The Washington times., 1911-11-03
CHAPTER XIX (continued)


forever, relying for safety on
the caution OF our assailants.
Besides. the cellar might have
some other entrance and exit unknown
TO us; some means of egress whereby
we might be surrounded from behind
ere we were aware Of our foes presence.
And at the thought the idea of present
~ ETY. grew more vague.
- i peered about me In the uncertain
5 little hillock that rose abruptly to
merge with the higher slope of vesu-
vius. The ground behind US sloped
OF the road, where it t swelIed to a gentle
'Billy,". said. barely loud enough Cor
MIN to hear, and pointing toward the
can edge around behind that bit of
rise and put 1t between US and this hut
we may. be able to make break for the
we've Ssy osfSrs son.' they can iind which way
AS spoke had already begun walk
ing toward the lower edge OF the knoll,
So.i,,nn s.,h trying 1 to keep the same relative @
mad not gone ten steps before NUT
tered expletive from Billy. as he
stumbled over root, betrayed our
The doorway was blocked, and a man
whose tall. slender figure at once rec
ognized as Sebaste's sprang into view.
ah shand him. ,Sn on the threshold; could
. fired-once-twice- the uncertain
defined figures. and, as II in answer
world seemed to arrive.
Low can I describe wnat no mortal
tongue or pen can describe? Let me
put It simply. tritely. even as it then
have said the hut which capped the
great disused vat used by the Brother
mood OF Vienna as secret meeting
place was set into the abrupt slope of
Wei. the top Of the hillock simply
vanished, and from the cash left BY
its destroyed summit shot up mighty
"A column twice as wide as the hut
itself. high as the clouds above, gold
white Of hue. binding and awful to
II did not rise slowly or maJestically,
nor could mortal eye take note off its
speed; At one moment there was the
sky; at the next there was no darkness,
no hilltop. and in their place was that
towering pillar Of molten flame.
t stood motionless, this terrible fire.
column; then.in an hour or in the re-
hottest part Of second, who can tell?-
It sank. Not back whence it had risen,
but over upon the hut itself, burying
Thousand tons of blazing lava.
And that is all I saw. For now
not at the instant of the lava's bursting
through the hill-crest, but as the molten
universe swayed and reeled, and a roar
that rivaled that Of a million-gun bat
terry split the heavens themselves.
Something picked me up as though
limitless oceans of space. The blaze of
light that had smitten through my eyes
into my very brain turned blacker than
/ was FALLING falling. with No senaa
ton Of any sort save dull apathy. and
then even that negative consciousness
left me. And ! slept-or died.
.'The end of the worldr'
It was the first thought that crept
DULY into my benumbed mind. The next
spirit. curiously enough. was quite as
subject to racking aches and pains, es-
pecially where the head used to be, as
had ever been my mortal frame.
mea snEf sp ike III wssf
bending over me. For / could feel
light touch on my forehead, and a voice,
very far away. but infinitely sweet. was
The voice was familiar. and the vague
thrill 1t sent through me made me In
cline to the angel theory. / made a
There!S e1elsImsd % ipsee some one ON 'sii IN high
before the count of ten! Why. Pete's
gooder'n hundred dead uns, just as he
lays. I've seen too many guys sent to
by-low in the ring not to know when
their Insurance poicies He'll Be as
And this was the voice had thought
SO divinely sweet? The voice that had
lured me back from the other world?
Verify. semi-conscious men have odd
closed my tired eyes once more, and
a voice-not Billy's, but the voice I
now knew I had really heard while
was far away In Shadowiand-cried
sHs has tainted asainw
My eyes opened, this time to stay
open. and I raised my head and stared
In front. grinning from car to ear in
wild delight, knelt Billy Gregg. flask
of whisky in one hand. his face blister
ed. his hair singed, his clothes rent In
dered with some ashy substance; Near
him stood two or three peasants. simi-
larry powdered. scared Of face, hud-
ding together In little anxious knot.
from dawn, but with a light had never
seen in any other dawning. For
lurid, grayish-y yellow glow overspread
everything. Moreover. grayish snow
stupidly I glared around.
was still out-of-doors, but in
world or land / had never before seen,
at the side of q road that was piled
several inches thick with powdery drift.
The green herbage that crops up every
where so vividly in that part of Italy
was gone. In its place was that uni
form dead-grayness.
turned my head to one side to COM
mand a view of the road itself. Then
] saw, without at all understanding, the
reason for the ceaseless rumble that
had dinned itself into my ear ever since
] had awakened.
For the narrow highway was choked
with carts, wagons, trucks. pushcarts,
and every sort of vehicle, crowded with
women, children. and sick folk and
piled high with household goods. Every
face wore the same awed. panic-stricken
look / had seen on those of the knot
of peasants who stood near me.
With the inelastic, numb brain Of the
drunkard or half-awakened man, eyed
these unusual sights with not the
slightest interest. Nor did I reply when
Rilly Gregg addressed me. was
searching my memory for the voice I
Rad heard in my dreams and once again
had heard since regeined my senses.
II had not come from Billy, nor from
the peasants, nor from anyone I could
see. II was vaguely annoying, this in
ability to see the owner of the voice
that had so thrilled my scattered senses
and had brought them back to earth