The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-02-22
Ne Hingdom Of
Slender 3words
Copyright, Bobbs-Merrill Company

Copyright, Bobbs.Merrill Company
AS she sat listening to the meaning
less Grading and the signing OF the
wind above the chapel roof, Barbara's
eyes on the stained glass figure in the
rose window were full of wistful lone
liness. If her father were only alive
if he could be near her now! I'm
consciously her gaze strayed across
the hedges to the gray roof OF the old
temple where lived the eccentric sol
itary to whom her thought insistently
required. In her trouble she longed to
20 to him with longing the greater be-
cause it seemed fantastic and lllog-
ical.
She was startled by sound outside
the single shrill, high scream of a
horse in some stable near at hand. 1t
cut through a pause in the service,
sharp, curdling, like a cry OF mortal
fear. A baby, near Barbara, aWoke
and began to cry and the mother
soothed it with whispered mumur1
ings.
Suddenly there arose a strange rat
Ting, a grooming of timbers. me
bishop ceased reading. People were
rising to their feet. The building was
shifting, swaying, with sickening up
ward vibration, as though it were De-
Ing trotted on some Brobdingnaglan
knee. Barbara felt qualm like the
first touch of NAL de mer Jl-shln!"
rose the cry, and there was rush for
the open air. In another moment she
found herself out Of doors with the
frightened crowd.
1t was her first experience OF earth
quake, and the terror had gripped her
bodily. The wet trees were waving to
and fro like gigantic fans, and a dull
moan like an echo in a subterranean
cavern seemed to issue from the very
ground. A section of thing slid from
the chapel roof with crash. Rather
severe that, for Tokyo" said the bish-
OPP at her elbow, where he stood calm
", watch in hand. almost two min
utes and vertical movement"
1.-TWO minutes!" she gasped. She had
thought it twenty.
The nauseating swing had ceased,
but in an instant, with a vicious
wrench, it began again. "The secon-
Diary oscillations" he said. ut will
all be over in a
AS he spoke, the air swelled with a
horrible, crunching, grinding roar, like
the complaint of million riven tim
bers. Across the lane sinister dust
cloud sprang into the air like mon
strous hand with spread fingers. ut is
one of the temples!" said the bishop
and hurried with the rest, Barbara
following him.
The paved yard was filling with
throng. Agitated priests and acolytes
ran hither and thither and slate-col-
ored nuns, with shaven heads and pale,
frightened faces, peered through the
bamboo lattices of the nunnery. The
newer temple faced the open space as
usual, but across the hedged garden
no ornate roof now thrust up it's Tar
tar gables. Instead was hudGle OF
wreckage, upon which lay the huge
roof, crumpled and shattered, like the
fragments of a gigantic mushroom.
From the tangle projected beam ends,
coiled about with painted monsters,
and here and there in the cluttered
debris lay great images of unfamiliar
deities. Over all hung fine yellow
dust, choking and penetrating.
What was under those ruins? Bar
bara shivered. She was quite uncon-
scious of the mud and pelting rain.
The bishop drew her under the temple
porch, and they stood together watch
ing the men now working with mat
tocks, saws and with loose beams for
levers, prying up a corner OF the fall
en- roof. 1t seemed an hour they had
stood there, when a priest, barehead-
ed, his robes caked with mud, came
from the clustering crowd. The bish-