The Washington herald., 1922-10-02
The Beautiful
And Damned
Continued from Yesterday.
By F. Scott Fitzgerald


darkness crushing down upon a de-
vastated land. over his head the
blue circles of ominous uncharted
suns. of unnumbered centers of fire.
revolved interminably before his
eyes as though he were lying con-
stantly exposed to the hot light
and in a state of feverish coma. At
in the morning something phan-
tasmal, something almost absurdly
unreal that he knew was his NOR
tai body. went out with seven other
prisoners and two guards to work
on the camp roads. One day they
loaded and unloaded quantities of
gravel. spread 1t. raked 1.-THE
next day they worked with huge
barrels Of red-hot tar. flooding the
gravel with black. shining pools of
molten heat. At night. locked up
In the guardhOusc. he would lie
without thought. without courage
to compass thought, staring at the
irregular beams of the ceiling over
head until about 3 o'clock. when
he would slip into a broken. trou-
bled sleep.
During the work hours he la
bored with uneasy haste. attempt
ing, as the lay bore toward the
sultry Mississippi sunset, to tire
himself physically SO that in the
evening he might sleep deeply from
utter exhaustion. Then one
afternoon in the second week he
had feeling that two eyes were
watching him from place a few
feet beyond one of the guards. This
aroused him TO a sort of terror. He
turned his back on the eyes and
shOvelled feverishly. until it be-
came necessary for him to face
about and go for more gravel. Then
they entered his vision again. and
his already taut nerves frightened
up to the breakinG-point. The eyes
were leering at him. Out of a hot
silence he heard his name called in
a tragic voice. and the earth tipped
absurdly back and forth to a babel
OF shouting and confusion.
When next he became conscious
he was back in the guardhouse. and
the other prisoners were throwing
him curious Clances. The eyes re-
turned no more. 1t was many days
before he realized that the voice
must have been Dots. that she had
called out to him and made some
sort of disturbance. He decided
this just previous to the expiration
of his sentence. when the cloud that
oppressed him had lifted. leaving
him in a deep. dispirited lethargy.
AS the conscious mediator. the mon
itOr who kept that fearsome mem
age Of horror, grew stronger, An
thony became physically weaker.
lie was scarcely able to get through
the two days of toll, and when he
was released, one rainy afternoon,
and returned to his company, he
Isached his tent only to fall into
a heavy doze. from which he awoke
before dawn, aching and uHre-
freshed. Beside his cot were two
letters that had been awaiting him
in the orderly tent for some time.
short and cool:
in November. Can you possibly get
leave?
I've tried to write YOU again
and again. but it just seerls to make
things worse. ! want to see you
about several matters. but you know
that you have once prevented me
from coming and l am disinclined
10 try again. In view of a number
Of things it seems necessary that
we have a conference. I'm very
glad about your appointment.
GLORIA"
lie was too tired to try to un-
derStand-or to care. Her phrases.
her Intentions were all very far
away in an incOmprehensible past.
Nt the second letter he scarcely
glanced; il was from Dot-an in
coherent. tear-swollen scrawl, a
flood of protest. cndearment, and
-rIef. After page he let it slip
from his inert hand and drowsed
back into a nebulOus hinterland
81 his own. At dTill-call he awOke
with a high fever and tainted when
he tried to leave his tent-at noon
he was sent TO the base hospital
with influenza.
lie was aware that this sickness
was providential. 1t saved him
from hystericaI relapse-and he
recovered in time to entrain on a
damp November day for New York,
and for the intermindable massa-
ere beyond.
when the regiment reached Camp
Mills. L. J., Anthony's single idea
was to get into the city and see
Gloria as soon as possible. 1t was
now evident that an armistice
would be signed within the week,
hut rumor had it that in any case
troops would continue to be shipped
TO France until the last moment.
Anthony was appalled, at the notion
of the long voyage. of a tedious de-
barkation at French port, and of
being kept abroad for a year, pos
sibly, to replace the troops who
had seen actual fighting.
His intention had been to obtain
two-day furlough. but Camp
Mills proved to be under a strict
influenza quarantine-it was i'm
possible for even an officer to leave
except on official business. For
I private it was out of the ques-
tiOn.
The camp itself was dreary
muddle. cold. wind-swept. and fill
thy. with the accumulated dirt in
cident to the passage through of
many divisions. Their train came
in at one night, and they waited
in line until 1 while a military
tangle was Strengthened out some
where ahead Officers ran up ans
down ceaselessly, calling orders and