Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-14

. Limestone Cliffs Loomed Up They Passed.
the twinng road where the car doomed like
some relentless monster rushing from its lair But the
Cheddar gorge, though majestic and inspiring, is
not of great extent Soon the valley wdened the road
took long sweeps to round each rownng buttress and
at last emerged with quality of nanmate breathess
ness the bleak and desoate lakeland of the endps
At this point, had Cynthia been there, Medenham
would have stopped for awhile that she might admire
the far flung panorama of the island valley of Avalon
which stretched below the ravine. Out of the green
pastures in the middle distance the ruined towers
of Glastonbury The purple and gold OF Sedgemoor,
relieved by the soft outlines of the Poden hills the grim
SUBMITS of Taunton Dean and the Breakdown range,
the wooded Quantocks dipping to the Severn and the
giant of Exnoor bounding the far hor zon-these
great splashes of color sofened and blended by belts
of farmland and the blue smoke of clustering hamlets
formed picture that not Britains sorehouse of
natural beauty can match too often to safe the eyes OF
those who love charming landscape.
He had, it were, jealousy guarded this vista all
day, said not word of it, when Cynthia and he
supreme moment of revelation. And, now that it was
here, Cynthia hidden somewhere in the gray dis
lance, and Medenham frowning at flying strip of
white road with his every faculty intent exacting the
last ounce of power from his superb machine.
The miles rolled BENEATH yet there no token OF
the Du Vallon that was to run slowly up the hill
until overtaken by the industrious writer of postcards
At the utmost the French given twelve or
thirteen minutes start, which meant seven or eight
miles to high powered automobile urged forward with
the determination Medenham himself displaying.
Mangnys chauffeur. therefore, must have dashed
through that Titanic cleft in the limestone at speed
utterly incompatible with his employers excuse of
sightseeing Of course it would be easy matter for
Margny to enlist Miss Vanrenens sympathies in the
effort of first rate engine to conquer the adverse
gradient She would hardly realize the rate OF progress
and from where she seated the speed indicator
would be invisible unless she leaned forward for the
press purpose of reading it.
nehemiah that the Mercury would catch
Du Vallon long before Bristol reached; but when
the last ample fold of the bleak plateau spread itself in
'front.' and his hunters eyes could discern no cloud OF
dust lingering in the still air where the road dipped over
the horizon he began to doubt to question, to solve
grotesque problems which discarded they had
well taken shape
ODDLY enough, there more expostuation
~ from Mrs Devar. Like the majority of nervous
people, she queled by the need of placing complete
still searching the skyline for signs of the vanished
car she did show interest his quest He felt since
he could see, that she half and looked over his
head bent low behind the partial shelter afforded by
glass Then she settled back IN the seat and
drew rug comfortably round her knees. For some
reason she was strangely content.
The incident supplied food for active thought so
she felt safe That which she dreaded the result OF
too strenuous pursuit could not now happen! Then
Mrs Devar knew the country well enough to be able to
precisely when and where she might be sure OF his
failure snatch Cynthia from that hidden evil the
of which he could only guess at Her world was
the artificial of hotels and shops, and numbered
streets in the real world of which the lonely wastes of
the Mendps provided no meager sample, she was pro-
found ignoramuS fat little auOmatOn equipped with
atrophed senses But she blundered badly in compos
ing herself cozly for the remainder of the run to