The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-06-16
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY
Council Rock.
BY lzoLA FORESTER.
Copyright 1919. bs the Mcclure News
paper Svndtcate.l

paper s1NHQrCdLe.D
q oMETHING had happened to the
canoe as they tried to ride the
smaller rapids. Creston said af-
forward he thought some hidden snag
had ripped hole large enough to
start leak, and 1t had been twilight
then, too dark TO notice until they felt
the water IN the bottom Of the ca
noe.
There had been no real danger, he
kept assuring her after he had beach
ed the boat, and they stood on the
tall spur OF gray rock in the middle
Of the silent river. They would be
missed at the cottage by dinner time,
and of course, Barclay or some OF the
others would put out to the rescue in
the motorboat.
In the meantime they could build
a fire on the rock as signal and
take things easy. There was nothing
70 worry about.
Dorothy was silent as he talked.
She knew how Connie would say she
had managed the whole affair cleverly.
Il had been her mothers pride the
way she had married off her four girls
to wealthy men. The lovely Warnings,
they called them. Evelyn, Winnie, Phyl
lis and Dorothy, the youngest, ne
NAMED.
She wondered IL Creston suspected
that he had been selected by her
mother as the man whom she was to
marry. He was so easy going, so care
less, apparently, that she doubted
whether he would even care. And yet
It seemed as II he had followed them
down the coast with deliberate intent
IN his yacht and had taken the cot
tage at Palmetto Beach so as to be
their next door neighbor. 1t was all so
business like and unromaptic. Evelyn
had said to her the night before they
left for the South as they sat togeth.
er in the box at the opera:
Don't let mother persuade you into
a marriage like mine, Dot. 1 have ev-
everything-but love or comradeship.
] am less to my husband than his Jap
butler. am sure he would far rather
lose me than Surokf with his knowl-
edge Of mixing drink artistically. Mar.
~ the man you really love"
And the worst of 1t was she had car
ed for Creston Clay from the first
time they had met 1t had been at
the country club, at tea after a game
OF golf. Winnie had watched her
amusedly IS they talked together, and
on the way home in her car she had
said:
ITS Just your luck, kiddie, to pick,
q winner like Clay without realizing
II He's worth millions"
Dorothy had felt the chill of disilIu.
alon then. Was everything in life touch
/. 81 with gold to make it worth whilsY
she remembered this now, watching
hin bend over the building of the fire.
e was 60 beautiful on the rock at this
( hour. The beach slipped away to the
NV E4pp!e OF surf, and fringe of pal.
nlettes lose In slender; purple siIhou-
cite against the sky. Creston came uo
and stretched out at her feet.
They'll see that soon," he said. az
only wish they wouldn't, dou't you.
Dot? It's like the islands you read
about, isn't It? When I was young
eter, dad had a craze for sailing the
seven seas and ] went along: always
liked the islands best, and / wanted
one, know. Now that everything
seems to be going think I'll take the
boat some day and slip away and hunt
cfie.D
Everything going?' repeated Doro-
thy wondertngly.
Ho nodded happily, looking through
half closed eyeiids at the lights on the
main shore.
You know dad Inherited all he had
from his father, because Uncle David
was supposed to be dead. He had the
manderiust, like I have, and hadn't
been IN America, in years. Well, he
has turned up now, that's al, and OF
course. the whole shooting match
goes back to him. I'm rather glad.
III nRve enough to keep up the yacht
and do what want to. The only thine
10, he looked up at her quizzicalIy,
ySrr mother wouldn't give me ghost
p eeosr now womb shea''