The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-10-27
Che Strength Of the Pines
Blu EDISON MARSHALL Of Of epack"

of shoes half dragged on the floor and
the intermittent tapping of cane.
The face that showed so dimly In
the Swallowed room looked just as
Bruce had expected-wrinkled past
belief, lean and hawk-nosed from age.
The hand that rested on the cane was
like birds claw, the skin blue and
hard and dry. She stood bowed over
her cane.
Yet In that first instant Bruce had
an inexplicable impression of being in
the presence, of power. He did not
nave the wave of pity with which one
usually greets the decrepit And at
nrst he didn't know why. But soon
ne grew accustomed to the shadows
and he could see the woman's eyes.
Then he understood.
They were set deep behind grizzled
brows, but they glowed like Goals.
There was no other word. They were
not the eyes of one whom time is
about to conquer. Her bodily strength
was gone; any personal beauty that
and long ago, but some great fire
burned in her yet.
She blinked in the light. "Who is.
it?" she croaked.
Bruce did not answer. He had not
prepared a reply for this question. Bur
1T was not needed. The woman leaned
forward, and vivid light began to
dawn in her dark, furrowed face
Even to Bruce, already succumbed
to this atmosphere of mystery into
which his adventure had led him, that
dawning light was the single most
startling phenomenon he had ever be-
held. The witchlike face seemed to
CLEAN with white flame. And
Bruce knew that his coming was the
answer to the prayer of whole life
time. 1t was thought to sober him.
No small passion, no weak desire, no
prayer that time or despair could 81
lence could effect such light as this.
Bruce" he said simply. 1t did not
even occur to him to use the surname
of Duncan. 1t was a name of time
and sphere already forgotten. 81
don't know what my real last name
is"
''Bruce-Bruce," the woman wills
pered. She stretched a palsied hand
to him as if it would feel his flesh to
reassure her of it's reality. He saw
the eXultation in her wrinkled, lifted
face. "Oh, praises to His Everlasting
Name ~ she cried. ooh, Glory-Glory
to on High ~
And this was not blasphemy. The
words came from the heart. No mat
ter how terrible the passion. from
which they sprang, whether it was
such evil as would cast her to hell,
such cry as this could not go I'M
heard. The strength seemed to go out
of her as water fiows7rShe rocked on
her cane, and Bruce, thinking she was
about to fall, seized her shoulders.
AT last-at last" she cried. you've
come at last"
She gripped herself, as If trying to
find renewed strength. Go at once"
she said, ito the end of the Pine
Needle Trail. 1t leads from behind the
cabin"
He tried to emerge from the dream
Ike mists that had enveloped him.
''How far is it?" he asked her steadily.
"TO the end of Pine Needle Trail"
she rocked again, clutched for one of
his brown hands, and pressed it be-
tween hers.
Then she raised it to her dry lips.
Bruce could not keep her from it. And
after an instant more he did not at
tempt to draw 1t from her embrace In
the darkness of that mountain cabin,
in the shadow of the eternal pines, he
knew that some great drama of human
life and love and hatred was behind
the action; and he knew with a knowl-
edge unimpeachable that it would be
only insolence for him to try further
to resist it. Its meaning went too
deep for him to see; but it filled him
with great and wondering awe.
Then he turned away, up the Pine
needle Trail. Clear until the deeper
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