The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-04-16


Brena could not recall the details
Of her mothers accounts OF the part
her father had played In the disturbed
period of Greece. There were vague
impressions Of a secret organization
under the Council OF Twelve" to
which he had worn devotion, Of a
problem of honor which he had decid-
ed by following a course of conduct
that had brought down upon him the
penalty of assassination. A sharply
defined portrait of this young patriot,
q member of the Salamis deputation
of 1862 informing King Ohio, the last
of the Bavarian alien mOnarchs, that
the throne of Greece was vacant, re-
NAMED in Brena's mind. She confessed
to a thrill of pride that upon an occa-
sion, historic and mOmentous, her ia
ther, then only twenty-eight, had been
present in a major role. This had
been the top moment of his life those
whom he had aided turned upon him.
The strength of a powerful secret or
ganization. gradually falling into I'M
scrupulous hands after its true func-
lions were over, had been turned
against him. His name became a ira
ditional center of oaths of vengeance
with knife wounds upon his great
arms and thighs and an unremoved
bullet in his shoulder, lie came to
America. He was a man who had
lived one life, and expected the World
to recognize him as IN import@nt ~.
ing. 1t saw in him only a silen'
learned man, %inventing a thousand aif
billions and from them choosing
fixed purpose, ~disregarding money .I
land where money. for the tiA',, as.
the fetish, careless Of poverty bat h.
inflated periodically ny debt. dlscnlr>
ing upon biological chemistry years be-
fore the scientific world had the
Imagination to listen-a giant, with
dark haunting eyes, long Homeric hair
and beard, always brushed back as if
he were e~ternally facing a hurricane,
and a voice and presence as mysteri-
Ously impressive as that of some Eli
jah. Even Brena remembered his af-
lection for her, profound as it was, as
being like the affection of some god of
mythology directed down upon a beau
tiful but mortal child.
Between the frivolous sunlight of
her mother and the magnificent sha-
dow of her father, Brena grew, acquir-
ing from one a whimsical humor and
from the other a calm of high cliffs
and ne a optban /
According to Brena's own phrase,
she had no childhood and all child
She had none because her ia
ther, after a month or two of concen-
trated application Of his mind upon
studies of similarities in the architec-
ture of ancient Mexico and prehistoric
Greece, would find the butcher, land
lord and grocer at his door, and then,
as if awakened, he would take his lit
tie family and board the train for some
minor university where he would teach
himself out of debt and into a period
Of bitterness of heart because neither
learning nor his important place
In history were given recognition.
With a great sigh from his expansive
chest, he would move on again in pur-
suit Of some inquiry, some research,
some new application of his heroic, i'm
practical head. In consequence, the
little girl, red of cheeks, with spin
ding legs and great wondering brown
eyes, never stayed long enough any
where for acquaintance with children
and for play. Tutored by her mother
and by the booming, terrifying voice of
.emetrius SelcoSs when he, as he said,
could spare time for it, she learned a
for books aud consumed them,
according to her own story, like q
hungry little pig regardless Of the wis
lom of a diet and eating all that was
reach" The books served to
give her a fake veneer of experience
md maturity.
This outer covering was fake be-
it failed to represent the truth
hat Brena had reached sixteen, with
attributes which made men
urn as she passed but without any
o~nsciousness of having approached
romanhood. Without contacts with
hildhood, ever on the move, living in
otels, in boarding houses, in suburban !
,ttages, ever dependenr up0n n rick
patched old trunk and her two I
arents, she had acquired the habits 4