Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-07-24


yards with the shabby wooden settle
ments. seen again from her berth
through the slit of window beneath
the curtain as she raised her weight
on one elbow. 1t had not changed COM
pletely since she had seen 1t on her
return after Jim .Hennepin had disap-
peared. This morning began the 23d
of the month; she had the sense of
racing to Kremlin Wells in a contest
with death.
At the final junction point of her
long journey, tired, nerve-wracked by
unremitting heat of night and day and
by the strain of suspense, she found 1t
necessary to wait under a train shed,
where in the waiting-room or on the
platform the. midday humidity Gre
ated smothering steam filled with the
gases beIched from locomotive stacks
and the ear-smashing explosions from
engine exhausts and the impact of car
couplers. The train for the West was
three hours late. She could not leave
the station; she walked back and forth,
her weary eyes held open wide by will,
her jaw firm. And logging every step
she took was the fear that she would
be too late, that when daylight came
on the twenty-fourth she would not yet
be at her destination.
The conductor on the westbound
mail was not of the same mind. Beau
tiful young women travelling alone do
not alight every day in "holes in the
desert" as he called the Wells; he con-
sidered it less desirable to set her
down some time in the dark hour be-
tween three and four. He said the
place consisted of a siding, water
tank a general store, five houses, two
saloons where roulette wheels were
going during the sheep herders' season,
an adobe ruin and a hotel with three
rooms above bar.
81 am sure it will be all right" said
Brena "But even If it were not
would have to leave this train there"
At about three the porter woke her.
There were ten minutes of dressing,
and then she heard the whine of the
brakes, and with muddy, sleep-thick-
ened senses, with the ache of stiff
bones and muscles and nerves after
the heat, the inadequate sleep and the
strain, she felt out from the lower step
with one foot into the bottomless
depths of blackness for the boards Of
the platform.
When the soft night breeze that
flowed in a steady stream from the
southwest had blown the daze away
as if it were dust that had settled on
her, the train had been swallowed in
the dark.
She could hear the splash of water
leaking from the bottom of the rail-
road tank and occasionally the heat
lightning on the horizon covered the
desert toward the south with the white
flare of photographers fiashlight
powder, disclosing the vast expanse
broken by black patches of desert
vegetation. But her attention was
now held by dim swinging lantern
that came toward her out of the black
plush of the dark, as if it came with
volition and movement of its own.
When this light came close to her,
she felt an impulse to leap back into
leap into the depths of black waters
when the light was raised toward her
face so that its possessor might see
her, she wished that she had fed.
The face on the other side of the
light was the essence of brutality-the
black pupils in bloodshot eyes, the
sun-baked skin drawn taut over i'm
mense protrudng cheek bones, the
thin wrinkled upper lip over full red
dropping under lip, the broad, wide
nostrils, the thick cleaning muscular
neck of the halfbreed Mexican and In
dian.
Brena closed her fingers under cover
of the dark and made the pressure of
nails in her own palm summon her
will to put her face nearer his and to
speak before he could speak, so that
she might escape from all manner of
being on the defensive.
She said in firm voice. II came to
find some one"
The other grunted incredulously.
HE came here within day or two
The Mexican raised one dark hand
and pulled the long lobe of one ear;
his expression was crafty. He said
Maybe so, quien sabe?"
"At the hotel" she suggested.
The man with the lantern raised 1t
again to look at her he was silent, and
then suddenly he grinned
"Oh, at hotel, Ell? Ha know heem.
Certain. AT the hotel. He come by big
automobile"
"Peter DeWolfe?"
The other shook his head; he did
not know He said in soothing, cod
ding voice, "S'all ri, missy. You
come, eh?" He beckoned with finger.
Brena nodded and followed him as
he walked on before, the lantern
ex,,,,ao,iro OF bio knoac tho shadows