The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1919-11-01

her-that same something that had
50 often spurred her to momentary
escape.
She felt great dependency, a ter
ror of the morrow that would bring
the end Of nothing but that neverthe-
less would mark the death of part Of
Andrea PCllOr. Then more startling
emotion seized her She realized. al
most with the sharpness of a recoil,
that she was on the verge Of becom-
ing forever q woman without q his
tory. She looked back and saw that
she had never done one outre thing /;
she looked forward and saw that she
probably never would; she looked
down and
AT her very feet was the. coping that
edged the almost prccipitous cliff
Upon the pale stretch of sand was Il
far-away blur, dark. wide-winged
blot. She concentrated her unbelev-
ing gaze upon if until she made If out
beyond doubt. II was an airplnnc
Two midget figures moved around it
busiiy.
Andrea watched the midgets dream
lily and thought of all the stories she
had read about flying machine elope-
ments. As she stood there her diapn-
anous second-best party dress ana her
loosened hair stirred by the spice
laden breezes of IN Indian ocean dawn
and her eyes full Of the still, fairy
light of a tropic moon the thing dry
ing It's vast wings on the distant
sands seemed like Il giant moth,
strayed from some Arabian Night and
sent in answer 70 the cry of child
hoods valiant fancy.
Who We're those midget dots? Were
they men or genii? Whence had they
come and whittier would they go? Did
they talk with tongues or like Brown
les, with their toes and eyes? Andrea
wondered all these things suddenly
stopped wondering skipped up the lad
der-like 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
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 it. One was the tallest,
blacklist. nakedest native she had yet
seen, mighty statue in unimagined
loins with a 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 it, 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
smile that never Wavered in spite
of the fact that he held a piece of
wire HtiNtpH his ltttii anu WIS QUIET
wise intent on number of things.
It was the black man who first
sensed Andrea's presence and gave
warning to his master In 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-
plished and its proprietor on the verge
Of flying away and then, emboldened
by that unwavering smile, she said in
such voice as children use when
pleading for cake, please, Mr.. Man,
take me with you"
She knew good deal about flying
machines; she knew they couldn't
stay up very long and that If they
were worth anything at all they inva-
riably came back to where they
started from like well-trnined 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 1t
broken In. When her voice rang across
the silence of the false dawn, clear
and light as silver bell giving tongue
across snow. the white man started
and dropped the wrench he was ma
He caught 1t In midair;
then let 1t fall to the ground DELHI
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 a bit of black courtplaster, shame
full mask of 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 Shout
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
Il;