Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-03-31
the man at the door.

when I'm done with her, she'll have
TO be took"
She caught Bishop by the arm,
whirling him around.
"An' listen, Larry" she continued
with cruel emphasis, IAN all the time
keep rememberin' how Betty walled
her life into the grave, an'-an' that
Old Marc done it."
Overcome by the words she had
thrown at him so deliberately. Bishop
flung away, and the girl, quaking at
what was about to happen, heard him
running along the shore toward his
shack.
1t seemed to Polly Hopkins that
every minute was an hour long, and
every second filed with intolerable
anxiety. Would the ~soft-hearted Larry
repent and surrender the prize she
longed to get her fingers on?
In extreme nervousness she went
from one thing to another, never fin
ishing what she began. She paced the
hut floor until she was dripping wet
with apprehensiveness. She had no
e of knowing when Lye and
Larry would come; so she dared not
stir from the shack.
Many times she showed aside the
window blind and looked out. But
the world outside was wrapped in a
white silence. She could not ever
glimpse the peaked roof of a fisher
mans hut, for between her and the
Silent City was a flowing curtain of
snow, the flakes falling like feathers
from an open bag.
Larry would keep his word, she told
herself yer and over. She was glad
it was such a night The better could
the squatters carry out their death
plan.
Unnoticed by the girl, the wood
burned to embers in the stove, and the
hut grew colder by degrees. In one
of her half hours of measuring the
shanty's length, she halted, breathing
on her frost-bitten fingers. She drew
about her shoulders the blanket which
had covered Wee Jerry in his hut
days.
Her mind brought back to the baby
away off in some unknown place, she
cried weakly as she replenished the
fire. Had the wicked ones of the
earth made Jerry forget Daddy Hop
kins who up in Auburn was ignorant
of his whereabouts? Many times Polly
had taken up her pencil to write him
of the child, but it always dropped
from her fingers before it reached the
paper. Daddy could not do anything;
and she would not add to his heavy
burden.
She was at the stove, her cold, stiff
fingers spread over it, when the sound
of footsteps outside sent her headlong
to the door. Appallingly terrified, she
dragged it open.
Then, in deadening silence, Lye
Braeger and Larry Bishop carried a
large bundle through the doorway and
threw it down on Polly's bed.
Heavy-Iidded, the girl gazed upon it,
her eyes widening in joy, joy at the
thought of Old Mares misery; joy at
the thought of getting even. The
frightful emotion that surged through
her bore relation only by contrast to
the delights of a few months back,
when her willing legs had trotted the
country over to help every one that
needed her. 1t wasn't the same Polly
at all. This Polly lifted her foot and
licked the bundle none too lightly.
"We had a HI of a time gettin' 'er
here, Poll" growled Lye Braeger.
Outside it's like if a million crazy
levils was howlin' over the hills. But
We brought 'er just the same! Now
o what you like with 'er, bratw
White teeth cleaned through the
laniacal smile that parted the girls
ips. At last! She had not lived
through interminable days for moth
ng!
"Scoot out, you!" she ordered, wav-
lg her hand at them, "an' keep q
watch about till I get donei"
Braeger made for the door as if
lnxious to be gone; but Larry Bishop
held to the spot where he stood.
"She's a woman, Polly Hopkins" he
muttered, his eyes turning from the
cot to the rigid girl, eff she is Old
Mares wife. He's home too, so I've
says!"
"What 60 I care where the pup isr'
she thrust in vehemently. "Course
she's a woman! SO be L; n so were
your dead Betsy"
Then she stamped her foot tem-
pestuously.
~Get out of here an watch for Mac
Kenzie an his folks" she snapped.
ITS about time he were stormin' the
Silent City, I'm %thinkin'."
Roughly she showed the men out
into the blizzard and closed the door.
Then she stood with her back to it,
deep sobs racking her body.
Now as she had almost died, and
Wee Jerry too, so would Marcus Mac