The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-21

own way. You'll doubt it tonight.
but tomorrow night-when that
brave young Johnny Crapaud is
dead-you1l at least realize that I'm
not laboring under an hallueination.
To you, two and two are always and
eternally four; but they are some-
times five to me-"
He started to pour out another neg,
thought better of it and began pac-
ing, occasionally stopping before the
fire, which was humming cheerily-
the only companionable thing in the
room at that moment.
II am without kith or kin. hap
PLY" he said. By that mean 1 am
the last of my branch. have plenty
of money. An agent manages my
estate. No doubt they told you about
Lieutenant Bradford, back there in
India. I saw the veil on his face that
morning. He called me sun
Brighten ass and would have set out
alone"
Good old Monty Bradford, my
cnum for years. Sometimes 1 Won
der that I've kept away from whisky
and drugs. The temptation is keen.
And that poor chap tonight! Tomor-
row at this hour he will be dead"
"He will go to his death as Ger
your eyes. 1 don't blame you"
ooh. can't foretell the hour or the
manner of his death; that additional
horror has been denied me. That
Isn't it. He may be killed at the
hangers. off duty, in flight, by
far-flung she'll, by heart failure-in
any one of a thousand ways. 1t is
that l have seen the gray veil on his
face, and that he is marked to die.
n inn, 10
l nodded.
Bradford laughed. tool. Car
michael went on. Always those 1
love or admire. | have even put the
damnable gift to a test. 1 have gone
into the trenches before a charge,
but 1 never see the gray veil on the
faces of strangers. 1t is like gazing
at face through steaming window.
through a blur of rain"
do you wonder now that 1 walk
alone? longing for friendships and
not daring to make them? 1 am a
normal man. with normal cravings.
My race has been uniformly clean;
there's no faint in the blood or the
mind"
whats Gods idea? To drop an
Opaque curtain between humanity
and tomorrow, and then to leave
few pinholes for such poor devils as
1 to peek through!
"A mongrel dog strayed in from
some ruined farmhouse-hangs about
my tent. When the days work is
done. he greets me joyfully, fawns
over me. licks my hands. At night,
fleas and all, he snuggles close to
my back and gives me the warmth
of his body. 1 can love him without
fear of seeing that damned thing on
his face. A mongrel dog, the only
living thing / dare love freely,
MY Observer Belgian whose
family was wiped out in the early
days-knows. 1 have told him and
promised to warm him if L see the
veil on his face.
HE seeks death quite as earnestly
as l do-an honorable DEATH if you
please. Every morning he clicks his
heels. salutes me and says ironically:
Well my old, do you see your veil
on my face this morning. I answer:
No Eth, well-perhaps tomorrow.
Come on Remember. nothing in
wardly tells me that this or that
person shall die. 1t is only when 1
see the veil
Each morning look into a mir
ror. For may 1 not see the veil on
my own face? Photographs 1 have
destroyed them all, for fear that even
upon inanimate cardboard l may see
lhiS
He paused and stared into the fire.
AS for me. / sat hypnotized. 1t was in
credible. No theory of sunstroke
would hold here.
"a gray veil rests upon the face
and fingers perhaps half a minute.
then vanisheS. l remember first
seeing it when / was five. The i'm
preston is as clear to me as if it had
happened yesterday.
f,fb ar ~to
hunt. 1 said to my mother: Why
does Father wear that gray veil on
his facer But, child. he is wearing
no gray veil;' she cried. They
brought him in that noon with a
broken back.
Il was struck by the fact. even at
that age, that something was wrong
with me. My mother did not recall
my singular question; and her grief
was so deep that I did not remind
her Such consideration at the age
of five! Have you ever come across
anything like that? Remember your
impressions at the age of five?"
/ shook my head mechanically.
well, with that cruel yet inno-
cent curiosity of childhood 1 went
about the estate, searching the faces
of the servants and the villagers for
further manifesto lions of my gift
Five years old! Why. 1 was wrong
then.
'Of course, there was no terror in
my heart then. Terror came later.
With ,.p1arefop1ipo nnrf,,o tho fOur