Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1923-05-16
Copyright by the Century Coz

Derless generations was upon him. the
burial-fear. He could touch the earth
over his head, as in a tomb, and span
the walls from side to side Then he
laughed at himself It was a relief. a
necessity. He came back to himself /;
identity was renewed, another neces-
sity, for new worlds had been fitting
through him and he had forgotten
much. Confident of locating his friend
or the broWn-sl,inned sailor who had
gone from Alden to Buffalo in his time,
Lexington pushed onward down the
tunnel
He thought of Helen's face-oval,
calm, day-kissed, unawakened. Yet
each moment she seemed different, for
now she was fully awakened a prin-
cess of evening lights and clear wine
and music, subtle eastern wisdom-a
princess only, a notified flower This
latter was a form of torture to him
whose heart had opened. But always
there was the same pale light in her
eyes, whether she were learned of
kings and princes, or quite innocent.
1t further troubled him to find that he
could not be certain as to the color, if
they were lit with the greer of the sea
at daybreak or the blue of Sky at sun
set. They could be as steady as jade,
pure in their gaze, and their loneliness
sent him out upon a tide of yearning.
A warm flood seemed to rise when he
remembered her slim throat and it
startled him to recall the manner of
Aer breathing. At moments now, with
the earthen blackness beating in upon
ann, Con was almost ready to believe
that she was a phantom; that the Cobb
had done something to him; that pos
Slbly there was no Sha Mo at all. and
n was merely coming to the surface
after plunge deeper and darker than
usual, to find himself i'll with life, in
a room at the old club; that this Helen
was the shadow Of his unrealized de-
sires, of all his postponed aspiration,
and nothing more. Yet he could hear
her voice as if she were Just ahead in
the darkness, and he had sometime
tou .hed her hand. The delicacy of that
moment was still upon him. He shook it
of and tried to laugh again. to clear
his mind, but this time the happy eff
feet was more elusive.
Direction was an impossible subject
and depth another. He reached an in
tersectiOn, a trying moment for the
nerves rs his hands went out into soft
nothing. He waited, in tension. and
heard 4 slow thuddng, like the tread
of giants within the earth The air of
the passages was narcotic. In think
ing of the fierce evaporation Of the
desert this difference was grateful.
Well aware that he was lost, he
thought of many things old and new,
dwelling strangely upon the potential
tiles of his own spirit. The welI-rub-
bed coinage Of life had enriched him
and he longed to spend Leaning
against the rough walls, scarcely able
to see his hands before his face Lev
fngton discovered the innermost door
of himself. Soul-currents that he had
touched in boyhood seemed close about
him again. Hearts dusk cried softly
within, 4 lonely twilight in spring. The
air was figured With the memory of
a magic tongue, told in the hot, thick
evenings to the sway of the ship. Prob
ably Bill's stories had been of Tau
Kuan, its piled-up curving roofs; of
close guarded maidens in their misty
silks; Of the diamonds that spatter
from the shaken plumage of cOcka-
too at the fountain down upon white
Of thnSn
choking tunnels where one tiny ftawed
nerve would set the luckless a-tearlng
off his nails in frenzy against sand
stone walls, the source of the fragrant
web of koresh. Lexington smiled a
mad. faint welcome to the shade of the
murdered Chiney, and drove himself
erect, onward.
SO gradual was the soul-dark IN us
claiming of him that his will was re-
,ieved of the struggle. Brushing for
ward along the walls, he knew the de-
gieious weakness of convalescence, a
balnIess ioy. He was reduced and ex-
al+od His five senses had slipped past
overv danger-signal, and in tempo
,.orv death he blundered on WondrodS
flowers of g0SSalneF grew ""0"'
foot and a thunder that was profounu
and musical was possessing him.
Tar ahead. a new light cut across the
shaft. greenish and wavering. LeVlng-
+on lost many minutes in making up nus
,oind To 90 nearer, but it did not seem
1onc to him. and he did not feel alarmed
now nc an odor like lilies in a sealed
COON made his lungs tremble for ar
The tunnel was ending in wall or
barrier. across the top of when an
ARTIFICIAL light reached the wanderer'
He could not stop short of the wall
his feet carried him against it. MO
,nonts ~ an unreal clarity came to ms
brain. in which everything was OUT
ainod with indelible severity, lnkllheS
-,4 memory. There. was an uncanny
view of certain room in Dory street
Iono ago. q man sleeping, mumDllhs aS