The Everlasting Whisper

ther and Ben were at the log house in the mountains, this time with a fresh set of guests. Only one of the former flock had been invited: Mr. Gratton. And this despi

chairs, necessarily close together since the nook was so cosily narrow, her shoulder now and then brushing his as she moved, the faint fragrances from her gown and hair blown across his face by the night breeze-for them his pipe hastily laid aside-they sat talking softly or in a pleasant silence. The next morning-the matter seemed to arrange itself with very little help from either-they were to have a ride together This time they would take their lunch. When they said good-night Gloria impulsively gave him her two hands; he remembered how she had done that the first time he had seen h

*

he first kiss. Suddenly Gloria, with her colour high and her eyes hidden under lashes which King marvelled at, lashes laid tenderly against her cheeks, pulled her hands out of his and be

ew flushed and rosy. The chill of the early morning air was like wine, sparkling, tingling in the blood. The smell of resinous woods was insistent, the fine bouquet to the rare vintage. The day, the world, themselves-all were young

e the grass and stalks of lush flowers swept their stirrups, through rock-bound noisy streams where they must pick their way cautiously, and where the horses snorted and shook their heads and Gloria laughed gleefully. To-day was like the completion of that other day when they had ridden to Coloma-to both it seemed that it was only yesterday. The weeks in between did not matter; they were wiped out of life by the green

terday and to-day it's

e world," answered King. "To-day we'll

ic!" laug

g and bird mating and colourful flowers. And to-day they were seeking this place among the mountains, riding on expectantly through dark passes, climbing winding trails, looking ac

on. She began to understand a thing he had told her; that the Sierra is the land of dwarf and giant. Pine and cedar and, in one spot he knew, mighty sequoia piercing at the sky; and here pine, dwarfed, pygmied until it was but a mat of twisted, broken twigs carpeting the heights. "And I have walked among the pine tops!" cried Gl

m, also gravely and sincerely, that that was the finest compliment she had ever received

at them. Below were the headwaters of the creek; across it the steep slope of the other ca?on wall. On all hands bleak, naked rock with tiny blossoms here and there between in the shallow soil and the carpeting of pygmy

on. To these he added his big-bladed pocket-knife. He made a fire where already there was a little heap of charred coals against a blackened ro

ake long to climb them? Not over an hour, he estimated; if she wasn't tired? It was decided that King wo

s King's eyes, brushed his lips. He gave her his hand up a steep place down which they sent a cascade of disintegrating stone. They stood side by side, shoulders brushing, resting, breathing deeply. Perceptibly the air thinned; one's lungs were taxed to capacity here; the blood clam

e vastness of the world and of the world's primitive savagery. And yet it did not repel; it fascinated and its message had the seeming of an old, oft-told, and half-forgotten tale. It threatened with its spires as cruel as bared fangs, and yet it beckoned and invited with its blue distances. Always, since the first man fashioned the first club and made him a knife of a jagged flint, has mankind battled wit

it. She looked at him with new, curious eyes. "Doesn't it be

nder

have never known what it was o

to finish, her ey

r first ride to

rnly. And she had always been gay and ready; a little thrilled, perhaps, as by a chance strain of music. But now-she could hardly breathe. Now she was frightened. She did not know why; she could not understand the sense of it; she only knew that she was afraid. Of what? Nor did she know that. She only knew that here were Gloria Gaynor and Mark King, man and girl-man and woman-set apart from the world, lifted above it, clear-cut figures

the strange conflict of emotions within h

!" muttered

s suddenly afraid with a new sort of fear. Though this man was not near enough for her to see the dancing evil of his little eyes, she saw the brutish face in full relief against the sky, and marked the jeer on the ugly mouth. Her one wild thought was that Brodie woul

hen, with a terrified look over h

wind blew her words away from he

And, to further soothe her, he added: "He'd be afraid to shoot, were he minded to. The noise of the gun,

nd Gloria looked back, hoping that it had hidden them already from Brodie; she saw his head over the top of it, felt upon her the eyes wh