The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1915-01-22
he BobbsM Merrill Company

stalled. With an effort he forced his
eyes open and held them so until the
,rst giddiness passed. He raised his
mead; 1t fell back with a thud.
l can't do it," he groaned.
But the mills-and Kazia,
I've got to do 1t. | must stop him.
| must get to her"
Then began a fight to sit IN to
stand to beat off the invisible hands
Trying to drag him back into the black.
ness- o long the struggle lasted,
oy what degrees he progressed, he did
hot know; but when 1t was over he
was leaning weakly against the door
!dmD. HIS brain was Keeling, he
nreathed sobbingly. but by bracins him
SELF desperately with the cane. recov-
ered In the struggle to stand, he man
aged TO hold what he had won.
ms brain cleared again, a little
s~teadiness came to the trembling
iimbs. Summoning all his will, he
passed with uncertain dragging steps
out of the shed. A cold damp wind
oreathed refreshingly upon him. He
grlpped his cane more tightly and
started slowly down the weedy road.
He reached the foot of the hill and
san down in a little rain pool, rested
pantingly and laved his hot face a few
minutes. then staggered to his feet
and llmped on until weakness over
came him once more and he fell. =.
More than an hour later he was still
lurchlng along the road. Kazia and
the mills! They were in danger, they
were being taken from him; he must
save them.
SO he beat his way slowly along
moonlit stretches OF rough road,
through darkened ravines where only
instinct found q path, until at last,
rounding a curve. he saw the furnace
looming huge before him.
AS hours passed and Mark did
not return, a sense of an approaching
Crisis, OF a LANCER, came to Kazia. The
squall died away. full darkness fell,
h train she was to have taken with
Piotr rolled to a stop at the station
and out again, and still he/had not re-
turned, The sense grew heavier, pas
sive waiting unbearable. To escape
her foreboding she went out into the
night and walked about again in the
place she had once thought of as q
haven. But she quickly left the ram
bling old village, seen for the first
time, yet holding so many memories
of which. she must not think, and went
over TO the new Bethel with its wide
paved streets and rows of pretty little
cottages. Many OF the cottages were
dark and untenanted as yet, but she
saw them as they would BIO when they
were the homes Of a happy folk who
toiled without exhaustion or fear, with
kindness in their hearts one for an
other.
She left the cluster of homes-to-be
and retraced her steps over the street
that led past the mills to the bridge
started to cross. But at the entrance
she stopped. Everywhere it was the
same, a redolence of him. After all
to her Bethel, the haven, was JUS
Mark Truitt.
All her fine resolutions and philoso
ply had become insufficient. The sigh
OF the river, the woods in their au
tumnal glory, the song of the rapids
had reviviiied the scenes of her one
happiness.
She did not think that there nigh
be some to see. She was weeping
head bowed on the bridge rail.
oh. | shouldn't have come. l wan
him-him. And | have no right K
have him. 1t would be the crueles
thing | could do to him-even If h,
cared. | was wrong to come"
Thus she told hope-the immortal
it must not live. =.
Old Simon had no skill for 1t an,
hence no part in the building of tn
mills. But he spent his days watching
them grow. Often at night, whel
Bethel was sleeping, he would sli,
across the river to realize again tina
after so many years his dreams wer
coming magnifcently true.
That night he left his a on tn
stoop, where he had been wonderingl
but patiently awaiting the absen
Mark, and trudged down to the rive
and across the bridge. He saw tn
figure leaning on the rail at the farthe
end, but not until he vas close did h
see 1t was that Of a weeping woman
He would have turned aside, but h
perceived that she had heard him an
lifted her head.
He stopped short, staring in astol
ishment at the woman. a sort that ha
never before come within his ken.
After a moments hesitation he wei
to her.
us anything wrong. ma'am?"
She shook her head.
is there anything l kin do fur ye'
Again the silent gesture.
IF there is" he persisted: I'D lii
to do It fur ye."
She found her voice. 1T is not
ing" She tried to smile. Sometime
women cry for nothing, about lit
thipps"