Snow-Blind

, his eyes turning from one to the other of them like those of a beaten hound. All the masterfulness, all the bombast, had been crushed out of him; even the splendor of his flaring hazel eyes was dim

he whisper

e laugh; you frighten me more than anything-why i

knowing what might happen." Her voice trembled; she passed a hand as shaking as h

ered, and he bent

ashion it was-though the look was that of a beggar for alms. "Give me those warm little hands of yours." She

a minute," said Pete. "

aid of the bears-ah!" He drew her head savagely against his breast, folded his

yes, w

ou frig

right. I didn't know-poor Hugh!-how cold and cramped you were. What a shame that you took a false alarm and hid yoursel

lity, was like a vivifying wine to him. The color came ba

have been me-that the men might, after all, have been desc

soft mouth to his. "But, Hugh, you told me your story, don't you rem

his embrace and searched his arms with questioning fingers. "Why are you cross, Hugh? Did I say

her close against him; "I can't ask you to love me, Sylvie-to marry me. Now you know what it is lik

gh-if I

o love me?

es

e other toward Sylvie. "She loves me. She sees me as I am!" Suddenly he put his grizzled head on Sylvie's shoulder and wept. She felt her way back to the chair, sat down, and drew him

feet, smoking. But he was unnaturally silen

dared Bella or Pete to betray him, he played his heroic part with boisterous energy; his tongue wagged like a tipsy troubadour's. What an empty canvas, a palette piled with rainbow tints, a fistful of clean brushes would be to an artist long starved for his tools, such was Sylvie's mind to Hugh. She was da

happy artist Hugh all but welded into one man for her and for her love. Those were splendid days, d

t was not that she doubted Hugh-such a suspicion would have struck him instantly aware and awake-but that she had become in some way uncertain of herself, restless, depressed, afraid. And it was always his love-making that brought the reaction, a curious, delicate, inner recoil, so delic

Bella and Pete. It was a bare rock exposed to half the world and all the eyes of Heaven; and for a man in hiding, a man who lived, yet whose name was carved above a grave, it was a very target for untoward accident. Some trader or tra

gray cripple and the slim, unseeing girl, groping and clinging, absolutely shut off from any contact with reality as long as

lled-to which Hugh shouted back: "You hunting for us!

!" Pete muttered to

vie into the fragrant silence of the forest trail. To her it was all scent and sound. Hugh whispere

e lifted her over logs and fallen trees, and sometimes, before he set her down, he kissed her.

h your eyes than I ever coul

hat's why God gave me the eyes I have, bec

g-station?" she asked. "I wish you could take

an't bear to have you out

ed to find me. Do you suppose they think that I'm de

straight up the mountain, dear one. We'll rest now and then; when we get to the rocky place just below the top, I'll carry you. Are

ess really last so long? Perhaps it was the nervous shock and the exhaustion as much as the glare. I am su

miss anything, now that I have you? My career, my old friends, my old life, my lib

ered, as though she were oppres

as big and beautiful as the world. I feel, with your love, that I can move mountains. I can fashion the world close to my heart's

t will come back." I

tumbled rocks, and set her down beside him on the great granite crest that rose like the edge of a gray

n the edge of a cliff,

e. There's no greater mind than my own in all that dark green circle. It's pines, pines, pines to the edge of the earth, Sylvie, an ocea

e the flat,

ight. I'm an outlaw, dearest, remember. There's a curve of the river, like a silver elbow. And Sylvie, up above us, an eagle i

ck. "What d

a parson-don't be afraid. Would I frighten you, Sylvie?

lling, had left hers, she bent he

ow.... But please don't kiss

, but her hands instantly hunte

I am in the dark. I do love you. I do. But you must wait. Soon it will be spring

God knows I'm real enough." And he thought so! "My

trong and brave. Wait just a little, Hugh. Try to be patient. Suddenly it will all come right.

to love it. I was so close to happiness, and now you've

you must not hurry me. Dear Hugh, be patient." She found his hand and raised it, a dead weight, to

ray silence Hugh led he