The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-04-09
The Echoes of
Silence
BY VICTOR REDcLRFH

and then had stayed hiS8hand. She
had sung il through one great tri-
umphant season and then her voice
was mute-he, Bertram Vernon, she,
Viola Davenant. An abyss had opened,
a shock had come and they two were
sundered.
Ten years back they had met and
loved, he a young man of ample for
tune, she a proven young queen Of
song, dazzled by the adulation that
pOufed in upon her. She had gone
abroad with her sister, promising him
that with the following spring she
would abandon all professional duties
and live and sing for him alone.
Surely never had there been so
deep, so fervent a love as his-he
knew 1t, she realized 1t. Day and
night during her absence Bertram
Vernon lived in a bewitching dream.
He had planned out a home fit for
princess. He had anticipated a tour
taking in the fairest spots of Nearth.
He had so shaped his life that the
coming years would be a devotion to
art. to music, to the higher literary
bhNAct ala " lONCs
one day the closest friend of Yer
non, a lawyer named Joyce Elwood,
came 10 the office OF the former. He
closed the door after him. He seated
himself opposite TO Vernon.
"Bertram," he said, II would be To
you a false friend IL / stayed my lips
concerning a discovery that must
II ~ OF Viola that / must speak. Be
brave, be strong-she has deceived
yOH."
That would not be possible"
said Vernon, simply and with q smile
of utter confidence.
Then read" answered Elwood, and
he produced a erumpIed newspaper
and a written sheet. viola was at
Palermo when she last wrote you.
This is a Palermo newspaper. ] hap
pen TO have a client, an Italian, who
receives the paper from abroad. He
noticed the name Of Miss Davenant.
He knows you, myself, and that we
would be interested i have had q
translation made OF the article-read."
AID Bertram Vernon read-his
death warrant, 1t seemed.
When Joyce Elwood called to see
his friend the next day he found him
absent, and then q week. a month.
many OF them, but the missing man
did not return.
One month later Bertram had found
the spot he had been looking for. At
q wild spot in the Rockies he had dis
covered a partially isolated segment
of a chain of hills. Here at one time
an erratic hermit had lived. Here
now, a broken wanderer, Vernon APP
propriated the old cabin, spanned q
broad abyss with q kind OF q draw
bridge, never lowered except when he
tOiled to a distant town to secure the
necessaries of Life. Then began an
anchorite existence. Grim silence held
the barren spot, and there day or
night as he moved about the narrow
hilltop or tossed upon his rude bed Of
straw, the self-edled being constantly
dwelt, not amid silence, but amid the
echoes of silence. They possessed
him, they pursued him. Ever there
was the semblance of a dying note of
sweetness, the faint accent Of the
voice he had so loved. The newspaper
had recounted the marriage abroad OF
Viola Davenant to a famous opera
singer. Accepting the announcement
as natural, as logical, Vernon had
abandoned all OF hope or faith In wom-
ankind.
He could not silence those echoes of
silence. They obsessed him, they gave
him no rest. Exhaustion came. One
night he dragged himself toward his
ed that he fell to the ground beside
the drawbridge and lay there unable
to move farther. 1t was a royalty
grand mOonlit evening and he glanced
YEARLY at the glowing stars, and felt
that not for many hours longer would
he greet their plying gleamings.
Suddenly amid the halucinatton OF
a growing fever there rang out a loud
er. more distinct "echo of silence"
OF the end The song he had written
and which Viola had sung stole forth
upon the ambient air-and In Viola's
tones All sweet delusion as he
neared the dark river! 1t closed It
was repeated, and beyond the chasm
a white-robed form seemed to pause
I'm a ghostlike walk and listen.
What impelled him? Strength
seemed given him to seize the ropes
! of the drawbridge and loosen them.
The rude framework spanning the
abyss crashed into place.
at is death 7" he cried "Oh, fair
oneI Oh, false one comet
cOme!'
form fitted across the rude
planks. his weary head was lifted to
a throbbing, longing bosom.
My wounded Lowell my poor, dear
lost one found-found r. And a glory
ineffabie came into his face, and earth
faded away.
A week later, Viola beside him in q
mountain hotel, Bertram Vernon knew
/ that IL was his Sweetheart's sister