Darkness and Dawn

ght be. For all their memories of this height were associated with smooth-sliding elevat

hallways, the lurking darkness which the torch could hardly hold back

ern had to drop on more alcohol, holding the

e to the ground floor the girl lagged with

eemed ominous with memories of life that had peri

ast and of the mystic tragedy which in so brief a time had wiped the h

c of the place. No poet, he; only a man of hard and practical details. Yet he realized that, were he dowered with

tairways, they chanced on curious little piles o

g, he stirred one with his hand. Something he saw t

ied the girl, st

seen a human incisor tooth, gold-filled, there in the odd

ny time to waste. If we're going to provide ourselves with even a fe

, he led her through the dark maze of ruin, wh

and ways which might have served as types of Coleridge's "caverns measurele

d to make their way down into the ruins of the once famous and beaut

g, as they clambered down the stairs and emer

beauty, of wealth and splendor, like an epitome of civilization all gat

hings--here a fallen pillar, there a shattered mass of wreckage where a huge section of

little dust-piles which Stern had so carefully avoided explaining to B

laimed the engineer presently. "W

wood, ripped from the door-ways and window-casings of th

n the walls, and to fling the comrades' shadows, hug

rcade still stood intact. They glittered with the uncanny reflection

ined shops? Probably almost everything is worthless

ions in real money, gold and silver, in all these safes here an

er supply, some bread, meat, coffee, salt, and so on, a couple of

ed. "Plain cotton cloth is worth

Stern, gazing abou

razor and a pair of scissors." Grimly he

to look around and discuss things in the morning. J

fe, there in that charnel-house of civilization, by the d

ric of any kind that would serve for coverings or to sleep upon. Everything at all in the nature of cloth had e

furrier's shop, and thi

s of skins still hung, moth-eaten, riddled wi

help us," judged Stern. "But maybe w

e disarray, which made sad mockery of the gold-leaf sign still v

f an extinct race, of unknown people in the long ago. What had he now in common with them? The remains did not eve

seamed and cracked and bulging, yet still

lainly to be seen, as the engineer held the torch c

e chest quite over. As it fell it burst. Down in a mas

yellow, and striped--the pelts of the grizzly, of

r, and still a third. "Almost intact. A little imperfection h

or this season of the year, but this is no time t

ders, as he spoke, he

to see her better. "When I find you a big gold pin or clasp to fasten that wi

there in that place, and with such a subject. For the woma

est, they looked at Stern. Her wonderful hair, shaken out in bewildering masses over

iful as that of a wood-nymph or a pagan drya

ent, but bent beside the shattered chest

ion, and this he chose. Then, with it

ight won't hold out very much longer. We've got to find food and drink before the alcoh

favore

ward the end of the arcade, where the post-office ha

lass seemed to have preserved fruits and vegetables of the finer so

e of mineral water. The case had crumbled to dust

n. "Now, a few of the other jars--that's right. To-morrow we'll co

up the stairs again," sai

burning?" asked the girl, as the

ere; only old metal and cement. Besides, it wo

ruesome place and began t

lf at least to reach their eerie. Both f

an halfway up, the ultimate d

, aided only by such dim reflections of the gibbous moon as glimmer

thless and spent, they found their refuge. And soon

ing and queen of the whole wide world domain (as they feared), sat together

e their speculations, their wonderings, their plans--now discussed specifically, no

rd the birth of another day. The fire burned low

she went, her faint illumination wanly creep

trice in the other, they wrapped themselves w

they both had but so recently emerged

Stern lay and thought strange thoughts, yearning a