Evening journal., 1922-09-12
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= H% sEs-S sEs.-S bD Louis
-WuX 6N1xz59 Joseph Vance
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hills in the south of France, well
inland from the sea.
CHAPTER II

.
CHAPTER II
a City of Lunacy
"A little place called lie Mon
astier, in a pleasant highland vale.
IS miles from lie Puy notabl
for the making OF lace. for drunken
ness. for freedom OF language. ant
for unparalleled political dissension,'
was Mr. Stevenson's point of depar
ture on his Travels with Donkey
Mosieur Duchemin made It his al
well.
The weather was fine. his heart
high. he was happy 10 be out OF
harness and again his own man
Constant exercise tuned up muscles
gone slack and soft with easy liv-
ing. a keen sun darkened his face
and hands. brushed up in his cheeks
a warmer glow than they had shown
in many a year. and faded out the
heavier lines with which Time had
marked his countenance.
Moreover because this was France,
where one may affect a whisper
without losing face, he neglected his
razors; and though this was not his
first thought. a fair disguise It prov
ed.
Rain at length interned the trav-
eler for three days in a little place
called Meyrueis long leagues remote
from railroads and the world they
stitch together.
Here (said Duchemin) nothing can
listurb me; and it is high time for
me to be considering what ! am TO
make OF the remainder, of my days.
Too many of them have been wasted,
too great a portion OF my span has
been sacrificed to vanities.
Yet a little while and one must
has so heedlessly squandered. a last
adieu to Youth with its days of high |
its carefree heart. its
TO the infinite seduc-
ions Of Romance.
And for all this mood OF prema.
ure resignation to the bourgeois
iirtues Duchemin was glad enough /
when his fourth day in Meyrueis
iawned fair. and by eight was IN
md away, purposing a days tramp I
o Montpellier-le-Vie (concerning
which one heard curious tales).
Long after noon. sheer fools luck
ed him to a hamlet whose mean
uberge served him bread and cheese
With a wine singularly thin and
cid.
The one able-bodied man In evil
ence. a hulking. surly animal, on
earning that Duchemin wished to U
isit NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. refused 4
nth a growl to have anything to do
nth him. Several times during the
curse of luncheon he caught the
elbow cycling him strangely. he
hought. from a window of the
uberge. In the end the peasant
irl who waited on him grudgingly
consented to put him on his way.
He followed her directions. con-
inued his long tramp and in the
liver and purple mystery of a per-
sct moonlight night found himself .
'oking down from a hilltop upon
Iontpellier-le-Vieux.
Rumor had prepared him 10 know !
e place when he saw 1t. nothing for q
5 stupendous lunacy. Heaven
Rows what convulsion or measured ?
'ocess OF Nature accomplished this n
ing. For his part Duchemin was q
liable 10 accept any possible scien-
lc explanation, and will go TO his r
ave believing that some half
tted cyclops created Montpelier
-Vieux in an hour OF idleness, build
g him a play city OF titanic mono
his. then wandered away and for
It it altogether.
To his mind there was something o
mister in the portentous immobih- n
Of the place; in its silence, its a
ant OF excuse for being. a sense OF o
;e-old evil like an inarticulate men ic
,e. &,
When abruptly a man moved from T
ahind a rock some thirty or forty o
aces ahead, Duchemln stopped p
hort. with tangled nerves and
arely smothered exclamation. Pos C
bly, shape OF spectral terror would u
ave been less startling; in that 7
-eird place and hour humanity \
9emed more incongruous than the n
ipernatural. :.
It was at once apparent that the 7
an had neither knowledge OF nor @
,ncern with the stranger. For an
stant he stood with his back to the
tier. a stout body filling out too
ell the uniform of a private soldier n
the American Expeditionary y
orces-that most ungainly. inutile. r
lbecoming costume that ever S
aced the form OF man. C
Then he half turned. beckoned {
Silly TO one invisible to the OBJ b
-ver. and furtively moved on. As c
fellow who wore the nondescrlpt- q
rments of a peasant And as Fl
idenly as they had come into sight. +
e two slipped round a rocky Il
oulder, and the street OF monoliths 7
s empty.
CONTINUED I'm Our Next Issue.) g