San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-03-30


was, he looked an unusually burly spec
linen of the men to whom isolation from
city life had impaired an aspect OF bar
barians. Before he had uttered another
word she realized that he was wholly
engrossed in the matter of his kilograms
and had no thought of the individuality
of the listener. Not only was she not
the thing that made him wait, but she
might as well have been old, ugly or
man, if only she had ears to hear.
1t was a summer afternoon, and the
clear, balmy weather was seasonable.
The removal of protective canvas had
left the structure an open shed, over the
front of which hung the boughs of the
two trees against whose massive trunks
it leaned. Gerald Heath reached up
with both hands and held the foliage
aside.
''Do you get an unobstructed view?"
he asked. Nov, I've helped lay out
railroads through many place where it
was a shame to let trains go faster than
a mile day. I've surveyed routes that
ought to provide special trains for pas
sengers with eyes in their heads-trains
with speed graduated between sixty
miles an hour and sixty hours mile. 1t
is an outrage on nature and art that
travellers should ever be whisked past
Overlook without good chance to see
what were looking at. That's why
wrote to the president of the company a
month ago telling him how a slight de-
Walton from the surveyed line would en-
able passengers to get what's in our view
now. He asked how much the line
would be heightened by my plan. A
hundred yards, answered And sub
united map showing how the tracks,
after coming out from the tunnel, might
make a small detour to this very spot in
stead of going behind a mass of rocks
sthat will completely hide this"-and a
comprehensive gesture of one arm fol-
lowed his sweep of vision.
Places that get their names on impulse
are apt to have appropriate ones. Camps
of railway makers in hitherto unbro-
ken country are not often miscalled. An
ensuing town on the same site may be
unmeaningly named as pe1manency,
but the inspirations that afford tran
sient nomenclature are usually descrip-
tive. 1t was so in the case of Overlook.
The railway tunneled through the
mountain and emerged at a height of a
thousand feet above wide valley. Mary
had daily, and all day long, sat overlook
ing the prospect.
1t had astonished and enchanted her
at first, but familiarity had blunted the
keenness of her appreciation. AS shown
to her anew it was like fresh disclos-
ure. Gerald Heath stood holding the
boughs aside which otherwise obscured
part of the view. He appeared to feel
that if he was not the painter of this
enormous landscape he, at least, had the
proprietary interest of discoverer, and
it was with something of the air of an art
collector proudly extolling his choicest
possession that he turned his eyes from
it to Mary Warmer. The expression of
admiration on her face, although quiet
and delicate, was quite satisfactory, for
a moment only, and then the delight
passed out of her visage, as though ex-
PEELED by some physical pang. 1t was
the suddenness of the change, for it was
of itself very slight, that made it per-
ceptible. Gerald instinctively turned to
look for the cause.
Into the picture had come a human
figure A few yards in front of the hut
stood man. In relation to the landscape
far beyond he was gigantic, and the shade
of the trees made him deviGshy black by
contrast with the sunlight of heaven that
illumined the rest. He was thus for an
instant in silhouette, and it CHANGED that
his sharp outlines included facial pro-
file. with the points of mustache and
beard. giving satanic suggestion to an ac-
cidental attitude of malicious intrusion
The illusion was almost startling, but it
was momentary, and then the form be-
came the commonplace one of Tonic
Ravell, who walked under the shelter
"Do-a | eentrude?' he asked, with an
italian accent and an Italian bearing. 81
suppose no-eh? Thece ees a plaza bees
neSs?'
Mary's small departure from bust
nesslike, perfunctory manner ended at
once She took the scrapo Of paper which
Ravelli laid on her desk, and without a
word translated its writing into tele-
graphic clicks. Ravelli was a sub-con-
tractor, and this was one of his frequent
communications with officials at the COM
pany's city Office. The response was likely
to be immediate, and he waited for it.
TO get the full value of this view"
Gerald Heath resumed, and now he ad-
dressed himself to Mary directly, as
though with almost a purpose Of ignor-
ing Rayelli, to whose greeting he had