The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-04-25
CHAPTER VIll-continued.

He had yielded to her arms again.
"If that's what we wanted" he said,
eve shouldn't have to depend on
Mount Vesuvius 1t can be managed
more handily than that. But it'll be
a long while before I'm ready 10 die,
even like this. There's too much left
10 be lived through. I'd like to sail
into the Bay of Naples with you, for
one thing. and have a 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 / had my first
look at all that? It's going TO work
out. some time, you know. I've known
II, in way, ever since you said it
We could do II, 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 it 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, 1--WE 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 talkl'' she said
fiercely, at tie 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 a thing first and save your talking
till aftsrward. This is what We'll do,
Violet. There's a Chilean liner sailing
for Valparaiso Saturday. Thatn 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 chance at. I've
never had a wife-I haven't even a
legal one now-and you've never had
a husband, either. That's the truth.
You know it, yourself; found it out
at last. He'd divorce you if 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 it. Ell
Their. Not after you've once said you'll
do it. And you will. It's written down
In the books that you will !"
That's crazier dream than the
other, joe" she said, uneasily. II
wish you wouldn't talk like that"
There's not a 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 it. He had thousand dol
lars in his pocket, and ten thousand
more which was almost as accessible.
He'd been keeping II handy, for years,
on the off chance of some emergency
that would call for 1t. That would
be enough to give him a start, and a
start was all he had ever wanted. any
where. Down in that part of the
world opportunities for man of his
profession were thick as dandelions.
They went to seed faster thar you
could pick them "Pd never ask you
TO take chance with hardship" he
assured her. earnestly. II can keep
you as safe from the-meannesses 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 again. 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 detail.
1t was she now who resisted his
arms. but he won her to them at last
and stllled 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 it was with passion, subdued
itself to the ear that was so near his
lips. You're in love with me. You've
found out what 1t means at last. You
can guess what 1t will be like. Pm In
love with you. And l know what il
Will mean. I'm not green boy, guess
ing-nor an OK who has forgotten.
You can't go back, now, Violet!"
She did not return his kiss, but she
lay unresisting, acQuiescent in his EN-.
brace
She may have thought, during a
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 wait
ing upon them, she amazed joe
though Il was faculty of hers he had
often wondered at before-by the per-
lection with which she played her
part. But when at last the proprie-
tor left them, with bell to ring when
they should be ready for their final
course. she turned straight back 10
their own affair, and in an even voice