Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-10-14
Out Of the Darkness
II
81 DORA H. NOLAN

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Copyright 1913. By the Mcclure News
paper Syndicats.)
Just a tiny bit of Connecticut's
irregular coast line snuggled between
two rocky lodges. narrow crescent
Of glistening white sand stretched be-
tween curling blue waters and wealth
erbeaten board walk. A soft lap-lap-
ping of tiny waves. The shrieks of
circling sea gulls. The distant chug-
chug of engines as an Eagle boat,
closely followed by a submarine,
emerged from the nearby harbor. 1t
was the first day Of spring, the eQui-
nox, but there was nothing to indicate
the wild upheaval of nature that had
preceded and made this miracle Of
day possible but some scattered debris
of the deep, long curls OF brown sea-
weed, queer shells and creatures
strewn over the sand.
A blind man reclined on a steamer
chair on the broad veranda of one of
the many cottages which lined the
board walk. He listened intently and
from the sounds he heard tried to re-
construct the scene. 1t was more than
two years since ne had seen 1t, this
beautiful spot where all his boyhood
and college vacations had been spent.
Perhaps that was why he had chosen
1t for what he called his "reconstruc-
ton period" and withdrawn here at q
time when he knew it would be prac-
tically deserted, with only his old
nurse and housekeeper, Aunty Kate. to
look out for him.
Not one bit Of shrinking only un-
mans acceptance of the result Of the
supreme sacrifice he had offered his
country and humanity-only desire
to be alone for awhile, to think things
out, to formulate some philosophy Of
life to replace the ambitions which
now must be relinQuished forever.
Footsteps sounded on the board
walk. Aunty Kate, looking out of her
kitchen window, saw two women ap-
preaching, one elderly, with fretful
face, the other young, piquant and
CARRIED in the uniform of nurse. The
blind man heard two voices, one young
and fresh:
"Oh, Mrs. Bently, If you had only
come out here yesterday-just mass
Of tumbled waters, raging against the
gale, the huge waves breaking right
over this walk!"
A Querulous voice answered, II
never go out in storm If can help
It,"
When the two women were out of
earshot of the man the younger re-
marked, "That's Major Angre He's
very famous surgeon-or, rather,
was. He's blind now"
The querulOus woman, reused for
the moment out of her absorption in
imaginary ills, asked, "How did it
happen? In this war;" The nurse
nodded
well, it only goes TO prove what
my father and his father before him
always said, that this country would
go to rack and ruin when the Repub-
lican party went out of power"
When the two women had passed
from sight Aunty Kate emerged from
her kitchen. "Those must be the
people who are staying in that little
cottage back on the creek she said,
''where I've seen the light nights. The
girl is nurse and the older woman
. her patient, evidently. Don't envy her
the job. She looks like fussy old
thing"
That night at ten o'clock lights
shone In two places in the little beach
colony. Then simultaneously the
lights vanished. In their living room
Aunty Kate was reading aloud to her
charge, stumbling through the long
words of medical magazine She
stopped abruptly with, "The electric
lights are out"
Then it's up to you to rustic out
the lantern and candles. 1t wouldn't
matter to me-" the blind man added
refiectiyely, "if they stayed out for
ever" To himself he said: "No
amount of light will ever enable my
dear old nurse to negotiate those
words. It's going to be necessary to
find someone who can soon, though, If
/ want to Keep abreast of things"
In the little house by the creek the
young nurse, with the aid Of a flash
light, was searching for possible
candles while her charge sat perfectly
still. only her tongue wagging on in its
usual complaining way, when a knock
sounded on the door. The nurse
opened, in the midst CT her patients
protests that it wasn't safe to do so.
and disclosed Major Angre holding
lantern and accompanied by his house
keeper.
1T occurred to u.s." he said, that as
our lights are out yours must be also.
Aunty Kate decided that as none ap-
peared in your window you must be
without any way of making one, so
we took the liberty of bringing you
some candles"
Mrs. Bently hustled forward and H.
vited them in, introducing the nurse
as Miss Forbes, doing most of the
talking, and monopoIizing everybody's
attention as only selfish person can.
So that, on her way home, when the
blind man remarked, THAT woman Is
a pest" Aunty Kate knew very well
whom he meant. and heartily agreed.
Neither spoke of Miss Forbes, per-
haps because both were thinking about
her. In Aunty Kate's mind was evOlv-
Ing q scheme. She shrewdly suspected
that Mrs RonfIvsc oonfinual roof+ol -