Evening star., 1935-06-16

awful fuss about your job. It's much
easier to climb without all that silly
equipment"
People have been killed on that
slope"
Have they?'
And suddenly Sebastian's old vice
leapt and seized him. These men, so
pompous, so self-important, could he
spool them7 Take a rise out of them?
The schoolboy phrases expressed his
schoolboy mood. No end of lark to
pull their legs, solemn old duffersl
People have been killed on that
SLOPE" they had said.
''As matter of fact, I wos."
The light was fading; they were all
little dim, one to the other.
Il am dead man. l have told you
the truth. A long time ago l did
climb that slope. l was crazy because
loved woman, and she made fool
of me. l climbed the slope, and l fell.
That is why am here now"
They stared at him in horror.
Sebastian knew what they felt: flesh
and blood towards ghost, an abyss
between them, the abyss widened {. f.,
He turned so that they should not
see that he was chuckling. The light
went very quickly in that part of
the world. Presently he looked back.
He could see no more of the three
men with their heavy boots and ropes
and ice-axes. They would be more
than ever convinced that they had
seen a ghost which had melted and
disappeared into the sable dusk. He
chuckled again as he imagined them
telling their wives that evening. over
the beer and sausage; fat wives, good
wives, who would trembIe like jellies
because their August and Johann and
Herman had seen a ghost.
Why, here was, in fact, a pathway
on the face of the cliff which swung
straight down to the pasture. Dark
gathered closer, and herd of cows and
goats were being driven home. Their
musical tinkle reminded him of the
tale he had made up (it seemed
hundred years ago. about the farmer
who had pulled the legs of the ticket
owners in a rattle.
How damnably successful he was at
making up things. reflected Sebastian,
impenitent. If ne had not heard the
chime of cowbells at sunset from the
veranda OF the hotel, he would not
have made up that story; if he had
not made up that story, poor little
Rouvier would never have picked up
the notion of stealing his cigarette
case; if the cigarette case had not been
stolen, Hebe would never have spoken
the words that had shown him once
and for all that she was not his woman
and not his love; and he would never
have dashed up the mountain side.
What remained of it all but a poem
and long walk home in the dark?
The descent took him a couple of
hours, but the way was familiar now.
Nobody saw him re-enter the Hotel de
la Vache dor ct de L'Univers. He
went straight to his room. threw his
things into his suitcase, settled his bill
with the surprised manager, drove
down to the little village station and
caught train to Paris.
But he could not sleep. Reaction
attacked him, showing how much too
tired he was. And in his hurry he
had not provided himself with any
handy literature. On the seat of the
carriage beside him was copy of the
Continental Daily Mail" already a
couple of days old. Sebastian picked
it up mechanically And then he read
paragraph with the caption. Noun
taineering Disaster:
"a tragic sequel to the attempt
of the president of the Club Alpin
Dauphinois to climb the Mont
Luison range is reported this morn