Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-03
CONTINUED from Yesterdays Starr
INSTALLMENT XXI.

- UDDENLY he caught himself
laughing at joke which struck
him as being extraordinarily
~ funny. He had been one of the
occupants of that car! He had
gone for a drive somewhere with little
olive OmpleXiOned Genoese, who smoked
cigarettes and boosted about his engine.
He listened intently.
The engine had stopped. They had
run out OF petrol. He remembered that
the boy had murmured something about
mancanZa dl benZina. 1t annoyed nm
to see the thing projecting like that
He wanted to climb up to it and push
it back. From that distance it did not
look like car that weighed several
tons!
The sound of water, trickling close
at hand, diverted his attention from
the car. He located the source OF the
noise presently-a tiny mountain tor
rent following a watercourse that look
ed many sizes too big for it.
He crawled over to it painfully.
1t seemed an eternity before he man
aged to drag himself to a ledge where
the constant dripping OF water Tor CEN
turtles had worn a shallow basin in the
rock and the falling stream from above
formed a natural showerbath. That
cold douche performed miracles Tor
Dighton. Sitting back, with soaked
hair and shoulders and all his physical
powers drifting back to him, he found
his mental equilibrium as we'll.
He had taken that car at the hotel
and set out in hot pursuit OF second
vehicle which he believed contained
Greta and the Lizard. They had over
taken them at the summit of that eS-
carpment and collided. The vivid
details of the crash we're croWding back
on him. The other car had pitched
clean over, carrying with it its occu-
pants-the driver the man in the gray
velour-and Greta!
Assailed by an awful fear, he scam
ned the landscape, looking for traces OF
the others.
His gaze, dimmed by the throbbing
of his temples, fell upon vast green
blur. extending from his feet to the
far horizon and punctuated by shadowy,
wind blown trees, the campan1le OF
village church and thing like silver
serpent which he knew to be a river.
The picture became clearer. He MADE
out strips of cultivated land, lean, lso-
lated sheep, terraced vineyards-and
suddenly, propped against the fantastic
trunk of an ancient olive, the wreck OF
the yellow car.
It lay on it's side, with the chassis
and all four wheels showing, and set at
awkward angles on bent axleS ike a
tin toy trodden on by clumsy child:
The framework of its hood, stripped OF
the bulk of it's covering, cleaned yell
lowy-white like the ribs OF some ante
diluvian monster bleaching in the SUM-
shine.
Diehton, bruised and battered himself,
felt in sympathy with that crumpled
Leviatl1an. For the first time since his
return to consciousness he realized that
the storm had blown over. 1t had
passed off as quickly as it had come up,
leaving, the countryside radiant ana
smiling. j.,
Very soon now he must get up and
examine that car. He was torn be-
tween conflicting emotions-deSire to
learn the fate of the one woman in the
whole world he cared about, and fear
for what that fate might be. Flesh and
blood could not endure what the car
had stood. There was Dante BrlzZoleSl,
too, the poor devil who had piloted the
other vehicle-and the Lizard.
He guessed by the sun that Il was
fternoon-Somewhere between ] and 2.
His watch. when he drew it out with
trembling fingers, revealed a circle OF
starred glass that held in some extraor-
binary way together and hands abb
surdly twisted. It did not even tell him
at what time the disaster had occurred.
h, He made six consecutive attempts to
rise to his feet-and sank back on each
occasion, weak and exhausted. His
bones, he believed, were whole, his reso-
lutte, indomitable spirit was equally
unimpaired, but his bruised muscles re-
fused to respond.
He felt like the sole survivor of a
worldwide catastrophe. He shot a
glance at the heap upon which he had
fallen - the rough shelter OF some
shepherd which his weight had sent
into a state of collapse. He owed his
life to the softness of its roof and the
rottenness of its tinbers. He should
have been grateful to it, eternally CRATE
full but with Greta crushed beyond
recognition in the ruins of the car he
was not sure that he wanted to live.
He crawled from the torrent on his
hands and knees, lighted upon stake
which the same shepherd whose hut he
had demolished had possibly discarded
and continued on his staggering, down.
hill quest like doddering old man. en-
countering grim trophies on his way.
He found Dante. sprawling in bush
with his neck broken and chest crushed
in by impact with the driving wheel:
headlight torn from its seating the up
holstered seat of the American bus.
with canvas torn away to reveal copper
springs. Other relics Uttered the hill
side, a rug with fringed ends, dere-
lict spare wheel and strips of hood
material tapped on the thorn bushes to
which 1t had become attached.
Quite close to the Italian car he
CHANGED upon shoe with single
strap-the companion to the one which
still remained in the Jacket pocket into
which he had thrust it few moments
before embarking upon the pursuit.
The discovery brought lump to his
throat-and then a wild hope surged
within him.
It's presence there seemed to indicate
that Greta had fallen from the car be-
fore it reached the end of its mad
cereer. BY the great ridges scored in
the earth he could follow the course
Il had taken. The shoe was 80 feet to