Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-05
Last Scene of All.
ny CAPT. LORD DUNsANY.

A FTER John Calleron was hit he
carried on in a kind of twilight
or the mind. Things grew DINNER
and calmer, harsh outlines of events
became blurred, memories came to
MN, there was a singing in his ears
like far-off bells. things seemed more !
beautiful than they had while ago.
to him it was for all the world like
evening after some quiet sunset. when !
lawns and shrubs and woods and some
ola spire look lovely in the late light
ana one reflects on past days.
Ihus he carried on. seeing things !
olinly And what is sometimes called :
lhe roar Of battle'-those aerial
voices that snarl and moan and whine
ana rage at soldiers-had grown dim
mer, too. 1t all seemed farther away.
ana hitler, as far things are. He still
heard the bullets; there is something
SO violently and intensely sharp in
'he snap of passing bullets at shorts.
ranges that you hear them in deep
est thought and even in dreams He
Hodru them, tearing by above aIIg
things else, The rest seemed fainter
ana DINNER. and smaller and farther
He did not think he was very badly.
nlt, put nothing seemed to matter as n
IL qua while ago. Yet he carried on,
ana then he opened his eyes very
VIDE and found he was back in LON
don again in an underground train. +
lie kn/Y it at once by the look of il. !
he haA made hundreds OF journeys'
Kong hY T. age by by those trains. He knew
left London, but, what was odder than .
lhat II one stopped to think of it,
was that he knew exactly where it
was going: 1t was the train that
Were wher hh@ s yssd put int, into the country
was sure of that without thinking.
When he began to think how he
came to be there he remem bered the
war as very. far-off thing. He sup
long time. He was all right now.
=, other people were sitting beside :
nm on the same seat They all /
seemed like people he remembered a
very long time ago. In the darkness
opposite. beyond the windows of the
train; he could see their reflections +
clearly. He looked at the reflections.
put could not quite remember
CO., woman was sitting on his left.
She was quite young. She was more
remembered than all the others were.
He gazed at her and tried to clear
his mind. 80
He did not turn and stare at her.
oos AC duicliy watched ner srenectiON p
before him in the dark. Every de- !;
tan or her dress, her young face, her
nat. the little ornaments she wore.
were minutely clear before him, look
Ing out of the dark SO cont enfed
She looked you would say she was
untouched by war. ~
AS he gazed at the clear. calm
face and the dress that seemed fit,at.
though old and, like all things, 90
Tar away, his mind grew clearer and
clearer. 1t seemed to him certain
1t was the face of his own mother,
but from thirty years ago--out of q
old memories and one picture He
felt sure that 1t was his mother as
she had been when he was very
small. and yet. after thirty years,
now could he know? He puzzled to e
try and be quite sure. But how
she came to be there, looking like
that. out of those oldest mem0ffes,
he did not think of at ALL
He seemed to be hugely tiref1l by
many things and did not want to
think. Yet he was very happy, more
happy, even, than tired men tusf
come home all new to comfort. 4,
He gaEed and gazed at the face in
theS dark. And then he felt unite
sure.
He was about to speak. wastshe
looking at him? Was she watching
him, he wondered? He glanced for
the first time to his own reflection
In that clear row of faces. .ilF
HIS own reflection was not there,
but blank dark between s'5ttwo
nelghbors. And then he knew he