, 1923-04-01

VI naAs
The car rounded headiand 1rter
headland. finding always another be-
yond. On one of these stood a light
house with u patch OF bright sky
shining through. When they reach
cd 1T 1t was n moving picture fish
ing vlilage-Inceville once. now the
R. c. Ranch studio. an odd tumble
OF hollow shells. English huts. west
ern blockhouses. a church. a strip
OF casteliated walls5all sorts of
could present as part of great wholes.
The road Jared on. cutting off the
tip of one ridge and leaving a cone
the color of n vast chocolate drop
set up at the ocean's rim.
The next headland ended in a bit
OF sand where n few palm trees had
been installed TO represent n South
Sea island vista. The very noun
tGins in silhouette were like a strip
OF cenery.
Twilight was smothering the long
and twisted gorge OF the Topanga
when Mem and Claymore turned their
backs on the last glimmers of h
ocean.
Four miles and miles the highway
mounted and wrlthed along the sleeps
Of precip!ces. hugging the rocks to
let pass car after car with lamps
Washing In frJnt df blurred pas
sengers.
The a had been slashed through
walls of stone or OF heaped conglom-
crate like enormous piles of canon
balls. The slopes, OF increasing depth
and majesty, were clothed with sage
and stupttd trees. Here and there
stood the tall white spikes of the
candles of Gcd." the yuccas de
DIos. now in bloom. They had a
ghostly glimmer where they boarded
the last rays of waning day.
Mems heart was stabbed with ter
ror at every sharp swerve around n
beetling ledge. for the headlight
swung off down the cliff. revealing
rather the danger to be feared than
the road to he followed.
In almost every bay where there
wac a bit O. sracc a motor had
stopped and drawn close to the cliff
side in the dark. II was easy to
Imagine the purpose of these hats.
Each car was a wheeled solitude, a
love boat at anchor in n stream of
ears ignoring and ignored.
All over the world it was the Gus
tom of the time to take advantage Of
such little sCditudes. There was a
vast outcry in pulpits and in editorial
columns against tie evil. and evil
was undoubtedly achieved in immense
quantity. 1t was no new evil. how
ever. but the ancient, eternal nctiv-
ity that has never failed to find its
opportunity in desert and in garden,
in hut and palace. on porch n deck,
in graveyard and cloisture, in ave
and on hillside, in chariot. palan-
quin. sedan, stagecoach, buggy. We
torla, or donkey chaise as well as in
auto.
It is an equally old evil to accuse
the Implement OF creating the power
hat makes use of II, and would
use another weapon II need were.
There was a strange influence in
this recurrent mystery. Everywhere
lovers were hiding themselves in con.
sp.cuous concealment. Mem felt dis
gust at the first dozen, amusement
or contemplation the next fifty. tOler.
dnce for the next. and
Claymore did not speak of them
CT Of anything. else. He was too
- IA MAAAAAA "a NAA1t aAAA lis
the little distances between the edge
of tho cliff and the ears that
wh'zzed past.
H1lfwny up the canyon his head
light ransacked a black cove between
two headlands and found no motor
in possession OF tho estuary of night.
And here, to Mems dumb astonish-
ment. he abruptly checked his car.
swung in off the roa against the
wall of rubble, and stopped short
with a sigh of exaggerated fatigue.
well" he groaned. this is a
drive! I'll rest a bit II you don't
mind. Pretty here. eh?"
From their cavern of gloom they
looked across a fathomless ravine to
a mountain on which the risen
loo poured n silent Niagara In
the doing radiance a creamy shnft
OF yucca stool a candle blown out
in a deserted cathedral.
The night air was of a strange
gentleness. and the cars that shot
past threw no light into their re
treat.
There was a long. long silence that
filled Mem with IA terror sho could
not fail to onjoy. She could not tell
whether she heard her own heart.
beats or his. but czcltemeht was
4throb in the little coach that had
brought them so swiftly to this re-
ssclusion.
Claymore vas dumb so long that
Mem had time to cease to be afraid OF
what he would say. and to begin to
wish that he would get It said. so
h a h could know what her an.
swer would be.
She felt a battling uncertainty of
herself. She could not imagine what
she might do or say, She had not
hat much experience of men. but
enough to know that before long he
would initiate the immemorial pro.
cedure that starts with an arm ad.
v~enturing about a waist and a voy.
age after a kiss.
She told herself hat the only right
md proper thing to do would be TO
resist, protest. forbid. and prevent at
any cost the proclamation of her ga.
cred integrity. II necessary, she
must fight, scratch. scream, escape,
run away, appeal for help 70 any
passer-by, or, as a last resort, leap
over the cliff ana die for honor's