White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-09-19
CHAPTER III-Continued


ing and his little hurt and bewildered.
Suddenly they realized how little they
knew of one another, yet they were
wasting time in generalities. And to-
morrow this would b. over The
stif1ish worldliness of flying train
would obliterate all this.
He drew her to window outside
thu radius of the big re'4 stove where
the other travellers were unhappily
congregated. The panes were COW
cred with lovely frost castles and piny
peaks that remindedsLinda of Swtzer-
land. But Brian obliterated all this
with his warmed handkerchief. A
little town browsing with it's covers
half over it's head was revealed.
Lights winked through the drift that
was beginning again. Dark smoke
from burdened chimneys coiled slowly
upward. Belated figures huddled in
shapeless wraps hurried past.
do you like it?" he asked when she
had been silent while.
II would like to 60 and walk there
This time they borrowed CATERS
from the landlords daughter-huge,
knee-high cloth and ~ overalls
lined with thick cheerful red wool.
Their owner called them "arctics," and
cheerfully helped to fasten straps.
Linda so clothed could scarcely lift
her feet, and when a red knitted
shawl was tied around her head and
neck she gasped and called herself
mummy. The group of women beside
the stove murmured together and
looked at her superciliously, but Brian
Anstey seemed to consider these pre-
cautions merely sensible.
Out of doors a piercing still cold
ness pressed their lungs until they
gasped out words that were FROST
nipped before they left their threats.
Linda was trying to say she could not
endure it-she must go back-but he
took her hand and drew her stumbling
after him along the beaten paths of
the little town.
Little houses hidden by Christmas
trees; larger houses shouldering the
storm; lights everywhere, warm and
inviting.
II want to see inside" Linda pleaded
childishly, and then they began a game
that only children or lonely grownups
ever play, creeping carefully over the
muf1iing snow they would reach win
dow and peer fearfully within. Some
times they saw little family, father,
mother and children, and sometimes
it was young mother alone rocking
her baby. Then there would be young
people W itching one another shyly and
secretly, married or about to be mar.
ried-it showed upon their revealed
faces that this was all that mattered
But 1t was all pantomime, silenced by
walls and windowpanes. They could
ing, voiceless lips.
They went too far in this engross
ing game, and found themselves at the
edge of the town where life suddenly
ceased in the midst of blank fields.
Linda was exhausted.
II must rest" she gasped, and
leaned against fence post.
"But how can we know that they
are happy?" she asked bitterly. when
she could speak. 1--WE only saw the
outside of things. 1t might have been
frightful inside those houses"
He looked at her in a troubled way.
"We've come too far. intend to
carry you back" He seemed to have
forgotten what they were talking
about
Linda started and laughed nervous
ly, "What nOnsense" she exclaimed
She looked around. They were ut
terly alone in the midst of an empty
world. Distances magnified by the
intense whiteness and stiffness be-
came enormous.
She remembered that she did not
know this man; he was stranger. In
the gloom she could not see his face,
but only the bulk of his broad shoul-
ders and the length Of his arms.
Strange, evil. terrible thoughts surged
upward in her mind. ALI the arms
that had reached for her hungriy,
greedily, in these elusive years were
there around her. She bit her lip to
keep from crying out, realizing that
her exhausted voice could make no
Roadway in that thickened air.
He took step toward her, and she
put out her hands feebly. He put his
arms around her and lifted her lightly
and easily. She could not struggle;
life and strength were ebbing from
her. Under her breath she whispered
something, trying to fight the unrea-
soning terror that had her in Its pos
session.
"Just put your arms around my
neck" said Brian. II can do this
,ssily.v
She obeyed because she had no