr- |.

cular wall of #ruesomely black and
water-worn rock, against which, In
ages past, a subtérranedn:-flood had

washed and roared, This was 'where |-

a small section ‘of it had given way
fram overhead and had piled up a
mass of broken .stune. which he
had climbed, -with--Carla .watehing
from below. “Here. the. smoke. from
lis torch: did -not- £0: upward: but set-
tled about his: head) and -diseppeared
townrd the’ vent

through which the river rushed with |:

great. force, He went-to this outlet,

It was a hole which his eyes were |

unuble to measure, choked to within
nh foot of its upper jaw by a,seething |
flond of water, and, out of, whieh— |

though the space for-sound was small |

‘--came such a. sullen -rumbling that
his blood was chilled as he listened to.
It. Alone, he would have plunged
Into this, To die fighting, pitting his
small strength against all the forces
which might oppose him, was the urge
which was refusing to subdue Itself
within him. . He, flung out his flamlag
torch and saw It swallowed , in an in-
atant. Like that he: would have gone
lf Carla.- had not. been: _ there to go
with hime 6 uo. tps . ‘

He: turned ‘back to the. fire and put ;

on a _fresh stick of resinous’ wood be-
fore. ‘he sat in, the ‘sand ‘near enough
to Carla to ‘touch’ her with his hand.
‘He, wondered, if. fear , had “begun, to
‘seize upon him as he logked at her un-
conscious /form; ; foreseelng, the . tor-

‘ment! of {mpending- hoyres wwhen mad-.

ness ‘wonld be:fur-him alone, Unless
they dled together,-he must outlive
Curla—to’ snve her ‘from a realization
of that ‘whictr hey
strength, should bear, “ ae

oGHAPTER XI,

cr es

Ci ay

fe hee od ‘

Paul knew he. must ‘keep ont, OF.

Fouse Carla from. her sleep. The

nakedness and: desolation of afoneness |
were turning’ him inte a coward; Not

‘a coword who was afrald of. death,

‘hut one: Who felt Incrersing horror In:

in: the: mountain |.

in ‘hia greater

ing tor it. He went to
‘the. debris ofsrock again, He had ne
reason for this, oo thought, except
‘that It offered him the.one chance to. |
do something. physical besides fombing. |
his, way over unstable and shifty sand:
The desire fora work-to do was an.
ache in hig body as well as his brain,,
and he , began to climb the broken
mass, ag: “he. had done. once ‘before,
He had’ gone about’ thirty” ‘or forty
feet above. the. floor of thelr dungeon
then, but this time he found footholds !
which carried him a lttle farther,
until, from the: point he'reached, he |
could look over the bulge in the rock .
which had previously’ concealed thelr |
fire, and could clearly gee Carla in
the glow of It.

He had the destte to call to her, to
feel her glorious life a part of their
existence again. Sleeping, she seemed
gone from him. He swung his torch,
making a writing of fire in the biack-
ness, and his Ups almost eried her-
name; Then he recognized the weak-
ness of his act and began to pull him-
self a little more'up the broken wall,

‘Tf Carla had, “awakened and turned
her eyes toward -him, she would have
seen a strange and weird thing. The .
burning piece of pitchwood was 4
spout of yellow flame, Ulumining at
times the ghostly, figure that bore it,
and then floating alone. in a limbo of
midnight emptiness :as tf borne by
shades that in color and spirit were a *
part of the gloom, She might have
thought, rousing herself trom, slumber,
that. hands which were no longer
Paul's wera bearing it toward the roof
of thelr world Steadily up into this
plt of Acheron it went, and there it
disappeared, as if: smitten. by a mighty
breath ‘that: extinguishéd ‘It In a sec-
ond. For a time utter darkness lay
where the Nght had been. Then the
torch reappeared as suddenly as sable
winga had engulfed It, and {0 another

‘

inomenr. © wis “plunaing, Gown through
space fa few: minutes Paut came
where It, had fallen: sputtering. in the
wAndeeand , picked it Bp. ‘again, | More
than, ever: ‘his. face, was ‘like: that of a
ghosts, ‘Els. heel: . Was: marked. by a
hleeding. wound. “Hig: shirt” was in
shreds on his breast, Hlé eyes blazed
in a way that would have start! ed
Carla,., foo ons oe

He went to “the ‘edge of tie water
nd bathed his face and hands, Then
the returned to the. fire and knelt’ be-
side Carla. He raised her head gently
in his arms, and she did not awaken.
He held it against his breast and
kissed her hain .- _

“Carla!” hé’ wlilspered, * cote

Her lips moved, her lashes 13 trembled,
and opened slowly to unvell. her eyes,

“You have slept a long time,” he
said. At leust--IL seemed fong—and
‘T took a torch und elimhed the pile of -
racks agnin. I went higher’ than be-
‘fore--g0-high that I enme to a ledge,
‘and, followed rand then I came to a
great: erack; tn - ‘the wall, and there, at
the’ end. ‘ofit—I saw--light™

“7; fehe!" she breathed.

“Yes, light. ‘Preangthe sun T have
‘found a way out’. ‘ a
There was. silence: then. Almost -

‘without effort, it seemed to Paul,

‘Garta-crept out of his arms, He knew
‘that something. was golng with her—
forever....Her fave was whiter than
his own,” What he had dreaded to see
lay In her eyes—a thing fighting back
and crushing the glory which had
lived in them for a little while. The
understanding of what his discovery
meynt came quickly. to her, and -he
saw a fubrie of assembled dreams £0-
Ing to pleces, Iike one ‘of the odd
jumble plettres on. a screen, When
its hundred disintegrated parts came
tovether again, they formed COlaire’s
fuce; walting for-him atthe end of
the. ‘trall of Nght sent to guide them
back to en earthly destiny still unfal-
filled, and which, ger a time, had '
passed centuries away from them,

Carla rose to her. teat and gazed
past him into darkness, and so strange-
ly did her eyes dwell on-empty space
that Paul could only look’ at her and.
walt for her to apeak,

Continued Next Week

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