The Dolores star., 1924-05-02
CHAPTER Vill-Continued.


more handily than that. But it'll be
long while before I'm ready TO die,
even like this. There's too much left
TO be lived through. I'd like to sail
into the Bay of Naples with you. for
one thing, and have look at that old
volcano Do you remember some
thing you said the first time we talked
together, about wishing you could be
there with me when l had my first
look ut all that? It's going TO work
out, some time, you know. I've known
It, in a way. ever since you said it
We could do 1t, at that Tomorrow
There's Dutch boat sailing for Lis
bon oh, it's all right to laugh, but
it's going to happen some day"
There isn't city in Europe, joe
her voice was somber enough now
.'where we wouldn't be running into
people all the time who knew me. And
who'd know what I'd done Oh, it's
lovely dream, my dear, but 1t will
never come true"
Again, and this time bruskly, he
disengaged himself from her arm. He
rose giddily to his feet, pulled up a
chair, and sat down on It. You see,"
he said. I'VE can't get away from it.
1t keeps coming back. We've got to
talk it out; decide what we're going
to do"
81 don't want to talk" she said
fiercely. at the end of tight-drawn
silence. Talking won't get us any
where"
Il guess you're right about that"
he agreed. That's the way feel
about it, too. It's always simplest to
do thing first and save your talking
till afterward. This is what well do,
Violet. There's a Chilean liner sailing
tor Valparaiso Saturday. That'll give
Us time to get our passports and any
thing we need. They know me down
there, and they'll take you for grant
ed as my wife without a question.
There's nobody who'd think of asking
question. We'd leave all this clean
behind. Start fresh, both of u.s. on a
life that was worth living. Something
we've never had a chance at. I've
never had a wife-I haven't even q
legal one now--and you've never had
husband. either. That's the truth.
You know it, yourself; found it out
at last He'd divorce you II you asked
him to, and then we could make It all
sguare-go anywhere we liked. And
In the meantime It's better than
mucking around here in this. There
won't be anything hard about 1t. ell
ther. Not after you've once said you'll
do 1t. And you will. It's written down
In the books that you will ~
That's crazier dream than the
other, joe" she said, uneasily. 81
wish you wouldn't talk like that"
There's not thing in it," he con-
tradicted her. that isn't plain com
mon sense; and he went on for a
while to enlarge upon the practical
ity of 1t. He had a thousand dol
lars in his pocket, and ten thousand
more which was almost as accessible.
He'd been keeping it handy, for years,
on the off chance of some emergency
that would call for it. That would
be enough to give him a start, and
start was all he had ever wanted, any
where. Down in that part of the
world opportunities for a man of his
profession were thick as dandelions.
could pick them. "Fd never ask you
to take a chance with hardship" he
assured her, earnestly. 81 can keep
you as safe from the-neannesses of
life as John Williamson can"
Her uncomfortable restlessness as
he talked, her frantic attempts to turn
him aside from the theme, served only
to feed his elatiOn. For that hour he
was fully himself aguin. The lassitude
was conquered, the tortured nerves in
tune. the gnawing. obsessing need of
alcohol forgotten. He revealed the
thing he wanted her to see, not in
tame descriptive generalities. but in
flashes of concrete reality, fragments
of his own experience, illuminative
sparks of the most minute detaf.
1t was she now who resisted his
arms, but he won her to them at last
and stilled her protests in them quI-
eted her trembling.
After ALL" he said. when he had
kissed her-for the first time that day
this is what matters" His voice,
harsh as 1t was with passion, subdued
itself to the ear that was so near his
hDS. LOU it loNt Win me. 1GuVp
found out what 1t means at last. You
can guess what it will be like. I'm in
love with you. And / know what ii
will mean. I'm not a green boy. guess
fng-nor an OK who has forgotten.
You can't go back. now, Violet"
She did not return his kiss, but She
lay unresisting, acqulescent in his en-
brace.
She may have thought, during n
handful of minutes. that she would 20
with him. He sensed victory in the
air, at least. But when they heard
the innkeeper coming heavily toward
the door to tell them their lunch was
ready, she struggled erect like one
startled out of dream.
Before their host. while he was whit
Ing upon them, she amazed Joe
though 1t was faculty of hers he had
often wondered at before-bv tha nor