The Black Pearl

e had intended to ask Seagreave for the use of his private parlor among the pines, intimating that she desired to retire thither to practice some new steps, and, lo! the night bef

e had announced his intention of assisting Mrs. Thomas in the making of some delicate and elaborate cakes, difficult of composition and of which Pearl was especially fond, and also of constructing certain deli

themselves away on the clock, as the hour drew near when she should again meet Hanson, after all these months of separation, her spirit grew heavier instead

head and, wrapping a long, crimson cloak about her, s

Thomas. The gypsy, in her usual careless, almost masculine attire, stood in the door of her cabin gazing out at the mountains in all their mellow and triumphant glory, the evanesc

smile of blended curiosity and welcome crossed her face. "Howdy, Pearl," she called jovially, "come and set a spell." She removed the pick and fishing rod and dragged the dog o

this morning." There was a cool deviltry in the sl

rankly. "It ain't in either you or Marthy Thomas

at subtle, burning, mocking look. "Yo

your father, and if there wasn't no man up here at all, she'd hoist that crêpe veil on her head, stick a red or blue bow at her neck and go swingin' down to camp, tryin' to pers

ions than shoot squirrels? Because there's danger in it." She laughed mirthlessly. "I guess

ipe. "Bob Flick's your best be

w about," said Pearl scornfully, touching the dozing dog ligh

ing the cards this morning. It was such a dandy day that I didn't know whether I'd do some assessment work or spend the day fishin'; the cards decided in favor of fishin'. I had

nd, after Pearl had cut them several times, she began to lay them out in neat rows on the board on her knee,

in the cabin all day. Did you ever see anything like that?" pointing to the cards. "Trouble, trouble, nothin' but trouble. If it a

perstition and stirred her swift anger against Mrs. Nitschkan. "Parrot-croaker!" she exclaimed a

to the ground. Her small, quick eyes began to roll ominously and show red, and h

d jumpin'-jack dancer, and I'll jerk you to the edge of that cliff yonder and throw you down. I'm feelin' particularly g

side as if she had been a fly; but with incredible rapidi

your fingers like oil. It's no good to flash your over-sized man-m

higher courage. It was an almost superstitious fear and respect which chilled the hot blood of her passion, the instinctive obedience of the flesh to the indomitable spirit. Reluctantly, against her will and in spite of her anger, the figh

understand, fell back a step or two and Pearl seized this oppor

irit. Her mind reverted to the cards of ill omen and she shivered with a faint chill of appr

wind among the pines, that mountain wind which never ceases to blow, had a sort of sighing pensiveness in its falling cade

ed early at her destination. The sun lay warm in her little bower of encircling pines and she sat down on a fallen log to await Hanson

the prospect of meeting him again, her heart throbbed not one beat faster. She could not even look forward to dancing that night with any excitement or pleasure. She wondered what Seagreave would think of her when he saw her; she would be a vision far more brilliant than any spirit of the autumn woods, and she would wear her emeralds again, the emeralds for which Bob Flick had squandered a fortune. She put u

away, and even as she jumped to her feet he saw her and waved

g her against his heart. It seemed hours to her, but it was really only a moment before

ly, motioning to the fallen log. "You're out of breath, you've had a long climb." She herself sat down and he followed her example, encircling her

ave finished me, I do believe. Oh, sweetheart, you're lovelier than ever, and you're not going to punish either of us any more, I can tell you that. You're coming down with me and we're going to live, Pearl, live, just as I told you we

ked, up as far as her elbow and down again to the tips of her fingers. She did not even attempt to draw her hand away, she was still in that stat

e Black Pearl, spending all these months up here in these dead old mountains

ould find it with him, that that was what he offered to her. She remembered the question that Harry Seagreave had asked her. "What does life mean to you?" Ah, since that first night in the mountains life seemed to have exp

et, stood with her body slightly bent forward, her hands on her hips, gazing at him wit

is it?" he questioned daz

e said tensely. "Don

en fell back a pace or two. "My Lord!

habitual and shallow geniality, the satisfied vanity of a mouth steadily becoming looser; the depiction of years of self-indul

t for herself. She did not consider or even remember that with what strength of affection he possessed he had loved her; that, after his constitution he had gi

r pose, her expression, frightened him now. "Honey, what are you driving at?" he

ance darkened. She drew back from him with the

t you glad to see me? Why, here I been waiting all these damned, dreary months, never thinking of any one but you, never even looki

on her mouth. "Yours! Loved y

almost purple, his cold eyes blazed. "Say," he cried roughly, "what are you driving at, anyway? Come down to cases now." He caught her by the wrist. "What d

want to know it, because I thought I was in love with you. Lord, think of i

eyes. "It ain't true," he said

feet away. She listened intently a moment, a wild fear at her heart that Seagreave might have returned unexpectedly. It w

he remembrance of some potent weapon of which he had b

on recalled to her her own unthinking speech. "

w admissions, and he had no wish to arouse her suspicions. There

into your head that you can't make a fool of me all the time. I'm ready and willing to admit that there was some excuse for you down in the desert. I made a bad break there, which I'm freely conceding was no way to treat a lady. But that don'

