The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1922-11-16
CHAPTER VII

Bruce couldn't mistake the cabin. At
| the end of the trail he found it--a
little shack of implanted boards with
a single door and single window
He stood q momeAt In the sunlight
He could not guess what was his des-
| tiny behind that rude door. 1t was
a moment long waited; for one Of the
| few times in his life he was trembling
with excitement. He felt as If a key,
! long lost, was turning I'm the doorway
of understanding.
He walked nearer and tapped with
his knuckles on the door.
If the forests have one allpervad-
ing quality 1t is silence. What sound
there is carries far and seems rather
out of place. Bruce could picture the
whole of the little drama that followed
his knock by just the faint sounds
inaudible In a less silent land-that,
reached him from behind the door. At
first it was just start; then short
exclamation in the hollow, half-whis-
pering voice of old, old age. A mo-
ment more of silence-as If slow
moving, aged brain were trying to
| conjecture who stood OutSide-then
the creaking Of chair as some one
| rose. The last sounds were Of a
strange hobbling toward him--a rustic
of shoes half dragged on the door and
the intermittent tapping Of q cane.
60 +Ha< CHI dtr,1lxy 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 a 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 a power. He did not
have the wave of pity with which one
usually greets the decrepit And at
first he didn't know why. But soon
he 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
she might have had was ashes long
and long ago, but some great fire
burned in her yet.
N 1iy1lz In
it?" she croaked.
Bruce did not answer. He, had not
prepared reply for this, question. But
it 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 ST.
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. II
don't know what my real last name
Is"
"Bruce-Bruce," the woman whis-
pered. She stretched a palsied hand
to him as if 1t would feel his flesh to
reassure her of it's reality. He saw
the exultation in her wrlnkled, lifted
face. .'Oh, praises to His Everlasting
Name !" she cried. "Oh, GlOry--GlOry
to on Hight"
And this was not blasphemy. The
words came from the heart. No mat.
ter how terrible the passion from
which they sprang, whether 1t was
such evil as would cast her to hell,
such a cry as this could not go un-.
heard. The strength seemed to go out
of her as water flows. She rocked or:
her cane, and Bruce, thinking she was
about to fall, seized her shoulders.