The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1908-10-29
CHAPTER ".

In the Rue de Riyoll there was lIltie
stone fruit shop. The street was short,
narrow, crooked and i'll payed-a cleft in
Saint Pierre's terrace work. just across
from the eault-Iike entrance to the shop,
the white, SCARED cliff arose TO another
fight of the city. Between the shop and
the living rooms behind there was little
court, shaded by mango-trees. Dwarted
banana shrubs fourished in the shade OF
the mangoes, and singing birds were Gag
ed in the lower foliage Since the sun
could find no entrance, the shop was dark
as a cave and as cool. One Vindow,
If an aperture like the clean wound of
thirteen-inch gun could be called q win
dow. ope.ssd 70 the north; and from It,
by the grace of a crook in the ~kae de
Riyoli, might be seen the mighty caliber-
ed cone of Pelee.
Pere Rabeaut's fruit was very good,
and some of it was very cheap. The SER
vice was much as you made it, for if you
were known you were permitted to help
yourself. In this world there was no
one of station too lofty to go TO Pierre
Rabeaut's; you would meet no one there
to whom it was not a privilege to say
Bon Jour-
Come and see my Birds" the crafty
Rabeaut would say, if he approved of
you.
where do you liye?" you might ask,
being a stranger.
In the coolest howell of Saint Pierre"
was the invariable answer.
And presently. if you were truly alive,
YOU would find yourself in the little stone
shop, listening to the birds. In due
course Soronia would appear in the shad
owy doorway and it would seem that the
bird songs were hushed as she crossed the
court.
If the little stone shop were transplant
ed in New York, artists would find it
and have difficulty in getting in and out.
for the crowd O. nights. Thither Con
stable and Breen made their way on this
burnfrg morning which Mrs. Stansbury
dark with her decision. The pair sat
down the cherished coolness, Constable
at the little window, so that he could
look at the mountain.
'.Breen. dare not leave them here for
forty-eight hours, until the Panther
comes" Constable said.
"Do you really think Pelee can't hold
out that long?"
Constale shook his head impatiently
I'm not monomaniac-at least. not yet.
Breen.p he said, and his voice suggested
the world of pent savagery in his brain.
The ways of volcanoes are past the pre-
visions of men. l do not say that Pelee
will blow his head off this week, or this
millennium. l say I'm afraid for this
girl. | say there are vaults of explo-
sives In that monster, the smallest of
which could make this city look like
leper's corpse upon the beach. l say
that the internal fires are burning high;
that they are already lingering the vital
cap; that Pelee sprung a leak last night,
and that the same force which lifted this
cheerful archipelago from the depths of |
the sea is pressing against the leak at
this instant | say that Yesuvius warned |
before lie broke that Krakatoa warned /
and then struck; that down the ages these |
safety valves scattered over the face of
earth have trembled before giving way.
PeIee is trembling now, and there is
woman here whose safety is-important |
to me. She is two miles away this mo-
me1t. and am as powerless as a man in
a street fight. with. his lady's arms about
him. What shall l do?"
"Peter, there is a short cut" Breen
said
TELL me ~ Constable urged.
Are you Jealous and strong souledT"
TRY me-"
At this juncture Soronia entered the
shop from the little court of the song
birds, filling the eyes of the Americans.
4 dark. ardent, alluring face; flesh like
iull gold, made wonderful by the faintest
ints of ripe fruit eyes that could melt
md burn and laugh; fragile figure, but
abloom, and as worthily draped
is young palm in vine richly blossom
ng. Such, vaguely, was Soronia. She
made one think of strange, regal flower,
IN experiment of Nature, wrought in the
most sumptuous shadow of tropic gar