The San Francisco call., 1905-02-26

rack from his last pipe OF freedom:
but it did not occur to him to ask
release. For the matter of that. al
though he had come to regard Mary
Gordon as the inevitable rather than
the desired he had felt for her the
strong tenderness which such men
feel for such women, which endures,
and never in any circumstances turns
to hate.
After a time Give extinguished the
lantern; it illumined the road fit-
fully, but accentuated the dense
blackness of the forest. The UNDER
growth was too thick TO permit him to
stray aside, and he wanted to form
some idea Of his surroundings. His
eyes accustomed themselves to the
dark. Moon rays splashed or trickled
here and there through lofty cleft and
mesh. Give paused once and looked
up. The straight trees sometimes
slender, sometimes huge. were as in
flexible as granite. an unbroken col
umn for a hundred feet or more; then
thrusting out rigid arms from a ta-
pering trunk into another hundred
feet of space. The effect was that Of
a dense forest suspended in air. sup
ported above the low brush forest on
vast irregular colonnade, out of
whose ruins it might have sprung.
Give had never known a stiffness so
profound, repose SO absolute. But
it was not the peaceful repose Of an
English wood. 1t suggested the heavy
brooding stiffness Of archaic days,
when the uneasy world drowsed be-
fore another convulsion- There was
some other influence abroad In ths
woods. but at this time it's meaning
eluded him.
Suddenly 1t occurred to him that
he could not see Mary Gordon in this
forest. There was an irritating in
congruity in the very thought. She
belonged to the sweet, calm beech
woods OF England; nothing In her
was in consonance with the storm and
stress. the passion and fatality which
this strange country suggested. Did
the women of California fit their
frame? He experienced a strong de-
sire for the companionship Of a wo-
man who would interpret this forest
to him. then called himself an ass
and strode on.
An hour later he became aware Of
distant and deep murmur. 1t was
crossed suddenly by a wild, hilarious
yen. Give relit the lantern ami
flashed it along the brush at his right
Presently he came upon a narrow
trail. The prospect of adventure
after sixteen days Of civilized monot-
ony lured him aside and he walked
rapidly down the bypath- In a few
moments he found himself ON the
edge of large clearing The moon
poured in without let and revealed a
scene of singular and uncomfortable
suggestion.
In the middle OF the space was
huge funeral pyre: beyond IL. evil
IDENTIFY on bier, Give could see the
stony, upturned feet of a mammoth
corpse, lightly covered with a whito
he <I,.
trees nearer him large caldron
swung over heap OF fagots, which
were beginning to crackle gently.
The place looked as II about to be the
scene of some awful rite. Englishmen
are willing to believe anything about
California. and Give. who had COM
manded the admiration of his fathers
colleagues with his clear. quick. logi-
cal brain, leaped at once to the con-
clusion that this part of California
was still the hunting-ground of the
Red Indian and that some mighty
chief was about to be cremated. while
his widow, perchance, sacrificed her
self in the caldron.
He plunged his hands into his
pockets and awaited developments with
the nervous delight of a Sch0Olb0y.
Although the forest was silent again
he had an uneasy sense of many hu-
man beings at no great distance
He had not long to wait. There
was a sudden red glare, which made
the aisles of the forest seem alive
with dancing, shapes, hideously con-
tOrted. simultaneously there arose a
low, soft chanting, monotonous and
musical, bizarre rather than weird
Then out OF the recesses on the far
side of the clearing, startlingly de-
fined under the blaze of many torches
held aloft in the background,
emerged a high priest, with crown
shaven his beard fiowing to his. waist.
his white robes marking the austerity
of his order. His hands were folded
on his breast. his head bowed Be
hind him, two and two, followed
twenty acolytes. swinging censers,
the heavy perfume Of the incense ris>
ing to the pungent OdOr OF the red
woods, blending harmoniously. the
lofty forest aisles were become those
of some vast primeval crypt.
Then illusion was in a measure dis
pelled. The two hundred torchbear-
ers who came after wore the ordinary
outing clothes of civilization
This strange procession marched
slowly round the circle, passing perl
lously close to Give Then the priest
and acOlytes walked solemnly up to
the caldron, the others dispensing
themselves irregularly, leapins occa-
sionally and waving their torches The
fagots were blazing; Give fancied he
heard a merry bubbllng- A mo-
ment of profound silence. Then
the priest dropped something into the
caldron. chanting an invocation OF
witch Give could make nothing. all
though he was a scholar in several
languages The acolytes and torch
bearers tossed to the priest entitie4
and imaginations, which he dropped