The Washington times., 1912-04-09

AVN

nexus of ruin. Disguised as everything
now was, fallen and disjointed, molder-
ing, blighted by age incalculable, still
the man recognized many familiar fea-
lures.
Here, he recalled, the telephone booths
had been; there, the Information desk.
Yonder, again, he remembered the little
curved counter, where once upon
time a man In uniform had sold tickets
to such as had wanted to visit the
tower.
Counter now was dust; ticket-man
only crumble Of fine, grayish powder
stern shivered slightly and pressed on.
AS he approached the outer air he
noticed that many grassy tuft ana
creeping vine had rooted in the pave.
ment Of the arcade, upprying the mar
BILE slabs and cracking the once mag
nificent floor.
The doorway itself was almost choked
by tremendous Norway pine which
had struck root close to the building
and now insolently blocked that way
where, other time, many thousand men
and women every day had come ana
gone.
But stern cIambered out past this
obstacle, testing the floor with his
sledge as he went, lest he fall through
an unseen weak spot into the depths
of coal cellars below. And presently
he reached the outer air, unharmed.
"But-but the sidewalkY'' cried he.
amazed. "The street.-the square,
Where are they2' And in establishment
he stopped, staring.
1t had told him something of the
adequate conception Of their mag
nitude.
human life to show upon the earth,
some sem mblancc of the metropolis to
| remain in the street. But no, nothing
was there; nothing. at all on the
He could. indeed, catch giimpses of
| a building here or there. Through
the tangled thickets that grew close
up to the age-worn walls of the Met
ropolitan he could make out few
bits of tottering construction on the
south side of what had been Twenty
But Of the street itself no trace re-
mained-no pavement, no sidewalk,
no curb. And even so near and so
conspicuous an object as the wreck
| of the Flatiron was now entirely con-
cealed by the dense forest.
Soil had formed thickly over all the
surface. Huge oaks and pines -four
ished there as confidently as though
in the heart Of the Maine forest
Under the mans feet, even as he
stood close by the building--which
was thickly overgrown with IVY ana
| with 1erns ana pusnes rootea III tHe
crannies--the pineneedles bent In
deep pungent beds. :,
): Birch. maple poplar, and all the
natives of the American woods shoui :
Of the fresh young leaves, Just burst
ing their sheaths. Stern knew the
season was midMay.
Through the wind-swayed branches
little hickering patches Of morning
sunlight met. his gaze as they playet
, and quivered on the forest moss oI
over the sere pinespills.
Even upon the huge, square stones
and which stern knew must hav'
! fallen from the tower. the moss grew
| very thick; and more than one suci
block had been rent by frost ant
2 growing things.
How long has II been, great heavens
: How long?' cried the engineer, a SUD
den fear creeping into his heart. Fo
this, the reasserted dominance OF ma
) ture, bore In on him with more ap
! paliing force than anything he had ye
; About him he looked, trying to get hi
, bearing in that strange milieu. ..
st saS tSo1si hs sas soms siSM eosmlc Jester
all-powerful, had scooped up. the frag
l merits OF a ruined city and tossed ther
: pell-mell into the core of the Adiron
I dacks! It's horrible-ghastly|ncred
3 ible!'
3 Dazed and awed, he stood as in
. dream, a strange figure with his man
of hair, his flaming. trailing beard, nj
, rags (for he had left the bearskin y
. the arcade), his bare and muscular arm
!. knotted as he held the sledge over nj
g shoulder.
Well might he have been a savage 9
q old times; one OF the early barbariar
: of Britain, perhaps, peering In wonde
] at the ruins of some deserted Roma
: camp. -
a The chatter of a squirrel high u
recalled him to his wits. Down cam
n spiraling a few bits of bark and acor
a shell, quite in the old familiar way. p.
e Farther off among the woods, rot
a in's throaty morning notes drlfted
him on the odorous breeze. A wrel
k surprisingly tame, chippered busily.
a hoped about not ten feet from him, er
!: tirely fearless. ...
Z Stern realized that 1t was now seein
4 a man for the first time in its life an
h that 1t had no fear. His bushy brow
contracted as he watched the HIT
O brown body jumping from twtg to twl
!. in the pine above him.
A deep, full breath he drew. Higne
e through the leafy screen he saw II
e overbending arch Of sky In tiny patch'
In of turquoise. -,
i "The same old world. after all-tf
: same, In spite of everything-than
Godl" he whispered. his very tone
n prayer of thanks.
,e And suddenly. though why he cou
not have told, tho grim engineers ey'
v grew wet with tears that ran, VI
d needed, down his heavy-bearded cheek