The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-10-09
EVENING STORY
On Catamount Road.
BY IzoLA FORESTER.

l
of a motor somewhere along the hill
road. Didn't they know, she thought,
| that no cars ever used it, that it Zig
Jagged along the edge of the ravine
with a sheer drop of $50 feet to the
/ bottom of the river? She rose, the
tin pint pals filled with huckleber-
ries dangling from a rope around her
| shade her eyes.
Say she called as loudly as she
| could. "Sayi Look out for the road"
She held her breath for an answer.
but the hum OF the motor drowned her
voice, and as the low gray roadster
| swept around the bend, ii. hit a broken
place in the road. and was gone crash
ing down into the tree tops before she
| could make a sound.
| So adventure and excitement be-
| came unexpected guests in Catamount
Valley, and for weeks there ley in the
Pendleton cabin woman with wide,
somber, dark eyes and silent lips, who
CROPPED her way back from the shad-
ows almost regretfully.
The chauffeur and two men had
| been taken up to the hospital at
| Kingsley. Audrey heard that one of
them died. Mrs. Stewart had not
| seemed interested when she told her
| this, nor had she even asked which
one. Audrey hopeI privately 1t wasn't
! the young one with the curly blonde
| hair and little short-cropped- mustache
in the army uniform. There had been
| only two boys to go out from the val
| ley to wear khaki, and she felt an
added interest in this youngster who
| seemed to have escaped the perils of
war to become acquainted with death
in Catamount ravine.
Then one day, when she was helping
| Mrs. Stewart to slip into a negligee
and try to sit up awhile. she turned
over a folded leather case in her
| smaller suitcase. 1t opened and she
saw a photograph of the same face,
only younger, and this time its owLer
wore yachting clothes. Mrs. Stewart
glanced at her as she bent over it alb
serbedly.
Was he the one?" she asked in a
hushed tone. and her fingers twisted
the knotted fringe of the white cover
| lid.
why, I don't know" Audrey an
! swered eagerly. II liked him best
The old man swore terribly when
| they were carrying him, and this one
never said a thing and they had to get
him up with ropes"
Mrs. Stewart shuddered. She tried
to put from her the reality of that last
drive that was to have ended in
finality so different to the one that
very silent. She had told him when
they left Kingsley that she would give
him his answer before they had
reached their destination. And Dick
had sat with her in the back, talking
and laughing all the way on the last
stretch. never dreaming how, in his
joy of youth he was turning her from
the thought of marrying simply for
| money and the rest from eternal
worry. They had passed mountain
shacks along the way. and she had
! looked at them with curious eyes.
| Could women be happy in such places
with only love?
1t was the fourth week when he
came. the young one, as Audrey al
1 ways called him to herself. 1t had
4 he told the n. Mr.. Radinoff was
doing well, in fact intended returning
to New York on Monday and sailing
the following week. Mrs. Stewart
never even colored at his news and
Audrey wondered which one she cared
for.
Then followed weeks of enchant-
ment. Mrs. Stewart had insisted on
making the journey back to the city
for special treatment, she said and
stayed at the cabin. Her father liked
him. 1t reused him to have some one
to talk to, and Dick liked to go over
his collections with him and help him.
1t was such an old story to Audrey
she never realized what a strange life
a.
mountain, she and the old, scholarly
naturalist.
TITS just always been this way" she
told Dick. 81 was born right here.
and my mother died here. I love it
all, and I've been away to school twice
but I always long to come back. It's
so free. don't you know? Why. your
car was the first that has ever come
over our road. Everybody knew how
dangerous it was. It's lucky you're
alive"
Isn't 1t" Dick smiled down at her.
standing six feet two in his lieutenant
uniform. DO you know, I wish
| could always stay here now. I haven't
any real home. My people were New
Workers., but nay mothers married
again, and I'm rather the odd costing.
! l used to wish when We were coming
back that l had some one who was
waiting for me over here"
wasn't Audrey checked herself
Possibly Mrs Stewart would not like
to have her use her name. But Dick
caught the inference and shook his
, head.
"She's never thought of me twice
. seriously Radinoff can give her every
thing she wants In life. They're go
Ing to be married in Paris
; They ara?" Audrey leaned forward
in amazement. why, thought OF
, course she was coming back here"
Why"
FER yeu," she said briefly, quite as
IL ne had been some part of Mrs
Stewards luggage which she left be-
i, hind What on earth did you stay
, here so long for if you didn't expect
her backg"
II like it here" Dick told her firm
" MAYBE when I leave the army
i'll take a slice of the mountain, too,
, and live near your father. I'm sick
: of noise and turmoil and everything
: like that I want-well, just this
He half closed his eyes and looked
down at the panorama outspread be-
low them Hills breaking from tn
! morning haze. acreage CT green felds