Darkness and Dawn
more trepidation than he would have eyed a to
ent thought, came to no action save to stand there, thunder-struck, ho
e as though to fling it clean away. But er
what it appears to be, if it isn't merely some freakish bit of stone
is calculations already seemed crashing down about h
broadened rapidly before his mental vision,
, an almost perfect specimen of the flaker's art, showing distinctly where
one and a quarter wide, at its broadest part. The heft, wher
t any other time or place, the engineer would hav
if to convince himself, "it's only
, the sign that Robinson Crusoe found on the beach w
matter, anyhow? Let it come--whatever it is! If I hadn't just happened to find this, I'd have
ge, and, now more cautiousl
If trouble comes, it comes, that's all. I guess I can meet it. Always have got away with it, s
en back to the Metropolitan he came, donned his bear--skin, which he fastened with a wire nail, and starte
. "What I need is an ax. Perhaps this afternoon I can
ith a good ax and these two revolvers--till I find some
could easily see, had been both spacious and luxurious, but now it offere
h had probably hung there and, when the frame rotted, h
azement bur
?" he shouted. "Well
r, the face of Allan Stern bore some resemblance to its original self. True enough, his hair remained a bit jagged, es
to a certain aspect of civilization that made the wh
well pleased. He smi
ered, as he once more took up the bag a
not taken much time to rest on the way--the eng
g, he called t
atrice! Are you a
eet him in the doorway. Out to him she stretched her hand, i
elight over his changed appearance; but all the
ew life and vigor after a sound nigh
of color in her wondrous hair, as it
nd waist with bits of metal taken fr
sion of gold pins and chains, in some of the Fifth Avenue shop
Bengal skin fell back from her
of hair and of those gray, penetrant, questi
d read his thought, and began speaking--of what? He
e, till now self-centered, analytical, cold, he
nxiety. The thought that he was working, now, for her; serving
him, his fears dropped from him like those
e a bit uncertain. Stern had walked narrow girders six hundred feet sheer up; he had wor
Yosemite Ca?on at Cathedral Spires. But never had h
he continued. "Se
pear-point. Then, giving her the Cosmos bottle, he bade her drink. Gra
sts, she listened. But when he told her about th
ze that. If you'll show me the place--and just stay
take a d
nodded, her
exclaimed. "Think! I haven't
silence came between them, a silence so profound that they could even he
haunting fear of the wood, of what the asseg
eady. But first, we must take just one more look, by this
this new day and for this wonderful, strange life that now confronted them, they climbed
nder over that vast, still, marvelous prospect
of verse you quoted last night? The one about t
et on London Bridge, of course," she smiled
s much on poetry, you understand. It wasn't exactly in my line. B
poem," she answered thoughtfu
y now doth like
the morning.
domes, theaters
he fields a
littering in the
ng its long and level rays across the water
ed both bare arms; and, clad in the tiger-skin alone, stood for a little
ked at he
-the other days of routine and of tedium, of orders and specifications an
exclaimed he
ten about that; I was dreami
e sun more be
plendor valley
never felt a
deth at his o
e very house
ty heart is stand
remendous classic
g out together on that strange, inexpl
brooklet in the forest. The nesting birds, below, were busy "in song and solace"; and thr
d--a flock of swooping gulls, snowy and beautiful and free. Thei
ht arm slipped about the sinuo
ality. "Bath for you, breakfast for both of