San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-16

| BREATH Ned would have believed
himself incapable OF swift and power
full motion. As that young spruce
shattered down toward him, like the
club of a. giant aimed to strike out
his life, supernatural power seemed
to snatch him to one side. Without
realization of he effort, the needed
muscles contracted with startling
force, and he sprang like q distance
jumper to safety.
But lie didn't jump too soon or too
far. The branches of the tree dashed
at him as it descended, hurting him
headlong in the snow. And there
after there were three things to
cause him thought.
One of them was the attitude of
Bess-the girl TO whom, in weeks
past, he had shown hardly decent
courtesy; the same girl whom in
childish fury he had cursed the bitter,
eventful night just gone. Above the
roar of the falling tree he heard her
quick, half-strangled gasp of hor-
r0r.
The round seemed to have the
qualities that made toward a perfect
after-image; because in the silence
that followed, as~he lay in the soft
snow, and the crash of the fallen tree
echoed into nothingness, it still lin
.gered, every tone perfect and clear,
in his minds ear. There was no
denying its tone of ineffable dismay.
Evidently Bess was of forgiving
disposition; in spite of his offense of
the past night she had evidently no
desire to see him crushed into jelly
under that giants blow.
Bess was staring Wide-eyed into
his face; and he smiled quietly in re-
assurance. Not hurt at ALL" he told
her. Quickly he climbed to his feet.
"See that you don't do the same thing
that l did,"
He walked with her to her fallen
axe, then inspected the deep cut she
had already made in her tree.
you're doing the same thing / did,
sure enough" he observed. "The
tree will fall your way and crush
you. Let me think"
A moment later he took his axe
and put in . few more strokes in the
same place. 1t was the danger point.
he thought; a deeper cut might fell
the tree prematurely. Presently he
crossed to the opposite side. signaled
Bess out of danger, and began to
hack the tree again, making a cut
somewhat above that started on the
other side of the trunk. He chopped
sturdily; and in a moment the tree
started to fall, safely and in an op-
poste direction.
He uttered some small sound Of tI-
umph; but it was real tragedy to
have the tree fall against nearby
tree and lodge. Again he had failed
to exercise proper foresight.
There was nothing to do but climb
into the adjoining tree with his axe
and laboriously cut the lodged tree
away. In, the meantime Bess went to
work on the first tree felled, trimming
it of its limbs so to cut it into lengths.
Ned Joined her at the work, but
long before the first tree was cut into
fuel, both were at the edge of utter
exhaustion.
Doomsdorf had seemed almost in
credible to Ned at first. 1t was as if
he couldn't possibly be true; a Pigment
OF nightmare, 1that a~ould vanish as
soon as he Weakened. But he was real
enough now. Nothing was left to him
but the knowledge how real he was.
He must not rest, he must not pause
til the work was done. The fact that
Bess had fallen, fainting, in the snow.
did not affect him; he must swing his
axe and hew the wood. Day was dy-
ing. Grayness was creeping in from
the sea. 1t was like the essence of the
sea itself. all gray, gray like his
dreams, gray like the ashes of his
hopes. He must finish the two trees
before the darkness came down and
kept him from seeing where to sink the
blade.
The axe swung automatically in his
arms: even sense of effort was gone
from him. The only r .ty that lived
in him now, in that misty twilight
was the knowledge that he must get
through.
1t was too dark to see. now, how
much of the work remained. The
hight was cheating him, after all. He
struck once more at the tough length
that lay at his feet-a piece at which
he had already struck uncounted blows.