The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-03-25
CHAPTER x~-contlnued.

eyes staring In vain pursuit of the In
credible flight of sound. she stood, O
aim 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 q toss and q back
ward shake OF the mans great head,
the voice climbed smoothly to that stu.
pcndous high G that has wrecked the
reputation OF many pygmIes and
brought fame to a daring few. II held
and still held until earth and moon and
stars seemed little things that paused
10 listen, ~obstructed In unImportant
courses. Breath suspended until her
lungs were near to bursting. Andrea
waited for that note to come down In
70 the range Of normal belief, but to
her mind at least II 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 obiit-
Grated. Il had been plowed by confiu-
ent smallpox and destroyed by a worse
disease. The o 8 was gone, leaving
an igDoble ruin OF stripped cartilage.
dried IN the air till IL was like wealth
cred parchment. One a had been
ravaged In a clean cut so that il rose
to a needle-polnt. That the wounds
were healed only added an inexorable
inalty 10 their responsiveness.
v Only the mans thick red lips and
his blazing eyes seemed to have es-
capped the pestilence. As his startled
Eaze fell upon Andrea his mouth
opened TO a wide. soundless laugh.
With broad shoulders stopped. his alb
normally ~low-hanging hands curved up
IKE 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
tightly 80 that she fell doubled across
his back and chest. He gave q low
whistle and sped from the craal at an
Incredible pace. The boat-boys arose
stealthiIy and fitted after him.
= To Andrea's tra~nsfxing terror was
added a memory--a fleeting glimpse
Of Trevor. standing. hands In pockets,
before his door. On his face lyas an
ger--cold, white. unforgiving anger.
She thought she cried out to MacClos-
ter to stop. to give her but one moment
90 explain, to beg forgiveness. to
grovei at the feet OF the one man In
all the world, but no sound came from
her Hrs.
' Not until she stood tottering 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 screams wild, terror
DInged wall Of desperate appeal. Mac
-yioster snatched tiller from rudder.
her across the shoulders.
knocked her. face down. into fetid
: The stencil Of the stale water pro-
fuced in her n reaction: It was so
gauseating that 1t momentarily drove
thoughts of all other things from her
mind She drew away from 1t and,
crawling to the grated floor of a small
cockpit. crouched In the corner formed
BY the gnnwale and the after thwart.
lust to her left. so close that eve
head bowed she conld not avoid
seeing his enormous feet. sat MacClos-
ter.
. He talked to her steadily in a NUT
tering un~dertone, but a long time
passed before she began to distinguish
word from another. The mutter-
Ine swelled slowly to q clear and
LIQUID enunciation the voice became
IKE music indebted. But no longer |
co1id 1t drug her senses; she shud-
crlnged under It's terrible
ca .ess. Its beauty had become forever
ieI rou
~DeaS, lovely. vile and sulien per-
4 wss sayins. who would nave
IT. Who would have imagined
hat you. a Helen among women. pos
OF beauty. youth and a really
lovely evening frock. should have
go far for "a maaf Cheer up
You've found two: one G1nzhill ban
and--and me-"
Tie laughed, not silently and stu not
qdite aloud. 1t was an extraordinsr.
sornd. 1t awoke In Andrea a chord OF
mesnory. 1t was not the stereotyped
laughter Of the stage; 1t was more spe-
cialiyed than that. Then she remem-
bere< His was not the laugh Of an
s-ast <..1 a 49,. AZ. rlfopaa ofocCu-