Evening star., 1923-08-12
CFIINAMAN'S HOUSE

But I'm done," said Scarsdale
thickly.
"Not while there's the shadow OF a
chance" said Rand. Your kind never
Is But I'll get you In the end.
| ID AND dropped behind. Searsdale
IN went on. He had to take that
shadow of a chance. for the sake
, of his report. All the time he felt
Rand following him. ready to shoot
him when he failed finally, but not
before. He went right on through
Lawes. street by street, booking. for
that chance, s.r- &.
He was half blind and his brain
was laundering with great 'throbs
and crashes of sound. AT first ne
| thought 1T was all in, his head- All
at once he realized there was a. SOL
emn and growing, sound In the air,
He remembered then the. river, the
Wayamous. too swift to freeze. And
that remembrance brought with 1t
another, very dim. and fieeting. aof a
musk smell. OF soapsuds and ,yelinw
hands and blue silks, The vision
vanished. Scarsdale steAdied himself
before an immense white glare
1t was the glare OF moonlight on
the snowy plain beyond Lawes.
This glare was broken by one dark
ness. the last house in Lawes, the last
approaching from the north, the first
! from the south. And In the darkness
he saw. infinitely Knocked and duplicated
by HIS sick eyes Fne OF fight: light
shining through cracked single.
Scarsdale, dragged himself to the
door of-.this house. and pressed on it
with both hands. It Welded. He
pitched forward Into black darkness,
warmth, and a family familiar smell.
He lost consciousness only for a little
while, if it was indeed consciousness
that returned and gave him his
memory Of what followed
He was aware of light and Of two
faces; yellow faces. Then the light
vanished. He heard the sound of his
own voice. talking desperately. He
knew he was telling some one, whom
he could not see, all about Rand, and
Death. and the little books. Then his
own voice fiicked out like the light
Some one said, 'all light" and a
hand pressed on his chest. He lay
back half buried in some warm. fusty
stuff: he knew then. by the agony. that
his boots had been cut off and that he
was freed Of the pack-straps which had
eaten ulcers in his flesh. A cup was
held to his lips and he drank a thin.
heady stuff that tingled along his veins.
To 1ox- ctf IL ~
move. Beside him, in the dense.
sitting dark. two people whispered
gutturally. And the dark. the fusty
quilts. the walls about him. all shook
and rumbled to the rush OF flowing
water near at hand.
They fed him a sweet cake with little
bits OF pork in It, Scarsdaie had
strength enough then to say, to the un-
seen people who whimpered in the dark
Hide the books before he comes"
"AlI light, All light"
Il tell you he's coming, and you can't
beat him. He's Death. Deaths bound
to get YOU in the end. All the way
from Coot River-and then he'll get you
in the end"
Scarsdale thought to himself, What
crazy stuff I'm talking about" The
hard. lean hand pressed again on his
breast. Lie STILL the voice whis-
pered. You my fiend long ago"
Give me my gun" Scarsdale begged.
Il tell you he'll be here in a little
while. Death can come into any house"
He sat up. shouting against Death and
all the time knowing he was acting
like a madman. There was a scurry, a
fiip-fiap like big rats running in the
dark. He heard something like a
wheezy giggle. He come in"-the
whisper drifted across Sea arsdale's brain
like a leaf across a pool-"he come In,
no can get out"
The hands forced him down again
among the quilts, long-nailed fingers
worked at his lips, a tiny pellet slipped
into his mouth. While he choked on
it they gave him more of the warm
stuff to drink. He lay and painted;
waiting in the roaring, rushing dark
for Rand to come in. for Death to
come in.
THE little speck of opium acted in
stantly and curiously on Scarsdale's
weakened system.
In a moment he was miles away
leagues. ages, immeasurable distances
away from the body that lay like a
log in that dark room among the stale
quilts. From the end of these vistas of
lures unfold one by one like flowers in