The Holly chieftain., 1924-05-15

her voice was sumber 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
n lovely dream, my dear, hut it will
never come true"
Again, and this time bruskiy, he
disengaged himself fro.n her arm. He
rose giddily to his feet. pulled up a
chair, and sat Gown on it. "YOu see,"
he said, I'VE cant get away from il,
=. IT keeps coming back. We've got 10
talk 1t out decide what we're going
to do"
81 don't want TO talkr' she said
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 i feel
about II, too. It's always simplest to
do thing first and save your talking
til! afterward. This is what well do,
Violet. There's a Chilean liner sailing
for Valparaiso Saturday. That'n give
us time to get our passports and any
thing we need. They know me down
there, and theyll take you for grant
ed MS my wife without question.
There's nobody who'd think of asking
a question. We'd leave all this clean
behind. Start fresh, both of US, on
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
husband, either. That's the truth.
You know it, yourself; found 1t out
at last. He'd divorce you if you asked
him to, and then we could make 1t 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 II, Ell
ther. Not after you've once said youll
do it. And you will. It's written down
in the books that you VIII p
That's crazier dream than the
other, Joe" she said uneasily. ~
wish you wouldn't talk like that"
'"rhere'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 it. He had thousand dol
lars in his pocket, and ten thousand
more which was almost as accessible.
He'd been keeping it handy, for years,
OH 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 man of his
profession were thick as dandelions.
They went to seed faster than you
could pick them. I'D never ask you
to take chance with hardship" he
assured her, earnestly. "I 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 eIation. For that. hour he
was fully himself again. The lassltude
was conquered, the tortured nerves In
tune, the gnawing. obsessinR 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 tho 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 il 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 it means at last. You
can guess what it will he like I'm in
love with yon. And | know what 1t
viii mean. I'm not green hoy. guess
ing-n0r an On who has forgotten.
You emit go back, now Violet /"