Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-18
BY William Sloss


Copyright, 1901. by Daily Story Pub. Coz
When the fog crept toward the land
from out in tn lake they did not no.
tice it at first, so absorbed were they
--,she in what he was saying, he in his
own passion. Their little boat had
long been drifting aimlessly for he
had shipped his oars and from the GEN.
ter seat leaned forward eagerly, peering
into her face as he spoke.
AS for her, one could not be sure
whether her manner of Indifference was
born of GOODNESS whether the rigidity
of her features was a mere mask, con-
cealing emotion racing fleet through all
the courses of her young blood, but of
which her femininity would nit permit
be trayal.
She leaned back in seeming languor
among the down cushions his fore
thought had provided for her comfort
and save that her white and lissome fin
gers played INCREASINGLY with the red and
white striped cords which moved the toy
tiller of the little boat she did not move.
Only when now and again she raised
the downcast lashes which curtained her
dark eyes did this impatient fioccillation
cease. Then the nervous picking of her
deep glance would rest full and unfinch-
ingly upon the face of the man before
her. There was in this glance, so proud
and high and free, something which sub
lily, indescribably thrilled him. Nor
could his own endure it long, for when
She raised her eyes, his fell, abashed--
and a those times the fantastic shadow
of an inscrutable smile fled across her
lips and vanished instantly.
So near together were they that he
could have stretched forth his foot and
touched the shoe whose shining patent
leather tip escaped the hem Of her blue
tlannel skirt. Once, indeed he had
leaned far forward and put out his hands
appealingly as if to grasp her own. But
she had drawn back swiftly, releasing
the tiller ropes and folded her arms
across her breast with a firm and forbid
ding 1allance.
He lad drawn back sullenly and now
for moment had grown silent 1t was
then the fog had crept upon them so
stea!.hily neither had perceived it's COM
Ing till its chill shroud wrapped them.
The woman shvered lightly. and drew
her urap more closely about her should
ers with a quick feminine gesture. Her
shore, half a mile away. where the piers
and simmer time pagodas the diving
tower, the big hotel, of Manhattan beach
deserted now that November had laid it's
rude clutch on autumn, told in their
echoleas silence of the waning year.
Now the mournful voice of the hooded
siren, perched aloft where the mouth of
the sluggish Calumet yawned sleepily to
the vaporous lake, sounding to the fog
bound sailor, rose through the mist in
minor. '''
"Hoo. Hoo" it said. "Hoo-oo:, Hoo
oo-oo. \ tinge of melancholy menace
dwelt in the steam monotone. One
thought of Loralei and hidden shoals, of
dark and streaming hair and eyes which
looked but saw not. The young man
start "a guilty. as the siren raised its
voice. Already the thickening fog half
concealed from his eyes the 1.-the figure
Of the girl huddled in her wrap and cush-
Ions. He leaned to her again and spoke
huskily.
"Falce!' he said, appealingly
Her voice seemed cold to him as she
answered. but a keener analyst than he
might have discovered a tremor in it
that was not glacial.
"What is it. GEORGE" she asked with
seeming steadiness. again? 1 thought
we had left all that behind u.s. far away
and We're going now to be good friends
and comrades. Can't you take my word
for it that there is finality in what
have told your
'No. l can't" he cried out, staring to
his feet fiercey the little craft rocked
dangerously. Nor will I try. With me
1t shall be today or never. And with you
too he concluded, ominously..
The girl looked at him from the clouded
depths of her rare eyes with something