The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-06-08
ssSON5OF THE WIND

drew herself up; so paused, kneel.
ing; and, being human, looked
dark upon the breast of the
Sphinx.
For a moment she remained
balanced perilously against what
appeared the sheer face of the
rock. In another moment she
had vanished. She seemed to
have melted into the face of the
cliff. He shouted aloud in hor-
ror. Immediately her head and
shoulders reappeared. She was
waiting for him.
He drew himself up beside ner
and found her sitting on a broad
ledge of rock perhaps five feel
deep. They stood on the edge OF
the window of the Sphinx, and
the short locks on his forehead
were stirred by a wind from no
where.
The rock closed in on three
sides of them. 1t was like dip
ping into black velvet. The foot
ing was firm and only a little
slanted. He went forward easily,
keeping one hand on the solid
rock. At first he could see moth
ing. Blanche was present only
as an echo and the flutter of
skirt; but presently he began to
distinguish the outline of her
body, moving on in front of him,
against family bright distance;
suddenly HIS companion stopped
She was no longer in front of him
but beside him. In front of him
was a sheet of deep blue hazed
with white.
He saw neither what was above
his head nor beneath his feet, but
only what was in front of him
too far to reach, yet not too faI
to be real, not painted with the
colors of distance, but still over
hung by the glamor of 1t = the
poetic and terrific spectacle o.
the great brood of mountains.
Their multiplying submits
were all in piercing silver light
On their lodges and divides shad
ows like wings were folded. Tht
arch of the sky above him wal
immense, the canyon was the con
verse hollow.
At first his ears had taken IL
only silence. But that dwelt higl
among the peaks where his eye,
had been fixed. Now he becam,
aware of sound rising from be
meath. He looked down upon tn,
running backs of lesser hills
each outline painted by the moon
Over these he had looked into tn
great canyon, among these tn,
river wandered and complained
and into these the Sphinx's pedes
tai descended.
Again the woman stretched on
her hand and led him unhesitat
ingly.
They went down over lon.
i shallow terraces. The moon ha
sunk away until 1t stood above tn
Sphinx's. head. The great canyo
sank behind the company of hills
In their black hollow a brigh
spot rippled like prismed glass
That would be the river the moo
had caught leaping a rapid.
1t was strange to come dow
upon soft ground again, to feel
yield beneath his feet and Sc
leaves above his head. He wa
travelling again on broad cart
down an abrupt slope, his com
panion soft-footing a pace in at
vance and threading rapid
among the trees.
He had no forewarning of tn
broken white which glimmere
suddenly beyond the trunks of tn
pines. II was a line of boulder
tossed UP in low irregular wal
Blanche pressed between tn
rocks or over them warily, lool
ing back to point him a secur
foothold evidently known to he
tried, and to be depended on.
Edging along cautiously, mov
ing her feet carefully as a cat, sh
, stopped and stopped, and gather
ing her skirts, crept into an opel
ing in the rocks.
II was one of those wave-wor
caves sometimes to be found
the walls of mountain rivers,
spring covered by the waite
which now ran some four feet b,
low. AS he followed her int
the black hole, sliding feet frs
he could feel its sides rough an
clean as coral; but earth ha
been loosely sprinkled over II
surface, and dry moss pulled u
by the roots, was drawn about TIL
entrance, and once they were bot
in, she pulled it up in a heap, hit
ing half the opening, leaving ROOF
enough for their eyes to look ou
The floor of the cave was a
most level, so that as they la
stretched upon 1t, they could loo
out to the opposite band, or dow
into the river.
The air, sick for vibration,
was vibrating by it's own empt
ness. Like a gong, It assailed tn
senses in waves, at first beatin