The Lamar register., 1919-10-15


les, with their toes and eyes? Andrea
wondered all these things suddenly
stopped wondering, skipped up the lad
der-Iike stair from the garden to her
room. snatched up warm cloak affair
which buttoned in high collar at
her neck and that fell sheer in ever
widening folds from her shoulders to
her ankles, and in less time than 1t
would take to say Jack Robinson a
hundred and fifty times she was slip
ping and sliding down the path of
many slants.
She came upon the airplane so sud
denly that she forgot to be disappoint
ed at its gross materialism. 1t was
very real indeed; so were the men who
attended II. One was the tallest,
blackest, nakedest native she had yet
seen, a mighty statue in unimagined
bronze. paganly clothed only at the
loins with spotted pelt. The other
was white man gone brown in the
sun. He was neither very young nor
old. he carried himself erect with the
bearing of a man who is full-grown
and knows IL, and when he moved he
gave an exhibition of long, thin mus
cles under a perfect central control.
His mouth seemed to be possessed of
a smile that never wavered in spite
of the fact that he held piece of
wire between his teeth and was other
wise intent on number of things.
1t was the black man who first
Sensed Andrea's presence and gave
warning TO his master in "a low, gut
tural, rolling string of flowing vowels.
The white man did not look round
he merely shrugged his shoulders and
went on with his job. Andrea watched
him in silence until she was convinced
that everything that could be done to
the machine was about to be accom-
pllshed and its proprietor on the verge
of flying away and then. emboldened
by that unwavering smile, she said in
such a voice as children use when
pleading for cake, please. Mr.. Man.
take me with you"
She knew a good deal about flying
machines; she knew they couldn't
stay up very long and that II they
were worth anything at all they inva-
rlably came back to where they
started from like well-trained pigeons.
She had left her door locked and she
figured that she would be back long
before Aunty Gwen could work her
self up to the point of having II
broken in. When her voice rang across
the silence of the false dawn, clear
and light as a silver bell giving tongue
across snow, the white man started
and dropped the wrench he was ma
nipulating. He caught II in midair I;
then let 1t fall TO the ground delib-
erately and turned to look her over.
She was certainly something TO see
and to wonder at. Her eyes Of Irish
blue danced with a light younger than
her face-a light that attends the eter-
nal wistful child within us-but be-
meath their shining gaze were shad-
ows and her cheeks were over-pale.
Just to one side Of her rounded chin
was bit OF black courtplaster. shame
full mask of a tiny sign Of too much
chocolates and too little exercise. She
was slim enough TO look tall In spite
Of that cloak-like affair OF dark blue
glove cloth that fell from her shoul-
ders to her ankles in overwhelming
folds.
Through all his inspection the mans
face never changed. He looked her
over deliberately, Judged deliberately,
and deliberately let down the little
ladder that gave access to the observ-
er's seat. He helped her up without
word. strapped her in and then turned
to pour out voluble Instructions In dia-
lect to the bronze statue that stood at
attention, black eyes fixed on his mas
ter's face. red lips repeating like q
prompter in a Latin theater all that
his master said.
The white man clambered to the
drivers seat. placed before Andrea's.
and shouted a word Of command. The
plane swayed, moved slowly forward,
raced fast down the sand and faster.