Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-09-03
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be on hand. whatever. happens nndOuDt-
.-But rnharrned7', she said quickly
He was obliged to admit that
Then take !, this: Madame Savaran
said 1t was for you" Cynthia CROPPED
In the darkness until she recovered the
pretty little revolver she had heedlessly
put aside on entering Then finding his
hand she pressed the weapon into 1t, as
cribing to his overtaxed nerves the sharp
movement with which he. broke the con-
tact of her fingers. u4
What's this ~ he demanded brusque-
ly. ''Oh! $40 I presume one might
have expected Madame to invest in a
trinket like this" His laugh sounded
briefly supercillious.
"Is it--isn't it@-2''
"Calibre too light" he answered in
language cryptic to Cynthia For real
service you want a gun that throws
bullet heavy enough to stop a man COM
ing at you. This-well it might blind
him by a happy chance, or confuse him
with pain-not If he were fighting mad,
however Otherwise" he continued,
talking rapidly to cover his feeling, "Td
make shift with It to blow the lock off
that door. At. least I've heard Of that
sort of thing being accomplished-in
books. However. we may be able to
knock a turn out of It,"
YES" said Cynthia DULY. silencing
him with the discovery that she had not
been attending ..
He went to the forward port and
looked out. He had hardly guessed how
precariously his emotions were balanced,
that they should be so unsettled, thrust
perilously out of poise, by the simple
touch OF Cynthia,s hand upon his own.
He fought against himself, and was
afraid, knowing what she suspected only
as one who dreams.
She had returned to the folding seat
against the after partition, on a sudden
assailed by an inexplicable sensation of
helplessness and need, of weakness and
distress, unrelated to any condition her
mind acknowledged.
Moveless, tense, she sat in underlined
expectancy, brooding over the troubled
depths of her soul. Something curious
was happening: deep down in the pro-
found, unplumbed abyss Of her being
some change was in process, inrusing
her consciousness with exquisite pre-
monittons.
And there, in the darkness that lay
between them, she seemed to sense
presence alien yet strangely intimate to
them both; there something lived outside
OF life; there something rare ana deli
cately wonderful stirred and pulsed in
the womb Of nature.
Whispered hints Of a happiness pass
ing the understanding bewildered with
their ilnpalpable, elusive charm. She ex-
perienced confusio n,poignant inklings Of
something new and heretofore I'M
dreamed of, something singular and con-
summate-as they were glimpses of the
light of a world beyond human ken,
light blindly beautiful penetrating, in
tense, visible only to the elect.
Cynthia felt her self all trembling,
beyond control.
At the port, againstya plaque Of pur-
pie sky strewn with the dust of stars,
Crittenden's profile showed stark, en-
silhouette. Her gaze was held to this,
because of this her lips were parted.
and for this her heart was throbbing
like the heart of wild thing In
cage. .
without presage this dangerous muir
INJURIOUS hush was broken by the ships
bell Two strokes beautiful with brazen
sonance, and then two more, With e.
scanty space between sang through the
silent, sound-swept ship. Following, a
man5s voice rang out with an eyry'
palintive cadence:
-Four bells, and alps wel-l-L :"
The spell snapped like an overhaul
string. Cynthia stirred restlesslys feel
ing the bounds of enchantment severed
and falling irrevoeably from her senses.
In his place, Crittenden moved, with
low exclamation Of impotence.
Good Lord!' he breathed, thinking of
AclSlin. ''Win he never conner
Down from the crows nest dropped the
Iookout's hail. wierdly resonant and stir
ring: ~
Breakers ahead Four points on the
starboard bowl"
Some one responded from the bridge.
| Than a second cry from the evrv on
tbs foremast-' 1and-hoF'--and again the