Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1908-10-30
CHAPTER VI.

former stretched out her hand to help him
ana the elder woman released cutting
remark. Then a servant brought a chair,
and pillows of nausea surged over him.
Just as his consciousness waned, and he
was launching, chair and all, into space.
Laras voice reached him again. =
Then he was in the hallway, through
some miracle, and insisting most uncom-
monty that he was not to be taken into
the library, but into the music room, be-
cause the windows there commanded the
mountain.
He awoke to the interesting discovery
that Miss Stansbury was tanning him.
Presently she re-chilled towel in the
iced basin and folded it upon his fore
head, now deliciously cool.
Its mighty sweet of you to take care
of me this way" he muttered gratefully.
"How is Pelee? How long have l been
here? The last | remember, l was lost
in the hall, and you found me-"
You've been here about three hours.
Mr.. Constable. Peee is quiet again, but
the whole world is white outside-a per-
feet blizzard of ash has fallen! They
say terrible thing has happened at the
extreme northern end of the city. The
River Branch overhowed her banks, and
ran with boiling mud from the volcano
Thirty people are reported killed and the
Usine Guerin destroyed
She thought he was considering the
disaster in the silence which followed, but
in reality he was battling with the old
problem.
Miss Stansbury," he said finally, sis
there anything a man possessed of full
faculties could do, say or bring about that
would induce your mother to spend the
night offshore?'
She shook h2r head.
You know that the Madame could be
brought in for the mails tomorrow morn
ing
81 have taken the liberty to suggest
that to mother" Lara replied. ''She says
that tomorrow will be time enough"
Miss Stansbury, won't you put your
self in the care of Captain Negley to-
night? | hope I'm wrong, but the Guerin
disaster may be only a preliminary dem
onstration-like the operator experiment
ing to find if it is dark enough TO start
the main fireworks. You know, l would
stay ashore, and Negley is good old man
of the sea-
Don't you understand, Mr.. Consta-
ble?" she said, in real distress for deny
ing him so repeatedly. Don't you see
that such a thing would bring down a
miserable scene upon our heads? Besides
I thiplyinu Of
such a paramount thing. l don't want to
be one of Jobs lone survivors, Mother
and Uncle Joey and you must go-when
l do"
The pale, searching face regarded her.
Again he was silent. His lips were shut,
his eyelds half-closed. A swift
intuition was borne to the woman. He
was about to renew the siege. She was
not ready, and shrank from being moved
TO a decision which she had not formed
in the privacy of her own mind. The
last two days of suffering had rendered
her strangely responsive to his mental ac-
tions. His quest had filled her brain with
wonders, but they were not yet coalesced
impulses and inspirations without
unity, unbound as yet by judgment She
wanted to yield with grace, if it came to
that but not to be overthrown. His hand
reached for hers, but she drew away.
Miss Stansbury-"
"Please don't say it now!" she whis-
pered swiftly, her words startling herself
quite as much as the man. "These are
such dreadful hours! We must think of
the crisis-only of that-putting behind
all that passed last night!
"Until?" said Constable, sitting up.
"Oh, who can tell? One knows-Mr.
Constable, isn't it wicked of you to mud
die me this way?"
A smile from him had given her the
saving turn. The tension was eased.
Now, as he held out his hand to her, she
was not slow to accept it, or to miss
the meaning of the compact.
"Pelee will be beyond the sky line for
us all pretty soon," he said cheerfully.
"We'l be very good pals in the mean
time. Please go to the window and see
how our ogre is faring-the giant who
thinks he's going to eat US when we're
prime member the fairy story? By the
way, Miss Stansbury, did you ever have
a set of billiard balls cracking off caroms
on your brain PAM"
"Yes, and ten-pins. Men don't know
headache matters. The north
Is clearer, sir A little while ago it was
all seething mass of blacks and grays."
An exclamation broke from her lips,
and Constable joined her at the window.
A dozen birds had fallen to the lawn from
the caves. Most of them we're dead from
the tainted air. The sight brought the
situation more forcibly than ever to her
mind
81 should think the birds would fly
awayw she said pityingly
Perhaps the mother birds are waiting
for mails to come in," suggested voice
behind them. Mrs. Stansbury was stand
ing in the hall doorway.
A gracious rain cleared the air of early
evening, and Constable settled himself
for further nap at the north window