The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-05-06
SANDY A sy snEs .f 1oM MIeknlT;


With her hand she tried to ease
the clutching tightness Of her throat.
She smiled bewildered, thinking:
What now! I'd never know him.
Lord-how he looksl Who got his
letters Oh, Cod"
But Ramon became gay. He
pressed her hand between his palms.
He said, without waiting for answer:
You're glad? Sandy darling, are you
glad? Ten months since you've
heard? What did you think Not that
I'd forgotten Forget you? Not for a
single Instant"
He explained the reason OF his
silence
In March Of the previous year he
had gone with a party Of engineers
to the north Of China. They started
from Picking, going part of the way
by automobile and the rest by cam
els When they reached the Desert
Of Gold they were hemmed in by ban.
dts. Their guides ran away. After
three months Of houndering they
managed to hit the town Of Urga. He
wrote from her, but with no certain
ty that his letters were forwarded.
The engineers were sent by an oil
company to explore the country
about Mongolia. At the end of July
Ramon became ILL., 1t was August
before the missionary doctors visited
him. They thought he was finished
typhoid fever. He lay for months,
delirious part of the time, in a stu
por toward the end. No one expected
him to rally. The first Of November
they moved him. rIie got relapse.
lie didn't know whether he'd writ.
ten all those months or not. lie
thought that he tried to. He recalled
dreaming Of Notwithstanding that
she came to visit him and carried
him off in a cool white ship; that
she lifted him bodily and carried him
as though he were a feathers weight
to this ship Of hers; that she said to
him many times, "Now I will have q
perfumed breeze bowl will have it
blow this heat away and you'll be
cured"
lie looked down at her laugbing.
Wasn't that odd. Sandy But I've
always associated you with fra
GRANGE. One dream that filed me
with peace was of you with starlight
and mist in your hair"
She said in pinched. forlorn way,
at must have been awful to be so
III and so alone"
1T was awful. What made you
think Id married."
You wrote about a girl you met
the girl who looked like me. After
that I didn't hear. All that time
got no word. OF course, thought
you'd married"
Unconsciously her voice rose on
high, accusing note that brought
his eyes to hers.
The pallor of his skin became
leaden. did you hope for my mar
riage, Sandy? You speak as though
you are angry, because I've come
back to you.
ITO me, Ramon? Oh no! Not to
me"
They were driving out Jackson
ST., past the beautiful homes that
look across the Preside trees to the
clean blue straits and the nude, i'm
posing bulk OF the Marin hills.
He smiled vaguely repeating: mot
to you, Sandy? Why, then, did
come? All, why else?"
He stopped the car on the crest Of
that noble hill at Broadway and
Divisedero. In a vista Of swinging
beauty went the Golden Gate, the
proud little islands and beyond this
the cleaning white of cities magical
and enchanted by the distance. The
Campanile against its many many
hills was n slim tower Of light; far.
Their on, Diablo doomed massive and
black.
He now sat with his profile toward
her. 1t had a set, angulshed look.
She couldn't tell whether this was
due to his appalling thinness, but
he seemed eaten as from within. She
recalled the phrase Of his letter:
You are burned in me, Sandy
l,,V,, ;,fn +ho Hho,. 90 nav l1ai,1or 7