The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1935-11-28

It had all happened so quickly
that probably no one on the crowd
ed floor had taken any notice of it..
Silver succeeded in freeing one arm
to throw all her strength into the
blow she struck across his grinning
face.
"You got fire, eh?" he chortled.
81 like that in a girl. You and me"
''Roddy!" Silver gasped, fiinging
herself about just as Roddy Willard
appear, alone.
Duke dropped Silver's wrist as
though it had scorched him. "Haw-
haw! Can't Silver and me have a
little privacy without"
Get out of here, Duke" Roddy
interrupted quietly. "And go out
quietly or I'll have to throw you
out"
With a malevolent glare at Rod
dy, Duke started to shamble away.
"You can't get away with this,
Willard" he muttered. "And you
don't need to think I don't know
what I'm doing"
He grinned insinuatingly at Sill
yer and Roddy stepped quickly to-
ward him. Duke drew back, and
made his unsteady way down the
ladder.
Luckily, Silver reflected, there
had been only one or two witnesses
to the unpleasant scene.
Roddy looked down at her. "Shall
we dance, Silver?" he asked. Il
think it would be considering
everything"
Her eyes half closed, she nodded,
and Roddy drew her into his arms.
| A fierce, impersonal sort of ten
derness toward her came over him
as he led her into the dance. She
seemed to be without substance
like smoke, or like the blue-gray
mist over a meadow just before
dawn. Silver did not speak. This tu-
multi enclosed by her passive body,
she thought in desperation, had be-
gun at the very instant when Rod
dy-a very matter-of-fact knight,
indeed-had rescued her from the
loathsome attentions of Duke Mel
bank. Horror lest he should dis
cover what she knew now for GER
tainty-that she loved him as she
had never loved anyone before
ran through her veins like ice.
When after an agonizing eternity
| the intermission came, she stepped
back from him and looked up with
dazed smile.
"I'm going to the house," she told
him, her voice running headlong
plunging, she thought, into disaster
"If Phronie asks for me-tel her
have a headache want to be
alone"
Roddy, with a troubled frown, put
out his hand to take her arm, but
Silver moved hurriedly away.
I A few minutes later, behind the
closed door of her own room, she
sat down in the darkness and stared
out at the crisp autumn tracery OF
the leaves Of the great oak against
the stars.
! ITO think-when the real thing
came" she whispered duly to the
square pattern of stars and leaves
sit had to be wrong tool"
4 4 X
| The district buzzed with talk OF
the opening Of the Emerald Bay
club for the winter season. The
fashionable folk who would come
out from the cities for week-ends al
the club would be free with their
money and the tradesmen would
benefit. II this fellow Lucas could
only conduct his affairs in way
that would keep everything well
within the limits Of the law -.
I The hunt dinner and ball cele'
hrated the close OF the big-gan1e
season in the north. Roddy attended
with Corinne, whose radiance filled
! Him with pride and secret ,shamed
alarm. Silver sent her regards &c
Gerald, and spent the evening play
ing cribbage with old Roderick.
The following day, at twilight
with a pent-up feeling she could nc
longer endure, Silver saddled Rusty
and rode into Heron River to gel
the evening mail. In the post office
she met Freda Kitchener.
1--WE missed you last night-at
the club" Freda said.