Still Jim

world was made for love. Now I

of the E

down stream until long after darkness set in. Then, utterly exhausted, bleeding and bru

ub bag and started hurriedly on down the river. The stream was much deeper below the point of the accident, with several large falls. Jim worked his way alo

ness and faith. There was one moment when, toward sunset, Jim's strength almost failed him. The walls were rougher now.

a set of instruments. Jim felt that he bore now not only his own but Charlie's responsibility to deliver the maps to Freet. As he lay looking up at the stars, that second night alone in the crevice, Jim realized ever since he and Charlie had started on the expedition, he had ceased to be homesick. He realized this when, on this second night, he tried to keep

about him. The canyon walls here, though very rough, gave promise of access to the top. Jim examined the beach carefully for trace of Charlie and, finding none, he prepa

heights was impossible. But Jim would never be a tenderfoot again. He had been on short rations for three days and was weak from overwork. But he ha

last knife-edged ledge and hoisted himself up onto

. Jim waved his hand and dropped, panting, to await their arrival.

s Charl

ed from their horses beside Jim; then the rancher

ught some underclothes; didn't know what shape you'd be in. Here is the suit you left at my place. God! I thought you'd never need it. Billy, start a

dam site," sai

you get some grub," sa

in and again in the wilderness. And yet as they sat looking at the young fellow with his gray eyes shocked and grief-stricken and perceived his boyish idolatry o

e. They had to bury Tuck right off. They'd ought

his headstone for him, and I know just wh

be blamed goo

ey?" asked t

the fearful depths where Charlie and

leave the wood, to make

with blood some Son of

arth to Heaven, not as

ly given, to his own kin

Tuck crossed th

the crevice had preceded him. The men of the Service were inured to the idea of the sacrifice of blood for the d

tain during the winter, serving his apprenticeship to the concrete works and the superintendent as Mr. Fr

most part, and they were very silent about Penelope. Jim wrote Pen from time to time, but he was not an easy writer and Pen

mall man of about fifty, with a Roman nose, bright blue eyes and a shock of gray hair. This was Iron Skull Williams, whom Freet had described in detail to Jim and who was to be Jim's right hand. He was an old Indian fighter. Th

been a week old before Iron Skull had heard of Exham and the brownstone front and of Penelope. While Jim had learned what no other man knew, that Williams' life-long, futile

ge, makes men very dependent on one other for companionship. Jim liked the young fellows who ran the road surveys with him. He enjoyed the "rough necks," the men who did the actual building of the road. They all in

n, that eagle-eyed view of life that the desert sometimes

and he was mud-splashed and tired but full of a great content. He had found a short cut

usual about a letter from Uncle Denny and ordinarily Jim waited for his bath and clean clothes befor

Jim,

t, and he would not let her alone. I could do nothing, though I talked till I was no better t

nd Sara had just been married at the Little Church Round the Corner and were leaving

your mother called me up. There had been an accident. Sara had disobeyed a traffic policeman, they had run into a truck at full

is hopelessly paralyzed from the waist down. He may l

for her foolishness. She is like a person wakened from a dr

s, Jimmy. Your mother says to tell you

dear b

e De

rock or cactus, of rain or direction. He took a fiendish satisfaction in the thought of Sara's tragedy

tting on a pile of rock five miles from

t's broke loose? I've trail

s throat worked. "Iron Skull," he got out

wn beside him.

ter into his friend's hands. In the dawn light

our folks don't like this Sa

arsely, "I'd rather see Pen laid away there in the Arizona range

rt you, partner. I know you've got a sore inside you that'll never heal. It's hell or heaven when a woman gets a hold on your vitals like that.-My Mary-she had blue eyes and a little brown freckle on her nos

hed the sun rise. The rain had ceased. Far to the east where the little camp lay, crimson spokes shot to the zenith. Suddenly

she'll never see it-nor any of my work. Iron Skull, she had a bully mind. Just the little notes she's sent me, s

ou dream. Some day you'll have to marry. That's where I fell down. These days all us old stock Americ

"Pen's thrown me dow

ently. At last Jim ros

, Williams

ad to do it any time-that is, I ain't but-Hell, y

ork that day, Jim w

't bear to think of that occasional look of tragedy in your eyes

i

his reached Jim t

ur foolishness. I have learned more in the past two weeks than in all my life before. And I

elo

s Jim's

hall get over our griefs to some extent. Let me keep at least a part of my old faith in you, Pen. In spite of the Hades you are destined to live through, keep that fine, sweet spirit of yours and keep that unwarped clar

i

kull had bade him,