The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1920-04-09
CHAPTER x.-continued.

With her breast rising and falling u
aching accompaniment to the mount
ing rhythm, cheeks pale, lips parted
eyes staring In vain pursuit Of the In
credible flight of sound, she stood,
slim tense figure for once made FREE
of that domain that is beyond art, be
yond genius and Is called quite simply
Gift Of God. With toss and back
ward shake of the mans great head
the voice climbed smoothly to that stu
pendous high c that has wrecked the
reputation of many pygmies anC
brought fame to n daring few. 1t held
and still held until earth and moon and
stars seemed little things that paused
to listen, INSTRUCTED in unimportant
courses. Breath suspended until her
lungs were near to bursting, Andrea
waited for that note to come down in
to the range of normal belief, but to
her mind at least 1t was destined to
hang eternally in the heavens, for the
man had turned.
Her eyes knew horror for the first
time. The mans face was half oblit-
Grated. 1t had been plowed by confiu-
ent smallpox and destroyed by worse
disease. The nose was gone, leaving
an ignoble ruin Of stripped cartilage,
dried In the air till It was like wealth
cred parchment One ear had been
ravaged in a clean cut so that 1t rose
to needle-point. That the wounds
were healed only added an inexorable
finally to their responsiveness.
Only the mans thick red lips and
his blazing eyes seemed to have es-
capped the pestilence. AS his startled
gaze fell upon Andrea his mouth
opened to wide, soundless laugh.
With broad shoulders stopped his alb
normally low-hanging hands curved up
like monstrOus talons and his shaggy
beard wagging to that silent laughter,
he advanced upon her, encircled her
waist with his fingers and shot her up
lightly so that she fell doubled across
his back and chest. He gave low
whistle and sped from the craal at an
incredible pace. The boat-boys arose
stealthily and fitted after him.
To Andrea's TRANSMITTING terror was
added n memOry--a fleeing glimpse
of Trevor, standing hands in pockets,
before his door. On his face was an
ger-cold, white, unforgiving anger.
She thought she cried out to MacClos-
ter to stop, to give her but one moment
TO explain, to beg forgiveness, to
grovel at the feet of the one man in
nil the world, but no sound came from
her lips.
Not until she stood lettering on the
canted bottom of MaCCloSter's boat did
life come back to her heart and veins
and lungs. She threw up her head
and screamed as she had never known
mortal could scream-a wild, terror
winged wall Of desperate appeal. Mac
ClOster snatched tiller from rudder,
struck her across the shoulders,
knocked her, face down, into fetid
bilgc-water. ......
The stencil of the stale water pro-
duced in her q reaction; 1t was so
nauseating that II momentarily drove
thoughts of all other things from her
mind. She drew away from it and,
crawling to the grated floor of small
cockpit, crouched in the corner formed
by the gunwae and the after thwart.
Just to her left, 20 close that even
with head bowed she could not avoid
seeing his enormous feet, sat MacClos-
ter.
He talked to her steadily In a NUT
tering undertone but long time
passed before she began to distinguish
one word from another. The mutter-
ing swelled slowly TO clear and
liquid enunciatlon; the voice became
like music indebted. But no longer
could it drug her senses; she shud-
dcred, cringed under its terrible
caress. Its beauty had become forever
leprous.
"Dear, lovely, vile and sullen per-
son. IL was saying, "who would have
thought It? Who would have imagined
that you, a Helen among women, pos
sessed of beauty, youth and really
lovely evening frock, should have
come so far for a man? Cheer up !
You've found two; one dunghill ban
tam and-and me-"
He laughed, not silently and still not
quite aloud. 1t was an extraordinary
sound. II awoke In Andrea a chord of
memory. 1t was not the stereotyped
laughter Of the stage II was more spe-
cialized than that. Then she remem-
bered. His was not the laugh Of an
individual; 1t was the clipped, stacca-
TO, maddeningly deliberate, "Ha Ha
Ha lila Hal Hal" of chorus and |
conspirators in the "Ballo in Mas
chera."
Il ask you, who could have imagined
nf' he continued: then, his voice |
to sinister intensity, he
added, II could, d. your soft car
cass. Women Fair womeni Ha Ha |
Hal Dreams of fair womenl CARR |
Spawn Of hell Pestilence that sleep
by day and Turk in the shadows Of |
night and wine. Damnation Of the
filthy byways Of the world. parading
In the sweet likeness Of Godw
Andrea suddenly looked up, straight
into his blazing eyes. "Yon yourself
are speaking" she said in a clear
voics. II am woman. weak, miser-
\ hlo---uovcr IN rofcor< hIo ~ Il, <hgc