The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-11-11

NY "OAC SOAuS OH WIN me TORCH.
Darkness closed about him once more.
His reverie was spoiled for the mo-
ment. touch of the horror of num-
berleSs generations was upon him. the
burial-fear. He could touch the earth
! over his head, as in a tomb, and span
the walls from side to side. Then he
| laughed at himself. 1t was a relief, a
necessity. He came back to himself !;
identity was renewed, another neces-
| sity, for new worlds had been fitting
through him and he had forgotten
much. Confident of locating his friend
or the brown-s-inned sailor who had
gone from Alden to Buffalo in his time,
Lexington pushed onward down the
tunnel
He thought OF Helen's face-oval,
calm, day-kissed, unawakened. Yet
each moment she seemed different. for
| now she was fully awakened, a prin-
| cess of evening lights and clear wine
and music, subtle eastern wisdom-a
princess only, a notified flower. This
Latter was form of torture TO him
whose heart had opened. But always
there was the same pale light in her
eyes, whether she were learned OF
kings and princes, or quite innocent.
It further troubled him to find that he
could not be certain as to the color, If
they were lit with the greer of the sea
at daybreak or the blue Of sky at sun
set. They could be as steady as Jade.
pure in their gaze, and their loneliness
sent him out upon tide Of yearning.
A warm food seemed to rise when he
remembered her slim throat, and 1t
startled him to recall the manner Of
her breathing. At moments now, with
the earthen biackness beating in upon
him, Con was almost ready to believe
that she was phantom that the Cobb
had done something TO him; that pos
sibly there was no Sha Mo at all, and
h was merely coming to the surface
after plunge deeper and darker than
usual, to find himself i'll with life, in
room at the old club; that this Helen
was the shadow of his unrealized de-
sires, of all his postponed aspiration,
and nothing more. Yet he could hear
her voice as If she were just ahead In
the darkness, and he had sometime
touched her hand. The delicacy 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 eff
feet was more elusive.
Direction was an impossible subject
and depth another. He reached an in
tersectton, a trying moment for the
nerves as his hands went out into soft
nothing. He waited, in a tension, and
heard a slow thudding, like the tread
Of cria nf &Eo MI. .
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 potential
tiles of his own spirit. The weIl-rub-
bed coinage of life had enriched him
and he longed to spend. Leaning
against the rough walls, scarcely able
to see his hands before his face, Lev
ington discovered the innermost door
of himself. SOul-currents that he had
touched in boyhOod seemed close about
him again. Hearts dusk cried softly
within, lonely twilight in spring. The
air was figured with the memory of
Bill the yellow cook, of those tales in
magic tongue, told in the hot, thick
evenings to the sway of the ship. Prob
ably Bills stories had been of Tau
Kuan, its piled-up curving roofs; OF
clOse-g guarded maidens in their misty
silks; of the diamonds that spatter
from the shaken plumage Of a cocka-
too at the fountain down upon white
and ivory limbs; or perhaps of these
choking tunnels where one tiny flawed
nerve would set the luckleSs a-tearing
OF his nails in frenzy against sand
stone walls, the source of the fragrant
web of kOreSh. Lexington smiled a
mad. faint welcome to the shade OF the
murdered Chiney, and drove himself
erect, onward.
So gradual was the souI-dark in its
claiming of him that his will was re-
lieved of the struggle. Brushing for
ward along the walls, he knew the de-
liciOus weakness of convalescence, a
helpless joy. He was reduced and ex-
allied. His five senses had slipped past
every danger-signal, and in a tempo
rary death he blundered on. Wondrous
flowers of gossamer grew about his
feet, and a thunder that was profound
and musical was possessing him.
Far ahead. new light cut across the
shaft, greeniSh and wavering. Leving-
ton lost many minutes in making up his
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
barrier, across the top OF which an
artificial light reached the wanderer.
He could not stop short Of the wall
his feet carried him against 1t. No
ments Of an unreal clarity came to his
brain, In which everything was out
lined with indelible severity, inklines
Of memory. There was an uncanny
view Of a certain room In DOry street,
long ago, a man sleeping, mumbling as
he slept, one hand twitching upon the
side OF the cot. He was whispering,
'sPm going" ana the room was sur
charged with the warm scent Of CHINA
mon and roses. Lexington gasped.
snatching at the wall. and this vision
OF his father and koresh broke away
only the dark again, with green glow