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