The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01
BY WILL IRWIN.

 | virtues with all a Woman,s comeltnes and sweetness She liked all the things 1 he liked-books and sailing and out Of l doors He decided to call her Helen. be- cause he liked that name. So every night l and especially on the nights when the l longing was strong upon him, he wrote to Helen His faneies, born of the bright winter air; how the aspect of the Atlantic 1 changed day by day; the ways and doings 1 of Burke. his own longings and aspira- lions and hopes-all these he set down for her.
 Now. winter and solitude were upon l him again. It would be his last winter on l Fire Island-he consoled himself with l that. Would Helen tide him through, he wondered. He looked up at the compart- ment where he kept the letters. She was growing a little dim. He could not seem to imagine her so plainly as in the early days of their fairy intimacy He dropped the law book however, drew packet of paper toward him, and began: Dear Helen:'
 Presently he looked up from his writ ing and sat pen in mouth, sensible that there was something wrong in the regu- lar, rocking vibration of the tower. "It is as though someone were shaking the door downstairs" he said aloud-and his own voice came out of the solitude with a ghostly queerness. Am l getting the bug again?"
 It was foolish idea, but it stuck; so that, shaking a shoulder impatiently at his own folly, he took his lantern, slipped through the manhole, and plodded down the spiral staircase that wound perilously through the closed tower. As he unbolted it's single door he was vaguely ashamed to think that his night ' terrors were coming back. So quite an- caJf ba open.
 The lantern went out with the rush of a mighty wind. As though blown before the gale in tumbled dark body that struck him full in the chest, staggered him, and itself slipped and fell at his feet. With the astonishment he was still for moment there in the darkness. He waited for the sound of a movement; there was none So gathering his nerve he forced the door shut against the wind and lighted a match.
 The figure lay where it had fallen, just bundle of wet rags. Before the match had burned to his fingers, he made 1t out to be a-woman. He lit the lantern, held it above her.
 Wonder held him only a moment. He tore at the stiff furs. Her heart was beating His first thought was to get her to light and warmth. The fire in his cabin was out, but he had a fire in the room above. He gathered her, dead weight, and up the shaking stair he toled. Twice the failure of his breath made him stop and rest. He had left his lantern,a but at the second stop he felt her fiutter. She hung closer to him, seemed to tighten in his arms with re- turning life. Collecting the last strength in his body he pushed open the trap door of the manhele with his head, reeled into his tower room and dropped her on the sofa.
 As he stood off regaining his breath and getting the feeling back in his arms he saw her eyelids open. She half-turned, put one hand to her face with pretty feminine gesture Wonder flowed in on him again. She was no daughter of the beach whom he had found here on ice locked Fire Island. The ankle beneath her skirts, where one foot had fallen rom the sofa, was delicate and slender. 50 were the wrists above her little brown gloves Her furs and her turban were expensive-even a man-solitary could see that.
 She was moving again. He remembered the bottle of whisky which Burke kept in the cupboard. sacred to emergencies. Woodford poured out glassful and di- luted it, with some idea that a woman could not stand it's full strength Ten derly, but awkwardly he lifted her and put the glass to her lips
 'Drink!' he commanded. Her eyes peeped open at the word She gulped 1t like a child and coughed. He took off her furs, rubbed her wrists. And pres ently she spoke:
 How good you are" she said. Your hands are as gentle as a woman's!
 Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked.
 She moved her limbs tentatively.
 q think not, But how do l come to be so wet and cold?'
 Let me see your fingers-do they jingle or are they dead when I pinch them?''
 "Oh, mo-" she answered quickly, T am not frost bitten, I am sure. I know frost bite"
 .'Then you must get out of those clothes as soon as you can. Mrs. Burke--a wom- an who lives beow-has left some things. Pm going to get them now, and after that I'll go away
 Don't get too close to the fire he called back from the trap door.
 When he returned, his arms full of clothes stolen from the Burke wardrobe, she was still on the sofa.
 q did the best I could. You'll have to put up with my golf stockings, and I've brought my raincoat to go over every thing. Here's a knife to cut things away which won't come quickly, because you must hurry and not think of saving clothes You're quite sure that you're strong enoughY'
 "Oh, l think so.''
 "One thing more. This Is telegraph office and that's a key. I have a receiver in my house below. When you're ready for me rattle the key" He was gone through the trap door again.
 When he had threaded the stair, fought the wind for the passage to his cabin, found light and set down beside the key wonder flowed in on him again. Wao was she, and most of all, how did she get there? Unless she was indeed fairy, a vision of the night-what with the be- wilderment of that ghost land of his he was almost ready to believe that she was the only possible passage was to Point O. Woods by scooter. Given that some scooter captain had been fool enough to try it, no woman alive could have beaten down the six miles of intervening beach against such a gale. What unimagina- ble circumstance had sent him through the snows that flower of womanhood so lke-he flushed at the thought which was running in and out of his mind against his will--so like Helen? If this was a vision, he would not break the spell He would wait for her to tell him who she was and how she happened to be on Fire Island.
 The receiver beside him rattled with the touch of an unpracticed hand. As he climbed the stairs he was really afraid lest she should burst out at once and tell him everything
 When he pol<ed his head through the