Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27
Continued from Yesterdays Starr
TNSTALLMENT XXI.


able to believe that a thing which he
could see and hear could be less than
real living and present! Was he, then,
in very fact, caught in a trap? What
was the trap? Could desire reused by
a dream being close with steel jaws
upon the heart of living man? Was
she dreamer woman-that darling
Of the dawn? If she were woman and
not still alive, but only had lived among
some dim distances of the past, what
was his plight? Could he go back to
the then and live in her life whom
he could not bring to the now to live in
his? And what of the lover she had
sought with seeking he had fatuously
thought for him? Had ne been found
at that sunrise trySting place? II
found. had he claimed possession of
the prize, that historic lover-historic,
If only of yesterday? Could the luck
less wight who loved her now bear to
go back and look upon that others for
tune, unalterable, fixed forever in the
scheme of things, changeless as truth,
recorded eternally in medium that Is
not erased? And could he-maddening
thought!-look upon that love and live
vicariously in the raptureS Of that other
lover, through the damned, damning
trick he had himself devised?
Vicarious living! Lightly offered to
an unsuspecting world as philter of
fuli.llment! A bait which was the trap
itself!
At daylight he went to his window
and looked down upon the street. A
little crowd was gathered, even at that
unearthly hour, about spot of fasci-
nation in front of a theater called the
Swan"
When Ushigi was up, Brainard called
for more coffee. The Japs start at
him made him remember that he must
take heed to his appearance, and he
spent long hour bathing and shaving
and dressing with care. At o'clock
he went to his offices, where Miss Ash
croft regarded him gravely and Miss
Arden gave him a radiant smile that
had the effect of having accumulated
overnight. His younger secretary fol-
lowed him into his private room and
lowered about. Here was woman
plainly offering him loneliness and love.
He was vaguely annoyed.
But he never knew what she said to
him or whether she spoke or was silent,
or whether she left him or he left her.
For on his desk, among the kilograms,
the begging letters and the notes Of
threat and volunteered devotion, lay
small sphere of blued steel, unmarked.
featureless-except that the light fall
ing across its polished surface took on
for his inf1amed eyes a strange quality
sly. heeting, sinister, like furtive grin!
He found himself, with the mystic
rious thing in his grasp. at the door
of his studio, opening that door with
a hand that trembled so that his keys
tangled noisily. But he locked himself
into the muffled room once more. In
another moment he was breathlessly
watching scene that first amazed him
and then struck in like the edge of a
tested blade which cuts through cal
louS to the quick. He saw himself as
he had sat here in this studio Of his the
night but one before, secure In what
men have been wont to call privacy
behind shut doors, watching some pro-
jected scene excluded now from the
unity of this-rapt, absorbed, caught
and held by those fibers Of mans be-
ing that are at once infinitely stronger
and more tender than fibers of flesh!
Himself as he had first looked upon his
Dawn Maiden! Looking upon himself,
he watched and listened to the eXtcr-
nal gestures and sounds of man who
has forgotten to consider his effect.
He saw himself thing toyed with by
o power outside himself, made sport of,
Into rigid poise, dragged from his chair,
propelled upon limbs moved by unseen
strings in the hands of an invisible
Snowman, and dropped like a discovered
fraud at the edge of his little stage
its very curtain torn loose and falling as
II to expose him to a grinning world.
Long after the thing was done he got
up from his chair and mechanically
shut off the light behind the blazing
lens. Then he stood in the darkness
and tried to think. What did it mean?
It meant that the man who had set the
trap for him had watched him fall into
its jaws and struggle there. 1t meant
that the bearded operator of the ma
chine which had recorded that wood
land scene had used the same machine
to record its effect on him. 1t meant
that the fellow Homer had looked, as
any reasoning creature might have
known he would look. upon the result
of the thing he had planned. 1t mean!
that an enemy knew that he, Brainard
was entangled in tolls more enSnariIe
than a net of guilt. The man who hao
cut peep-hole in the curtain of the
past had fallen in love through it
madly, ludicrously, helplessly, with a
being of another worldwide might bS
creature of any cline or age. Druio
damsel or modern maid, Judith or Jez.
ebel, Leilah, or Lorelei, or simple
Anabel Lee! Shared! For no fantastic
trick of the new laws he had introduced
to a wondering world equaled those o.
that old law the world seemed to bt
just introducing to him--that strang,
law by which a man enshrines sud
denly and irretrievably IN a single fig
ure all the endowments that make
woman his goddess A single figure
to which he raises his altar and make!
his sacrificed
To her identity his enemy alone HEX
the clue-and his enemy knew tina
Brainard knew it, What that enem.
might be able to do with it would de
pend wholly on what Brainard nigh
be able to do without it!
Quite true that no man to whom n
did not choose to reveal his secret
could readily steal them. But it wa
evident enough that they could be uSe'
by other hands than his. 1t was OBJ
vious that his own career lay open to
man who knew how to use his machine
and had access to them. Why had
not occurred TO him before? For tn
simple reason that he had not bee'
conscious Of any fact or episode in III
career that would lend a handle b
which another could WELD him. Blu
now? What handle was this which fat
had riveted to his vital tissues?
FOOL Fool! But what of that? Ever
man is the fool Of what he fears, o
wants-if he fears or wants 1t enough
He did not try to dodge now the fac
of his predicament. He recognized !
frankly enough. In the first flush c
his power, he was baked of the Thin
he wanted first. To desire was adde
the quick blaze of resentment. This
any obstacle should be set in any pat
of his Infatuated him. To his new sens
Of the dictatorship thrust into his hand
anything less than omnipotence woul
have been CALLING limitation. The IeN
cred thirst of every sense in him Il
the utterly desirable thing was mutt
piled by the freshly conceived idea tia
he had only to reach out for wAatevt
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