The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1920-03-19
CHAPTER X.

From that day Andrea's health be-
gan to mend with tremendous rapidity
Trevor never tired of watching her.
never ceased to wonder at recovery
so rapid that its daily transitions were
visible. 1t reminded him Of one of the
marvels of his boyhood. An old man
had said to him one dawn, "Hear the
corn growing. sonny?" and he laughed,
whereupon the granddad had taken
him by one ear and marched him to
the nearest furrow. "Pick out stalk
and watch it, you little egg-sucker,"
he commanded. "See it grow, if you
can't hear"
Andrea was like that; she was TN
furling as though In the morning of
new youth. Never had her eyes been
brighter never her cheeks so quick
to play with fire. Incidentally, she was
full Of devil of mischievous remin-
iscent innuendo.
cts all a great joke now, young
lady," Trevor would defend himself,
shut if you'd seen what have of per-
nicious malaria, you'd keep grave for
year. I've seen three Swahilis that
had nourished mosquitoes from their
youth up, fall like dogs, one after an
infected camp and the best of them
went stone blind for q month"
did you nurse them, White Man?
Did you see them through"
These were the questions that drove
him nearest to desperation, but the
CLEAN in the eyes above the demure
mouth from which they issued inva-
riably warned him of the trap in time.
He was on his guard; he knew that
there were things between him and
Andrea that speech would turn into
CHASTITY skeletons walking by day and
which only consistent silence could
entomb. But so deep had grown his
sympathies that even in this he under
stood her. 1t was not that she was
perverse, but that her pride demanded
a constant test of his loyalty to her
other self-that internal self that had
lain barred, revealed and helpless In
his arms.
About those things which might have
aroused a legitimate curiosity, she
asked few questions. Without word
of inquiry she saw him despatch twelve
picked men on some mysterious mis-
sion whose intricacles and Importance
necessitated preliminary palaver of
an hours duration. Equally silent, she
watched his detailed preparations of
well-appointed safari. Tents were
brushed and set to air, cots and mat
tresses put out for sun-bath; provl.
sions of all sorts packed in one-load
cases; water boiled, filtered and hung
in canvas coolers. Only a few days
before, just such signs as these had
| made her heart heavy with unanswer-
able questionings, but her illness had
changed all that. The successive mo-
ments Of the throbbing present each
In its turn filed her whole horizon.
She knew instinctively that he had
something big up his sleeve, and that
he would shake 1t out on the slightest
provocation. She also had a long mem
Org, and had no difficulty In recalling
| his exact boast as to what he would
do when she was well. He was going
to take her in free fight. She was well
now, she reflected; she had never felt
better in her life, and If there was one
thing she hungered for more than an.
other, It was the promised combat.
There Is no telling how long An
drea's innate stubbornness would have
held out, nor at what point Trevor's
evaporation would have driven him
for their wordless contest was inter
rupted by an event which he had both
foreseen and feared. They were sitting
at table after dinner on q