Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-02-13

/
over the case, decided that it was
much more like a case Of shell-shock,
and that the injury to her head had
been only q contributing cause.
/ He made her a crutch next morning
and by the afternoon, she felt well
enough to hobble few steps about
the camp. The accident which had
temporarily ungeared her memory
seemed to have wrought a strange
change in her nature. She was no
longer wildly anxious to push on to
her destination; she accepted Lee as
| fact In her life, and showed how COM
pletely she trusted him, despite the
intimacy in which they were both
living.
He was sure that her memory
would suddenly come back to her com
pletely And, memory did come back
in dreams, as with shell-shocked pa
| tents, but only to vanish with the
waking
At night Lee, lying near her beneath
| another rough shelter of boughs that
he had made for himself, would hear
her tossing and moaning, and occas-
ionally utterlng fragments of unintel-
| ligible sentences.
Day merged into day. Lees rib was
healing we'll, and the girl was begin
ming to set her foot TO the ground. At
| first she was dependent upon him in
nearly everything. He helped her to
take her first steps without the crutch,
| leaning upon his shoulder. They were
always together.
1t was so wonderful companion
ship. 1t was that comradeship Of
which Lee had always dreamed. And
1t was the more wonderful, perhaps,
because the girls severance from the
past gave it sort of unreality, as If it
were a little piece of paradise which
they had snatched for themselves out
Of the sum total of human happiness.
Soon she began to assume charge of
the camp and the cooking And Lee,
lying at her feet, listening while she
talked, or lying awake at night be-
| meath his shelter, in the dread of hear
ing her moan, came at last to realize
| that his feeling for her was becoming
something more than the mere enjoy
ment of her companionship.
He loved her, he sometimes admit
ted to himself; and when a word or
glance of his would send the blood
mantling into her cheek, he dared to
think that his love was returned.
And now he cared no longer whether
her memory of the past ever came
| back to her. Almost better to let her
| live in ignorance of all that had dis
| tressed her.
| He began to dread the inevitable
| day when remembrance would come
to blot out their paradise. Only
little incident would be needed, some
little shock that would knit the raw
eled ends of memory, and then
Then what would lie before them?
Another thing to be apprehended
was the day. so near now, when they
must leave their woodland paradise.
Autumn had returned wonderfully, but
| there was a sharper tang in the air
each morning. everything was dead
| anu lie lOhliCu CfCAy hight upOA hhC
| pool beneath their little spring.
And it seemed now as If Lees
search for Pelly would have to be pro-
| tracted through the winter months.
If his inquiries at the mission proved
frutless it would mean returning to
Little Falls for sleigh and dogs.
Then there was the matter of the
Free Traders.
Lee would find his hands full soon
enough.
"Do you know, Lee" said the girl
one day, II often feel as If l were on
the very verge of remembering. And
when l wake In the morning, just for
an instant / feel different person, as
| If I had remembered. And / am
afraid of remembering 1t is as If re-
membrance would bring back some
thing terrible with 1t. Who am II"
"You are just you" said Lee, smil-
ing. "That's enough for me-"
"Where did we meet?"
"In the range"
81 was clone? And then / had an
accident and was thrown from my
horse? And you, too? 1t is so strange.
know that l lived in large city
not long ago, and that / was so glad
to get back to the woods. But where
was / riding? That's the big prob
lem that we have to solve, isn't it?"
She looked at him earnestly. Lee"
she said solemnly, sometimes hope
/ Y novor shall rpmpmhprn
She made no plans. leaving every
thing to Lee, and nothing was decided.
BY the middle Of the second week, she
could walk fairly well, her strength
had come back, and the little period
| Of elysium was drawing to its end
1t was inevitable that the problem
| should be faced
| For the first time she had accom-
panied Lee as far as the lake shore.
There had been no signs Of the Free
Traders, and Lee was convinced that