Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-10-10

basking in the shy pleasure of things
he privately knew-that persistent
temptation was part of fatigue, part
of his taut Impotence for the nights
stop and for Barry. So too were these
other dim, self conceived bogies; an
unconnected wonder whether Crack
might be biding his time for some lit
tie weapon of revenge for humiliation;
and that old-maid's sense of thicken-
ing imminence stealthily preparing to
come upon them, just as on the long
horizon there behind, the dark was
preparing.
AS the sun sank, the skin Of
infinitely detailed range of hills to the
southward-tiny, like Rockwell Kent
drawing on ticket tape-turned grad
ually from dry, sparse green to pale
copper, with sharp-edged, blue-purple
shadows defined in the tight gullies.
All round the plains far edges there
were wisps and drifts and high tum-
bles of cloud pinkened by the sun, and
lofty pile in the southeast registered
the climbing shadow of evening. Then
1t was twilight, and somewhere I'M
der the heavy cloudbank ahead silent
lightning darted.
They dined in North Platte. If 1t
wasn't raining afterward, they would
try to make a place called Ogallala,
for the night.
Just before they drew up at the
hotel, Barry murmured, I'D like to
wash little, and leave Doc. Shall
meet you down here?"
Right" said Hal, with the brittle
apprehension that unless they hurried
something would happen to stop them.
Barry stood there so straight and
cool, talking to Kerrigan, while Halls
hasty fingers slipped on the knots of
the luggage lashing. And only when
the bags were down did she go into
the hotel and upstairs.
The hall was hot, but Halls we'll
used, unadorned room was ten degrees
hotter. He slapped the radiator in
passing: it was warm to touch. 1t
occurred to him that the management
might be heat maddened to the point
of running a summer furnace-until
he found that the washstand, the
Clipped white iron of the bed, and the
painted walls were all warmer than
the rooms atmosphere. He washed
quickly and hurried down to the car
again, half certain that Sister Anas-
tasia would appear to tell him Barry
was too tired to go out so late. 1t
was already eleven.
But Barry came-alone, hatless,
reticent smile pretending to ignore the
seriousness of her brave eyes. 81
haven't been long, have II" she said,
squeezing his wrist as she came to
him.
TOO long," he said. "Anything's
too long. It's all too long. I've had
twenty-siX years without you, and [
grudge every id moment
She bowed her head, her lips invol-
UNFAIRLY parted to reply. But she
didn't. Instead she said, you've
found where the garage ISL" And she
added quickly: Il don't give darn
where it is. Oh, Hal, be gentle with
me: help me-"
The garage was just around the
corner, and beyond it the town ended
markedly, the street swallowed by the
dark plains like a road running into
the edge Of a flood. The last house
was dark: they hadn't to go far to be
alone. And when they stopped, Barry
parted his hands with hers, leaned
back between them, and joined them
before her.
HAL" she said on wary sigh of
comfort, "Tll tell you story"
II know a story" he whispered
against her hair. rs it about you?"
cts about girl much younger than
l." she said: younger in everything"
"Then why should l hear it?"
Because it's sort of test" Barry
said 1--WE don't know each other so
so very we'll. do we? There's some
thing l need to know before / tell
you what l have to tell you. You
listen to the story and tell me what
you think-and then I'll know"
Barry, it would keep" said Hal.
Tell me some other time-after we're
together, alone, for good"
She pressed his hands harder against
her frmness, her head turning so
that her smooth cheek ran under his
lips. No. she said, and he could tell
from her voice that her eyes must be
closed. please, Hal-now."
"All right" he said. "As favor,
Barry, which l shall want returned"
This girl" Barry began at once but
quietly: this girl lived on the same
street l did, at home; knew her we'll.
1t doesn't matter what she looked like,
except that she was pretty-perhaps
before she should have been. Her ia
Their was in the bank, on town boards,
a vestryman in the church. She
thought she understood him, she loved
him very much, and she tried to be
everything to him as he was everything
to her. She knew he had started
humbly in his life and she knew how
proud he was of the trust and re-
spect he had in the town, how care
fully he had built 1t all up around
him and in himself. And she was
proud of that for both of them. But
she knew hardly ANYTHING else about