The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1924-02-01
CHAPTER vIII-contInued.

IF that's what we wanted" he sal,
I'VE shouldn't have to depend o
Mount Vesuvius. II can be manage
more handily than that. But it'll b
long while before I'm ready to die
even like this. There's too much lef
10 be lived through. I'd like to sal
into the Bay of Naples with you, 70
one thing. and have a look at that oil
Volcano Do you remember some
thing you said the first time we talke,
together, about wishing you could b,
there with me when l had my frs
look at all that? It's going TO worl
out, some time. you know. I've known
1t, 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 ali right to laugh, but
It's going to happen some day"
There isn't a 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
dlsengaged 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 1t out; decide what we're going
to do"
M no foI u ho
fercely, at the end of tight-drawn
silence. Talking won't get us any
where"
II guess you're right about that"
he agreed. That's the way | feel
about II, too. It's always simplest to
do thing first and save your talking
till afterward. This is what Wen do,
Violet There's a Chilean liner sailing
for 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
a question. We'd leave all this clean
behind. Start fresh, both of us. 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 a
legal one now-and you've never had
husband, either. That's the truth.
You know 1t, yourself; found it out
at last. He'd divorce you II you asked
him to, and then we could make it all
square-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
Their. 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. Il
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
while to enlarge upon the practical
ty Of 1t. He had a thousand dol
lars in his pocket, and ten thousand
more which was almost as accessible.
He'd been keeping 1t handy, for years.
IN the Off chance Of some emergency
hat would call for il. That would
'e enough to give him a start and a
tart was all he had ever wanted, any
where. Down in that part of the
world opportunities for man of his
were thick as dandelions. ,
They went to seed faster than you
ould pick them. "Pd never ask you
D take a chance with hardship" he
sSured her, earnestly. Il can keep
GU as safe from the-meannesses of d
fe as John Williamson can"
Her uncomfortable restlessness as
e talked. her frantic attempts to turn
i'm aside from the theme, served only $
, feed his elation. For that hour he o
as fully himself again The lassitude n
as conquered, the tortured nerves in c
Inc. the gnawing. obsessing need Of s.
lcOhOl forgotten. He revealed the d
ling he wanted her to see, not in h
inc descriptive generalities. but in c
ashes of concrete reality, fragments u
his own experience, illumlnatlve O
PARKS of the most minute detail. Il
II was she now who resisted his W
ms, but he won her to them at last nj
I'D sulled her protests in them; qui- II
ed her trembling. III
After ALL" he said. when he had pl
ssed her-for the first time that day st
this is what matters" His voice
IRISH as 1t was with passion, subdued al
self to the ear that was so near his m
IS. "Youre in love with me. You've re
ind out what II means at last. You hs
n guess what it will be like I'm in he
We with You. And / know what II an
II mean. I'm not green boy, guess hi
g-nor an OK who has forgotten. II
~ can't go back, now, viOleti" tn
She did not return HIS kiss. but she
7 unresisting, acQuieseent in his en- lei
ace. "V
She may have thought, during a pc
ndful of minutes, that she would 20 do
tn him. He sensed victory in the
:. at least. But when they heard ~
, innkeeper coming heavily toward tn
, door to tell them their lunch was be
ldy, she struggled erect like one wi
rtled out of a dream.
Before their host, while he was wait wi