The Everlasting Whisper

ing returning to her. She came to

ver saw such a dreary, lonesome place as this sleepy littl

s of the whole West; thousands of men hurrying up and down, all full of great, big, golden hopes. They're gone, but I sometimes half

dded s

." Her quick smile came back as she looked up into his

ave lunch. You've no idea how mu

t a little funny store and ordered some things. Let's start back, take the

them. He heard the low, sullen bass of the unforgettable voice; saw that Brodie had left his companions and was goin

big man with the bi

e said

Swen

how do y

ings people don't thin

ng creatures; I wonder

ch about girls,"

were frank; all sincerity; that is, nothing lay behind them. Archie and Teddy, any of her boy friends in town-they knew all about girls! Or thought that they did. Mr. Gratton with his smooth way; he led her to su

asked. For once she wasn't "

heartily. "As well as a man

nodded she looked up at him again, hesitated

customed to employing either that direct method or matter-of-fact tone. Just now there was no hint of the coquette in her; she was just a very grave-eyed girl, as serious in her tête-á-tête with

e surprised by the abruptness of the questi

obriety went out of her eyes; they shone happily. When they reached the "funny little store" she was humming a snatch of a bright little waltz

olate, a bag of cookies with stale frosting in pink and white

ful of coffee, a tin of condensed milk, a dime's worth of sugar, can of corned beef, block of bu

king a face at him, "that I was enter

et, and be ready for more a l

always had her way and was thoroughly accustomed to the issuance of orders which were to be obeyed; further, he found her little

as what she said, "while you go for the h

Your Majesty,

ghtly with her whip and galloped ahead; as King followed he turned in the saddle and looked back toward Honeycutt's cabin. He was pulled two ways: by the girlish figure ahead, which he must follow, since it was his responsibility to bring her back to his friend Ben; by what he fancied happening between Brodie and

roof lost to sight as they turned into the mouth of a ca?on, he shook off all thought of returning, overtook Glo

s to picnic," said Gloria. "But it

the prettiest picnic spot you ever saw. And one, by the way, that precious few folks kno

ch, of course, had to do with his errand to-day. She wondered what had happened at Honeycutt's; if King had had any words with Swen Brodie. She had been wondering that eve

ght, riding up-stream, his horse's hoofs splashing mightily in the water. Gloria, looking on ahe

t in the water and in two shakes I'll show yo

but broken glimpses of the slopes rising to right and left. Their horses splashed through a deep pool, and King told Gloria to let her animal have his head so that he could pick his way among submerged boulders. There came a spot where the banks s

They can top off their grain and hay with grass while we di

ut placidly, stepping on boulders. Always King went ahead, holding out his hand to her. Once she slipped, but before her boot had broken the surface of the water his arm was about her. He caught her up, holding her an instant. Gloria began to laugh. Then, as she rega

n. "What in the world did you want to blush like th

something of her pervaded his senses, it had been a second fraught with intimacy, her hair had blown across his face, she had thrilled through him like a sudden burst of music ... When he jerke

t, thick with white and yellow violets. About it, rimming it in clean lines which did not invade the sward, were pines, and beyond the pines, to be seen in broken glimpses among their sturdy straight trunks, were the cliffs shutting all in. Through one of these vistas she saw a white waterfall, its wide-flung drops of spray all the colours of the rainbow as the sun caught them.

a. "See, I remembered his name

ze of dry twigs between two flat stones. Gloria was every bit as exultantly delig

the coffee-pot put him in mind of his own dinner. Gloria, kneeling at her task, watched him. He seemed to reflect a moment; then with a sudden flirt and flutter he had broken the surface of the water and was gone out of sight. She gasped; he had gone right under the waterfall, a little bundle of feathers no bigger than her clenched hand. She knelt with one knee getting wet and never knowing it; she began to feel positive that the hardy, headlo

*

s!" said Gl

ith condensed milk; in her other hand was a thick man-made

aintily served luncheon has made the great hit with y

dying fire, swept on beyond the tree-tops against the deep blue of sk

, if for no longer, the great solitudes held her enthralled. More seriously he added: "It's the blood of yo

ly that it was. He had spoken of her "ancestors." She knew little of her mother's and her father's forbears; she had never been greatly concerned with individuals whom she had never known. In a way she had been led to think, by her own mother, however so innocently, that she was "living them down." They had been of a ruder race that had lived in a ruder day. In San Francisco, to Miss Glor

his body rigid as he stood in the attitude of one who l

said. "I'll be bac

there was only the purl of the creek and the eternal murmur of the pines. Now it seemed to her more silent than before, even when King had sat wordlessly near her. And yet, incongruously, whereas the silen

ces faintly. King had gone that way, Gloria stood up, smothered under a sense of aloneness She resented his going; she wa

this world of difference. She saw him in a new, bright light, as one may see for the first time a stranger on whom much depends. He was strong, she thought; strong of body, of mind, of heart. He was like the mountains, which were not complete without him. His eyes were frank and clear and honest; and yet they were, for her, filled with mystery. For he was man, and his physical manhood was splendidly, vigorously vital. She had danced with men and boys, flirted with them, made friends of a sort with them. Yet none of them had

ng," he said. "

ght of that; she understood the reason and was glad that their own arrival here had not been spoiled for them by finding a litter of other campers' leavings. He stamped out the few embers of their fire, and, not entire

n it was clear that he would re

Coloma, packing o

die?" she

ie and half a d

em? Is that why you

d out. We are within a few hundred yards of the fork in the t

ague something in his voice and from a look, not so vague, in his

ealized that she might fear he resented her being with him,-"I am glad t

they look at each other while she lightly touched his hand and they crossed over. For an hour, until the wilderness worked its green magic upon them again, they