Evening star., 1916-08-13

the utter remoteness of his thoughts.
BEG y pardon, dear he returned alb
sently; Il never meant to swear out loud.
But, you see, business
Its always business muttered his
wife under her breath.
In the instant of silence that followed,
their two right hands were eloquent Of
their utter separation. Pennrhyn's hairy
fist doubled up menacingly and shot for
ward hairs BREADTH as if directed
against some unseen enemy. Mildred,
who had been holding her letter carelessly
between her fingers, suddenly cutched it
to her bosom with the desperate, caressing
gesture of woman who seizes life itself.
Disdainfully she flung her head into the
air, and, turning her back on Pennrhyn,
retreated swiftly into the house.
As yet. Pennrhyn felt no sleepiness.
This fact surprised and even vexed
him, since his chief object in coming home
to the mountains had been to obtain the
refreshment of sound nights sleep. But
his overstrained nerves refused to relax
their quverng tension into the soft ease
that leads to sleep. Every fiber of his
body seemed to twang; while his brain,
like an elastic strap that has been stretched
too hard and too long, refused to contract
itself to its normal measure. With the
whole force of his powerful intellect and
will power, he continued to grapple with
the enemies who were bulling Roanoke
Central, to force them from their ambush,
to bring the stock down with a crash about
their ears, to crush them to the earth, with
a gain of fabulous millions to himself.
All about him was the silence of spring
night-a quiet made up as it We're, of a
thousand tiny noises of the humble grow
ing life in the earth and tree Somewhere
on the mountain-side above the cottage,
an owl hooted plaintively. A faint breeze
stirred below him, paling the birch leaves
and the surface Of the unseen water to a
dim silver Pennrhyn's cigar, consuming
itself slowly between his fingers, suddenly
burnt his nail to the quick. He tossed it
away, and continued to plan, to scheme,
to dramatize conversations and to arrange
the hundred details of master stroke for
the morrow.
Still the man continued to sit there. a
jarring center of violent and transient life
among the brooding harmonies of ever
lasting nature that surrounded him.
SUDDENLY, mingling with the other
noises of the night, the far-off stroke of
a bell came floating dimly to his ears. BY
some caprice of his twanging nerves.
Pennrhyn started as violently as if
freman's gong had sounded in his ears,
instead of the distant bell of the church
clock in the village mile and half
away. And he remained quivering, sweat
ing like startled horse as he counted the
strokes that followed. 1t was midnight!
Stiffiy he rose to his feet Hang it,"
he reflected regretfully. "Only seven
hours left for sleep. if | want to get that
half past eight train tomorrow
He turned to go into the silent house;
then paused for an instant, seduced in
spite of himself by the beauty of the night.
The MINDLESS waters of the lake. inky
black before him, were pierced here and
there by pale white CLEANS, the watery
reflections of low-hanging stars In the
midst of these stabbed glowing orange
streak. Pennrhyn, mechanically lifting
his burning eyes to seek the huge and
flaming star that should account for this