h a hard, inscrutable smil

fell to pleading. "Oh, Pearl, be like what you were again. Don't stand off from me that way, honey. It ain't in you to be so cru

d then ground a little heap of freshl

It's over. We can quit right here, R

bigger fool than me could see that; and I'm not going to waste any more time crawling around on my

to," she inter

I'll bet my hat. He's been your dog too long for you to fl

answered in

st satisfy my

ou're not staying for that,

playing with kids so far in your career, Miss Pearl Gallito; but you'll find that the old man's not quite so easy disposed of as you thi

e." Without any appearance of haste, she lifted her scarf from the pine branch on which she had thrown it and twisted it slowly about her head, then picking up her cri

ed absorbed in the revelation which had come to her in the first moment of her meeting with Hanson-her love for Seagreave. In this new, exclusive emotion, the recent interview and all that had led up to it became to her a mere unpleasant episode, upon which her indifferent imagination refused to dwell. She w

r. Thus she could dream undisturbed, could lie watching the leaping flames and vision for herself again that fair, regular, serene face, that tall, strong,

resented the intrusion upon her thoughts when her fath

e said. "All that was in it was, 'Com

wing her dismay. "What

ose," returned Gallit

vexedly, but

ing down? You will not walk with Bob an

crimson showed in her cheek. "Mr. Seagreave said

d, and as José came in then to prep

d when, a few minutes later, she greeted Bob Flick, he thought that he had never seen her more gay. All

e, nor Pop, nor any of the rest of them knowing anything abo

a leap of hard light in his eyes, and yet she

ndid eyes to his, "and, honest, Bob, it's all over. I

o read her soul. "Say, Pearl, wh

est, her most alluring smile. "Say, Bob, I got to thank you for a good many things, not to speak of these," she touched th

is eyes which only she could bring there. He pressed her hands warmly, looking embarrassed and

under her lashes. She couldn't help that with any man. "You're awful

ry tenderly. "It'll never make any difference to me what you

thoughts had flown again to Seagreave. "Goodness!" she exclaimed, rousi

ather and José had settled themselves for the evening over the cards, and Pearl stood before the fire, a long,

st stay mewed up in these mountains with nothing to do but cook and play cards and talk to a half saint and a stale, old sinner. If Nitschkan and the petite Thomas had not c

o further heed to him, and Harry turned t

"a butterfly that had flown up from the land

r, she did not look at him, her eyes were downcast, and on the drive down the hill she scarcely spoke. Seagreave was one of those r

f the chairs taken and every inch of standing room occupied. There was no platfo

eager eye. Her face fell as she saw that Hanson, true to his promise, was there, and on one of the front seats, not far from Seagreave and Bob Fl

indifferent manner that she had adopted the first night he had seen

r Pearl flashed in as if blown by the mountain wind. The chrysalis had cast aside its shell and this tropical butterfly had emerged. Her skirts were of yellow satin, and from a black bodice her be

e of the wind, scarcely seeming to touch the ground, upborne by the music-tide. Throughout her career she

e dance of desire. Thrilling with the joy of expressing her love, her beautiful new love for Seagreave, through her art, she danced with a verve, an abandon, a more spontane

ved about in the crowded space, and little groups formed and broke up. Bob Flick, speaking to this or that ac

g bravado, "our old friend, the Black Pe

ost silky, "and," his hand shot back to his hip with an almost unbelievable rapidity, "I'll give you just th

ogize my humblest on all three counts. I had hoped that you'd remember me and be willing to introduce me to your friend." He turned a cynical and evil glance upon S

le. "The three minutes are up," he said, and wi

usic had changed; it was no longer sensuous and provocative, but strang

quered and tamed me. And I abide, I abide. Silent, brooding, unwitting of your noisy incursions, I lie absorbed in my dream under my own illimitable skies. But soon or late, when the moment comes, I wake, I rouse, I see my inviolate desolations invaded. Then I gather my strength, I drown you with my torrential rivers, I torture you with my burning

ds. That's a sand storm; there's no other sound in the world like it." He turned his eyes full of a puzzled

es it through finer avenues of sight than mere material organs of vision. He s

s calm became strangely disturbed. Dimly he realized that should every desert on the globe finally be subdued by the plow, the irrigating ditches and the pruning hook, they would still remain as realities in the mind of man, forever clouding his aspirations toward the mountain peaks and the stars. For the desert must ever remain an unsolved enigma, never to be reduced to a for

êpe in which Hanson had first seen her, a crown of scarlet flowers on her dark hair. Her very expression, too, had

ain't she?" as

and beauty and magnetism. All this alone would have made her a great dancer, but as he recognized, she had more, much more to bring to her art; a complex nature which, in its unsounded depths ever held a vision of beauty, and a sense of this vision which amounted to unity wit

f the desert as gleaned from study and observation and melted in the crucible of her poetic imagination and molded by her fancy until it was a thing of form in her thought. The Black Pearl danced the desert because in her was the power to be one with it and live in its life thro

mmonplace joys, its tawdry and limited temptations, had long ago fallen away from Seagreave-and l

ts and desolations still to reclaim, with the eternal faith that for you the wastes shall blossom like the rose. Work, no matte

me, after his few words of admiration and appreciation of her dancing, there was