The Valley of the Moon

un went south across the hills between the mountains and the sea. Th

's only horse trails. But I don't see much signs of timber, an' this s

th chaparral. Once they saw a coyote slide into the brush, and once Billy wished for a gun when a large wildcat sta

at sea level to cross a small gulch Billy looked for water. The bed of the gu

d. "Come on down. You just gotta see th

was it tucked away on three precipitous sides by the land, and screened by the thicket. Furthermore, the beach was the head of a narrow rock cove, a quarter of a mile long, up which pent way the sea roared and was subdued at the last to a gentle pulse of surf. Beyond the mouth many detached rocks, meeti

ce, was a sliding fall of a dozen feet, and Saxon

e good firewood, an'..." He gazed about and seaward with eyes that saw what no rush of words could compass. "... An', an' everything. We could live here. Look at

owing face, realized that he wa

ding. "Not a breath. An' look how wild it is. J

the air sweetly pungent with the thicket odors. Here and there, in the midst of the thicket, severe small oak trees and other sm

d the hard sand from highwater mark to the edge of the water. "Come on, Robi

ted in mock consternation to a fresh footprint in

not a bare foot b

shoe from a drowned or eaten sa

tennis shoes," was Bil

e; if you'll fetch the packs we'll make camp. Besides, it mightn't

improvising a table from a wave-washed plank. She pointed seaward. On the far point of rocks, naked except for swimming trunks, stood a man. He was gazing toward them, and they could see his long mop of dark hair blown

enough, but look at his muscles. Everybody do

n had the same long and narrow face, with the high cheekbones, high and slender forehead, and nose high, lean, and almost beaked. The lips were thin and sensitive; but the eyes were different from any she had ever seen in pioneer or

here." He threw down a partly filled sack. "Mussel

ulation, and saw painted on his

t you," he blurted out. "Shake hands. I alway

and, beginning with a choking gig

usly across their clasped hands,

y, honest to God, I've woke up nights an' laughed an' gone to sleep again. Don't you recognize 'm, Saxo

anchard alongside the automobile on the day she had wandered, sick and unwitting,

know that nose of yours anywhere among a million. You was the guy that stuck your cane between T

ne leg as he laughed harder, then stood on the ot

sp to Billy at last. "You saw it. You

no

I wanta know is what'd you wanta do it for. Say, what'd you

I," was t

ow Timothy McM

im before, and I've n

wanta do it for?

aughed, then co

egg into an electric fan to see what will happen. Perhaps that's the way it was with me, except that there was no aching. When I saw those legs fly

atch you?"

Manus himself couldn't have caught me that day. But what happened after

described the fight, that introductions took place. Mark Hall was the

ierce's Cove?" he was curious to know. "

its name?"

im. I'll take a cup of that coffee, if you don't mind."-This to Saxon. "And then I'll show

from bein' chased by McManus,"

tension," was t

dering vacantly. "Do y

lau

u want, tense it, then manipulate

ll that?" Billy

cle you see, there's five tucked away but under com

, touching the

anatomy, picking a muscl

ement, saw a muscle grow up under his finger.

n!" Hall exulted. "Go

large and small rose up, quivered, and sank down,

t the end; "an' I've seen some few good men st

alled me the sick rat, and the mangy poet, and all that. Then I quit the city,

t his muscles that wa

I'm a work of art. He's a cave bear. Come along. I'll show you around now. You'd better ge

lly was getting himself ready in the thicket

ious, and she v

it was

er name?" h

Gold'; 'Constancy'; 'The Caballero'; 'Graves at Little Meadow'

back to the house. My people were pioneers. They came by Panama, in the Fifties, from Long Island. My father was a doctor, but he went into business in Sa

from Oakland and of their quest for land, he sympathi

settle. It's too remote. And it isn't good farming land, except in patches in the canyons. I know a Mexican there who is wild to sell his five hundred acres for fifteen hundred dollars. T

up what seemed a perpendicular wall in order to gain the backbone of the rock. Billy went slowly, displaying extreme caution; but twice she saw him slip, the weather-eaten stone crumbling away in his hand and rattling beneath him into the cove. When Hall reached the top, a hundred feet above the sea, she saw him stand upright and

the fierce buffets of the wind tried her nerve. Soon she was opposite the men. They had leaped a narrow chasm and were scaling another tooth. Already Billy was going more nimbly, but his leader often paused and waited for him. The way grew severer, and several times the clefts they essayed exten

of rock and coming back on the cove side. Here the way seemed barred. A wide fissure, with hopelessly vertical sides, yawned skywards from a foam-whi

narrow foothold where the wash had roared yards deep the moment before. Without pause, as the returning sea rushed up, he was around the sharp corner and clawing upward hand and foot to escape being caught. Billy was now left alone. He could not even see Hall, much less be further advised by him, and so tensely did Saxon watch, tha

her at the fire. One glance at Billy told her

climb is a stunt of mine. Many's the brave lad that's started with me and broken down befor

re got my goat half a dozen times. But I'm mad now. It's mostly trainin', an' I'm goin' to cam

is cove is named after. His favorite stunt, when he isn't collecting rattlesnakes, is to wait for a forty-mile-an-hour breeze, and then get up and walk on

it?" Billy a

een practicing it secretly for a week. And

fternoon, he explained, to cart the mussels back to Carmel. When the sacks were full they ventured further among the rock crevices and were rewarded with three abal

ime. It reminded her of the old times when Bert had been with th

ver, never pound abalone without singing this song. Nor must you sing this song at any other time. It would be the rankest sacrilege. Abalo

meat, and thereafter arose and fell in a sor

Because they think it's tony; But I'm c

ere every crab's a crony, And true and k

er the coast is stony; He flaps his win

own on the sands of Coney; But we, by hel

wheels and a voice calling from above where the sacks of mussels had b

m downward. "And now, children, bless you, you are now members of the clan of Abalone Eaters, and I solemnly enjoin you,

e words from only one hea

in Bierce's Cove, and you will be able to see the rites, the writers and writeresses, down even

illy called, as Hall disa

Walloper and Gridironer, the most fearsome, and, next

ook at each other till they

. Just like Jim Hazard, comes along and makes himself at home, you're as good as he is an

undressing. His folks came by Panama before the railroad was b

don't act

full of fun!

osher. An' H

ly. I've heard that pl

ight near his place where I proposed to you. Just the same I thought poets wore whiskers and eyeglasses, an' never tripped up fo

y thicket-scents, and listening to the dull rumble of the outer surf and the whispering rippl

Oakland, Billy?

s answer. "Is