Evening star., 1923-09-09
Spirit of the Race Looks Out
Unexpectedly From a Meek Face

years WueH ue 1Ou6 III "" al u
success a cigar box had con-
tained the minimum of sentimental
personal possessions the loneliest
cannot escape. When success came,
IL came to a perfectly solitary man
relying only on himself, and in his
own eyes owing no man, woman, nor
God anything.
He had drifted to the boarding
house in Beech street, a little be-
wildered in his leisure. He stayed on
because the little soft, whispering
life of the place fascinated him. There
was only one man besides himself, old
Mr.. Jennings. The others were all
old ladies, and old ladies apparently
entirely disconnected with life--little
ornaments, broken off and waiting for
the dustpan. And of these old ladies,
only Mrs. Dauncey and Mrs. Lane
Fraser seemed to be friends.
Nothing so elemental as friendship.
as he understood it, could have shelter
at Beechcroft. He wondered what
faded, formal bond united these two.
He watched them of evenings with
incisive. amused eyes. He wondered
why life had any place for such peo-
pie, that was all. And somewhere at
the back of his mind was a gladness
that his own life was perfectly clean
cut, self-contained. untrammeled with
any futile relationships. Fancy being
the son, the nephew, the kin of any
of these-of Mrs. James, Mrs. Lowey,
Mrs. Dauncey, or Mrs. Lane Fraser!
Such a connection would be like try
ing to walk with his feet wrapped
In their interminable skeins of wool.
Something soft like kitten rolled
and bounced against his ankle. He
looked down. 1t was Mrs. Dauncey's
ball of wool. He picked it up and
returned It to her. He asked gravely,
'Is it shawl?"
"A sweater for my SON."
Riordan leaned back. He was alb
surdly surprised. 1t had absolutely
never occurred to him that Mrs.
Dauncey might be bound to life by
the strongest of all ties-that of hav-
ing given it. She went on. "If it
doesn't do for Hal, it'll fit Len" and
with another silly shock, Riordan
thought. "Mrs. Fraser has son, too +"
before Mrs. Dauncey finished heavily,
'Halston and Lennox are friends.
Riordan was silent and he felt pity.
To have been so immensely connected
with life. And to end like this, at
Beechcroft!
You been up north much, Mr..
Riordan?"
Mrs. Fraser's nervous little fiat
voice. He looked at her, a gleam
under his shaggy brows. Yes, I
know the north pretty we'll
You know Kwanesum, Mr.. Rior-
dam don't think these silks are a
good match. Mrs. Dauncey."
Struggling with absurd readjust-
ments, Riordan said slowly, Yes. I
know Kwanesum."
1T was there the boys first met.
They're the same age"
Desperately Riordan tried to pic
ture these women's sons-at Kwane-
sum. Something safe in a bank, the
manager OF a drygoods store, the
minister Of some entirely unemo-
tional sect, but-Kwanesum
Quite suddenly, and in conventional
words he could never remember. Mrs.
Dauncey in the parlor at Beechcroft
was telling him the story of that
meeting.
y x r
THERE are hills to the east of
! Kwanesum, hills to the west.
covered with low scrub which turns
in the fall to flaming rose,
orange and magenta. Lennox Fraser
came to the river from the east, MAX
ing for Fort Dismay in the west. The
river freezes here sooner than any
where else, because of an island in
the middle of the vast milky stream
that holds the foe. Fraser sat down
to wait until it should freeze over and
give him passage.
While he made his camp under a
screen of shivering scrub, he noticed
something awash on the river beach.
1t was a small dugout, stove in. He
climbed the low earth cliff and looked
about. Presently he saw a weak
thread of smoke rising from the is
land in midstream. Some one had
been trying to cross the river in a
dugout and had been wrecked on the
island. Fraser wondered who it was.
1t was Halston Dauncey.
That night Fraser lighted as large
a fire as he could, to let the other
fellow know there was help at hand
The red light plunged profound opal
CLEANS in the water and made the
rocks. of the island glow. Fraser
watched. In little while he saw that
there was a man sitting on the rocks
and staring toward'his fire. He stood
in front of it and raised his hand. The
man on the island did the same.
Fraser calculated it would be three
or four days before the ice would
hold Until then, he could not reach
nothing for the fellow on the island
but keep alight those strange fires OF
comradeship and assurance.
It took him half his days to col.
Iect wood. AS soon as it was dark
he would light the pile. and the other
man would come from the crannies OF
the island and watch it. So for three
nights. On the fourth the tempera-
ture dropped lower, and in the small
hours Fraser took his pack and g
long pole and crossed to the island
on a heaving, groaning bridge OF
grounded foe, lighted by the leapine
of the flames of his fire.
He found Halston Dauncey alive in
a Granny with a half-frozen scrap oi
blscuiS In his hand. Fraser took of
his pack. shouldered Dauncey instead
and carried him across the ice on the
s.her side of the island to the west.
ern shore. Then he fetched his pack
BY that time the fire on the eastern
oank had died down. but Fraser had
one going on the western shore. He
thawed Dauncey out and fed him all HI