The Coolidge examiner., 1931-05-22
CHAPTER VI-Continued

S6A EH Nl-COntInued
3
All about her was the haze of
smoke. soft and still in the air. In
the distance Obscured by the fog
which ran from the smOldering
ruins. she saw form bent gro
teSqueiy under a burden. Ii was IA
Shapeless thing. distorted by the
sun and the smoky SpindriftS
dancing before her eyes, but liv-
ing because ii was moving away
from her Behind it was smaller
object, and she knew the two were
Jeems and his dog.
She watched until they were
blotted from her vision, and min
utes passed before she followed
where they had gone.
JeemS must have seen her, for
he reappeared with the dog like a
werewolf at his heels. He had
found a coat somewhere and did
not look 20 savage. though his
face was disfgured and bleeding
where she had struck him with the
barrel of the musket She tried
10 speak when he stopped before
her. Accusation and bit of fero-
city remained in her soul. but they
were impotent in the silence be-
tween them. His eyes meeting
hers steadily from under the lurid
brand of her blow. seemed less
like nurderer's and held more
the gaze of one who regarded her
with a cold and terrible pity. He
did not put> out a helping hand
though she felt herself swaying.
He was no longer youth. He was
NOT even JeemS Bulain.
But his voice was the same
Il am sorry, TOinette"
JeemS scarcely knew he spoke
the words They rang back
through the years as if a ghost
had come to life whose memory
they had flayed out of their hearts
a long time ago.
what are you doing here" she
demanded.
She might have asked that same
question in those unimportant
years when he had dared to visit
TOnteur manor with his foolish
gifts. Why was he here? He
turned in the direction from which
he had come and held out his
hand. not for her to take, but as
voice. She understood what his
burden had been. Tears? Such
trivial things could not exist in the
n np- nf hA k~l, Il.
had consumed them. Pride. defy
ing grief. raised her chin a little
as she obeyed Jeems. She knew
to what she was going. And when
she came to the place which .Ieems
had prepared. she was like white
angel who had appeared to gaze
for a moment or two upon the
dead.
With tool he had found. .Jeems
had made Il grave. 1t was shallow
and made less unbeautiful with
bed of golden grass TOnteur did
not seem unhappy as he lay upon
ii. The top of his head was COW
cred SO TOinette could not see.
She knelt and prayed. and Jeems
drew back. feeling that to kneeI
with her. with the marks of her
hatred on his face and body, would
be Sacrilege.
Even now, when il should have
known better, the mill wheel con-
tinued to whine and scream, and
suddenly ii occurred to Jeems that
ii could not have been that way
yesterday when TOnteur was alive.
A devil must have come to abide
at the top of the mill!
He waited. scanning the hori-
IONS that were thinning of their
smoke. Death had passed and
death might return over its own
0lackened trail. Toinette, beside
her father, made him think of
that- 1t seemed a long time be-
fore she rose to face him. She
was not crying. Her eyes were
blue stars in a countenance as
pale as marble. The sun shone on
her and gave an unearthly radi-
ance to her hair Her beauty
held him stricken just as his own
terribleneSs forced from her
gasp of protest when he drew off
the coat borrowed from one of the
dead men and spread il over Ton
teur. But she did not speak. Only
the mill wheel continued it's viru-
lent nlaint as the loose earth fell
on the baron. Toinette looked
steadily toward the sky, and when
JeemS was done she accomDanipd
him back to the mill. She watched
him go for his bow, where he saw
that the form he had thought was
Ioinette was the wife of Peter the
Younger.
He came back and spoke to her
a second time. The lips she had
broken with the musket barrel
were swollen, and the brand across
his forehead was turning a dark
and angry color. The cloth he had
twisted about his wounded arm