Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-02
CHAPTER XXI-Continued.

to be foregone. He who had ever fought
with all that was within him for the
qualification of his few desires must now
forever abandon the earliest and greatest
of them all On the very eve of his
careers most complete victory he must
forever lay aside the sword.
Something like a sigh broke from be-
tween his blue-cold lips. The sound made
the girl stir ever slightly in her sleep.
Caleb glanced down in alarm, dreading
lest he had broken her slumber. There,
against his arm, rested Desiree's up
turned face. The dark silken lashes lay
peacefully above the sleep-flushed cheeks.
She was so little, SO helpless. SO wonder
full to the eyes bending above her, In
eXpressibly precious to him always. a
thousandfold more now, in the hour
of his remuneration of all else for love
of her.
A wave Of undreamed-of tenderness
swept over Conoyer: possessing him to
the utter extinction Of every other
thought or passion: sweeping away i'm its
headlong rush all vesfige of doubts and
regrets. In an instant of binding soul
light he saw once and for all the futiity
of what he had abandoned: the God-given
marvel of what he had won in its place.
The battle was over. Caleb Conover
had lost-and won. In his heart he knew
he was no longer the Fighter: no more
d seeker for Dead Sea fruit. His battles,
social and financial. We're at an end. This
coming clash at the 1egslature-this mis-
sion on which Desiree was dispatching
him. her true knight. to save the for
tunes of others-should be his last field
After that, new, strange peace!-and
Desirec.
DetiantIy, Conover glared out into the
night beyond the smoking remnant of
the fire. as though challenging the ghosts
him that lie might confound them all by
merely pointing at the girl who slept in
his arms. She-the mere sight of her
should he his reply to their taunts.
Something in his own look or attitude
stirred latent chord of memory. He
recalled, by an odd turn OF thought a
double-page drawing in of the En-
slsl weeklies that lie had long ago seen
at Desiree's:
a rocky hilIock whereon sat man
clad i'm skins: in his arms unconscious
woman WHOSE long hair streamed over
her loose robe: confronting the twain a
sladowy. armored goddess into whose
commanding eyes the skin-clad man was
staring with an awed courage born of
desperation. Beneath the picture were the
lines:
so grusse mir Walhall. Grusse mir
Wotanl Grusse mir Walse und allie Hell
den, Ia linen folg' ich dir nicht,'
Desiree had translated the words for
Caleb. She had told him the pictured
man was Siegnlund who. pausing in his
fight to "A place of refuge. with the
fainting Sieglinde whom he loved. beheld
the Valkyr. Brunhilde, and was told by
her that n heros death and a hero'S
reward in Valhalia were in store for him.
There in the Viking Paradise waited the
warrior-parent he had lost; there Wotan
the All-Father would welcome him. The
ValkyrieS were preparing his place. The
heroes of olden days would be his boon
companions.
And Siegmund. the Luckless. heard
with JOY But one question he asked the
goddess: Would Sieglinde his fellow
fugitive, join him in that abode of the
blest? Brunhilde scoffingly replied that
Valhalla was for heroes. not for mere
women. Then. unfiinchingly casting aside
his every hope of paradise, siegmund
kissed the senseless Womans brow: and
again facing the goddess. made answer:
Greet for me Valhalla! Greet for me
Wotan! Greet for me my father and all
the heroes. To them III follow thee
not! Where Sieglinde bides, there shall
SiegTnund stay.
Caleb at the time had been but mildly
interested in the tale. The fact that De-
stree could translate such queer looking
words was to him the most noteworthy
feature of the whole affair. Now. with a
whimsical comparison to his own case, |
the incident required TO him.
Was he not. like Siegmund, keeping
watch and ward III the wilderness over
the unconscious woman of his heart?
Was not the Brunhilde of ambition
standing there somewhere in the mystic
star shadows before him, pointing out
all that might be his were he to re-
nounce love? And was he not making
reply as defiantly. If perhaps not III quite
such high-f1own terms, as had that Dutch
chap in the bearskin clothes?
The idea tickled Conover's torpid imag-
nation he dwelt upon it with some
pride at his own powers of analogy.
Then he fell to dreaming of his last new
happiness, of the golden vista that
stretched before him and Desiree. And
again wonder, almost holy, filled his
heart.
The night voices ceased. Brunhilde. |
piqued at such unWonted obstinacy from
one who had ever heretofore been her
slave lad scuttled back to Valhalla in
a fine fit of rage, leaving this latter-day
Siegmund and Sieglnde to their own
foolish, se1f-chosen fate. The cold pressed
in more and more cruelty as the night |
waned. 1t pierced at times through Caleb's
numbness. He had great ado to keep
his teeth from chattering so loudly as to
wake the exhausted girl on his breast. |
The stars grew dim. The dawn wind
breathed across the sky. A paleness
crept over the eastern horizon of the |
fog-sea. The mans heavy head nodded |
-once-and again-then hung still.
With sensation of being stared at |
Caleb Conover opened his eyes. The pale |
=
gray dawn The dawn wind too. had |
waxed stronger, sweeping the fog before |
it. No longer were the man and woman
on an island but on hilltop, whence on
every side stretched away leagues of dull !
green landscape. Only over the pond did
the mist still hover. Directly below, not
a quarter mile away. lay the camp.
Nor were they alone on their wonder |
HILL On the far side of the dead fire |
Jack Hawarden stood cycling them. And
his face was as gray and as lffeless as
the strewn ashes at his feet.
Copover and the lad looked at each |
other without speaking. Long and eX-
pressionlessly Jack gazed at the waking
and the sleeping. Conover noted that the |
boys eyes were haggard and that the |
youth and jollity had been stricken from
his face as by blow. 1t was Hawarden |
who spoke first:
NO one down there is awake yet" he |
said, whispering so low that the girls |
Slumber was not broken. Il woke up and |
missed YOU / came out of the tent and |
saw you up here. l didn't know when |
you would wake and L was afraid the !
others might see. So l came. Don't let |
her know"
There was a catch in his breath at the |
last words He turned abruptly en- his /
heel and sped down the hillside, his |
stockinged feet making no sound on the
damp mold Caleb looked dazedly after |
his receding figure.
Hes white. muttered Conover.
white clear through.
Desiree moved at sound Of his voice |
and opened her eyes. For a moment she |
gazed up into Caleb's face with blank !
vrt.o -I,1 In