The Washington herald., 1920-02-21
YeHow Men Sleep
By Jeremy Lane.
Cobyrighs, 1910. BY the Century Co.

opened. But always there was the
same pale light In her eyes. whether
she were learned Of kings and
princes, or quite innocent II fur
ther troubled him to hnd that he
could not be certain as to the color.
II they were lit with the green of
the sea at daybreak, or the blue of
sky At sunset They could be as
steady as jade. pure in their gaze.
and their. 1oveliness sent him out
upon tide Of yearnfng. A warm
flood seemed to rise when he re-
membered her slim throat, and it
startled him to recall the manner Of
her breathing. At moments now, with
the earthen blackness beating in
upon him. Con was almost ready to
believe that she was d phantom:
that the Cobb had done something
to him; that possibly there was no
Sha Mo at all. and he was merely
coming to the surface after a plunge
deeper and darker than usual, to
nnd himself I'll with life, in room
at the old club; that this Helen
was the shadow of his unrealized
desires. of all his postponed aspira-
ton. and nothing more. Yet he
could hear her voice as IL she were
just ahead in the darkness, and he
had sometime touched her hand
The delcacy of that moment was
still upon him. He shook IT of and
tried to laugh again, to clear his
mind, but this time the happy ef-
feet was more elusive.
Direction was an impossible sub
ject. and depth another. He reach
ed an intersection. a trying moment
for the nerves as his hands went
out into soft nothing. He waited,
in a tension. and heard q slow
thudding, like the tread of giants
within the earth. The air of the
passages was narcotic. In think
ing of the fierce evaporation of the
desert, this difference was grateful.
Well aware that he was lost, he
thought of many things old and
new, dwelling strangely upon the
potentialities of his own spirit. The
well-rubbed coinage of life had en-
riched him. and he lopged to spend
Leaning against the rough walls,
scarcely able to see his hands before
his face. Lexington discovered the
innermost door of himself. Soul
currents that he had touched in
boyhood seemed close about him
again. Hearts dusk cried softly
within, a lonely twilight in spring.
The air was figured with the mem
ory Of Bill the yellow cook. Of those
tales in a magic tongue, told in the
hot, thick evenings to the sway of
the ship. Probably Bills stories
had been of Tau kuan, its piled-up
curving roofs: of close- guarded
maidens in their misty silks; Of the
diamonds that spatter from the
shaken plumage Of a cockatoo at
the fountain down upon white and
ivory limbs; or perhaps of these
choking tunnels where one tiny
fiawed nerve would set the luckless
a-tearing of his nails in frenzy
against sandstone walls. the source
of the fragrant web of koresh. Lew
ington smiled a mad, faint welcome
to the shade of the murdered Chi
ney. and drove himself erect, on
ward
So gradual was the souI-dark in
its claiming of him that his will
was relieved of the struggle. Brush
ing forward along the walls, he
knew the delicious weakness Of con-
valescence. a helpless Joy. He was
reduced, and exalted. His five
senses had slipped past every dan
ger-signal. and in temporary
Atohh hc OIL " OnQTOut
flowers OF gossamer grew about his
feet. and a thunder that was pro-
found and musical was possessing
him.
Far ahead. a new light cut across
the shaft, greenish and wavering.
Lexington lost many minutes in
making up bis mind to go nearer.
but it did not seem long TO him. and
he did not feel alarmed now as an
odor like lilies in a sealed room
made his lungs tremble for air. The
tunnel was ending in a wall or bar
rier. across the top of which an ar
tthcial light reached the wanderer.
He could not stop short OF the wall:
his feet carried him against il. Mo-
ments of an unreal clarity came 10
his brain. in which everything was
outlined with indelible severity, ink
lines OF memory. There was an un-
canny view of certain room in
Dory Street. long ago. a man sleep
ing. mumbling as he slept one hand
twitching upon the side Of the cot
He was whispering. I'm going {"
and the room was surcharged with
the warm scent of cinnamon and
roses. Lexington casped. snatching
at the wall. and this vision of his
father and koresh broke away
only the dark again, with a green
glow overhead somewhere, and a
great pulsing like seismic threats.
Something that was distantly vet
truly himself now commanded, and
with surprising difficulty Con
stretched his fingers up the barrier
and began to lift himself. His eyes
came level with the top and he
blinked into the glow.
A low altar Of rock was sending
up the very crystalline soul of
smoke, clear as water rising in a
spring, or lifting gas in still air.
Round about the altar, or reclining
against the walls OF the low cham
Der, were figures. motionless, their
colored robes and the silken drap-
cries Of their couches as lifeless as
the sandstone that encased all. The
light came from an inverted bowl OF
jade upon the wall. One couch was
higher than the rest. nearer the
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