Carrizozo outlook. [volume] (Carrizozo, N.M.) 1910-1945, 1920-05-07
CHAPTER VII.

steamer nnu arrived nnu was hlreuuy
taking on the warehouse cargo aud
could do with three hundred tons
more. Andrea had previously thought
him a gourmand for work nov she
discovered n maniac.
"It's n cleanup" he declared. I'm
another month the rains will be here.
thcre1l be no working in the forest.
the game will scatter. the natives will
want to plant. And what's more, with
this cargo III pass the m~llllon-dollar
mark. That doesn't mean anything to
you but It's my stake-the stake I'd
set my heart on"
lie took all hands OF production and
put them 10 ballng and packing. From
the reeds along the river lie dragged
to light a verltable feet Of scows They
were appended along the bank, scraped'
cnlked and pitched. One after I'M
other they we're foated out into waist
high water and anchored. The days
were no longer enough. Every woman
In the camp was set TO making long.
tightly bound palm-leaf torches aud
the pickanlns from eight years up
we're organized into squads to light
the night shift through the short hours
OF darkness. M'sungo took his sleep.
II he took any, leaning against q tree
neal the nest Of hand-pressure baling
machines.
All hands we're kept steadily ut work
until II was completed. Al It's finish.
when all the available material was
stacked along the edge OF the forest In
great oblong piles that looked ike
newly cut timber, M'sungo gave .
great spread.
To zach ten men he allotted a tin
OF marmalade; to each twenty a boz
Of crackers, n sack NJ -four, one load
OF salt and a demljohn Of cheap but
sound wine. Andren watched thiH
wholesale depletion OF the white mans
stores ard began to wonder. As she
wondered, her heart went way up and
then way down. Was this the begin
ming OF another end1 Was she sorry
or was she glnd? She looked back on
the few days OF her new life and they
seemed already to have stretched into
years. She was too young or o care
less to have learned that time passes
slowly only 10 those who are In a rut
OF daily routine, dragging ~tragically
under the blows OF sorrow and almost
forgetting itself entirely when Joys are
various.
The day came when the last Of the
barges. towing a little stacked
with an overflow remnant Of bales.
; was dispatched and M'sungo could
take a long breath and turn his at
tentlon to putting the camp In order.
This In itself was no small task. All
branches, chips, bark. refuse and other
: rubbish consequent upon the work In
, the forest was gathered and burned.
= Then, ms squad after squad OF labor
I ers left for home and the planting
| their grass huts, scattered without tho
! limits Of the permanent craal. were
; also set on fire.
Z "Withln a week Of the FIRST rains"
e said M'sungo to a ~listless Andrea. the
{ wilderness will have returned alto
gether TO It's own to all outward ap-
pearance. Three weeks after that.
anyone penetrating to the clearing we
D have made will find nothing beyond a
fiourIshlng shamba or corn patch, the
n very natural property Of the crael."
On n night OF downpour Andi ca sat
In her room, hands crossed upon n dis
3 carded book in her lap and eyes Wide
q iy fixed on some point OF focus far bo-
yond the enclrcllng walls OF her hut
She was frightened. for her soul had
come to talk with her and there was
no escape. She could not phone az
a taxi and a party Of four and 90 "a
n show and supper afterward. thus
losing the universal guest.
y with a childish gestrFe Of despair
% she crept into bed. curled up with hei
d face against the pillow and wept. The
more she cried, the more II rnlned
e. the more II rnlned. the more she cried
u There was no end to that-no end-nt
- Sleep did Its best TO take and hold
her but tonight its grip was uncertain
~ and long before morning II saw defeaI
~ coming and made a dastardly retreat.
Andrea invoke, not slowly. not swim
ming up TO consciousness through
!. drowsy gradatlons, but suddenly viii
n swapping of eyes Wide open on
great emptiness. She was alone. ter
- rlhly alone. and hopelessly awake. Sh'
!, lay staring up az the uncheerful Ian
tern that she had purposely left burn
ing. Its chimney was smOked. Out
side. rain still poured.