Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-10

I till the nails pierced the delicate flesh,
eyes staring, face .waxen, only for the saki
Of the child suppressfng the sobs ana
| heart-torn cries that sought TO burst from
| her overburdened soul
| "Oh, Allan! Allan!" she would entreat,
| as though he could know and hear. ."Oh,
come back TO me What has happened?
Where are you? Come back, come back to
your boy--to me'
Then, betmes. she would catch UP the
child and strain II to her breast, even
though IT awakened Its cries would min
gle with her anguished weeping: and In
the firelit gloom of the cave they two
she who knew and he who know not
would in some measure comfort one an
other.
on the eighth day she sustained a ter
rible shock, sudden joy followed by so
poignant despair that for moment 1t
seemed to her human nature could endure
no more and she must die.
For, eagerly watching the cloud-patched
sky with the telescope from the cif-top-
while on the terrace old Gesafam tended
the chd--she thought suddenly TO be-
hold a distant vision of the aeroplane
tiny spot In the heavens, truly. was
moving across the field of vision!
with n cry, a sudden flushing OF her
face now so wan and colorless she seemed
to throw all her senses into one sense,
the power OF sight. And though her hand
began to shake so terribly that she could
only with a great effort hold the glass, she
steadied It against a fern-tree and thus
managed to find again and hold the NOV
ing speck.
The Pauilac! Was IT indeed the PAUL.
lac and Allan?
"Mercful heaven" she stammered
Bring him back--to me :"
Again she watched, her Whole soul
afame with hope and eagerness and trem-
ulous joy, ready to burst into blaze Of
happiness-and then came dlsillusion and
despair, blacker than ever and more ter
rible.
For suddenly the moving speck turned,
wheeled and rose. one second she caught
sight Of wings She knew now IT was
only some huge tropic bird afar on the
horzon--some condor vulture or other
creature Of the air,
Then, as with quick swoop, the vul-
ture slid away and vanished behind
blue hill-shoulder, the woman dropped her
glass, sank to earth and-half fainting-
burst into a terrible, dry, sobbing plant.
Her tears long since exhausted, would not
flow. Grief could pass no further limits.
After time she grew calmer, arose and
thought Of her child once more. Slowly
she returned down the via dolorosa of
the terrace path, the walk where she and
Allan had SO often and so gayly trodden
the path now so barren, so hateful, so SOL
itary
To her little son she returned. and in
bling arms-and the tears came at last,
welcome and heart-stlling.
Old Gesafam, gazing compassionately
with troubled eyes that binked behind their
mica shields. laid comforting hand on
the girls shoulder.
DO not weep, o Yulcia. mistress :" she
exclaimed in her own tongue. '"Weep not,
for there is still hope. See, all things are
going on as before in the colony" She
gestured toward the lower caves, whence
the sounds of smithy work and other toll
drfted upward "All is yet we'll with us
Ogy our kromno is away. And he will yet
come. He will come back to us--to the
child. to you to all who love and obey him -
Beatrice seized the old woman's hand and
kissed it in a burst of gratitude.
"Oh-if l could only believe you" she
sobbed.
1T will be So What could happen TO
him, so strong, 30 brave? He must come
back! He will"
What could happen? A hundred things.
Gesafam, one tiny break in the flying
boat and he might be hurled to earth or
down the Abyss to death Or, among your !
Folk he may have been defeated, for many
Of the Folk are still savage and very cruel /!
Or. the Horde"
"'rhe Horde? But the Horde, of which
you have often spoken. is now afar."
mo, Gesafam Even today I saw their
signal fires on the horizon"
The old woman drew arm about the
girl. All barbarian that she was, the
eternal, universal spirit Of the feminine