Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-09-26
By RICHARD HOFFMAN,
Copyright by Richard Hoffman,
WNU Service

yond, and they found clean tourist
Des Moines river, where the hopeful,
snug squeaking of crickets in the
grass made the gathered evening seem
cooler.
The proprietor said that, given time,
his old lady would throw together as
good feed, and better, and cheaper,
than any they could get in them
places uptown. Hal took Rasputin to
garage and supervised his printing
for tomorrow. And when he got back,
the others were halfway through a
meal that had even such intrepid ap-
petites as the Pulsiphers' working up
hill. The full buoyancy that Hal had
carried through the afternoon still re-
fused to take account of hunger. He
did the swift best he could, so that the
proprietor's old lady shouldn't be hurt;
but when Barry pushed her chair back
from the long table and squeaked her
lips at Doc, he abandoned the bust
ness abruptly and followed her out
doors.
Fresh eagerness eXulted in his blood,
tried to lift his body with a hundred
different excitements, urged him to
leap and shout out his joy for these
hints of Immortality. He stopped her
walking with his hand, turned her to
him and held her while he said, BARRY,
we've got to go somewhere-quickly."
In the light from her cabin under
the trees, he saw that her smile was
slow, the droop of her eyelids slow,
weary. "Hal, we can't" she said, as
if he had been urging her for a long
time. II couldn't-couldn't tell you
what 1 have to. I'm too tired to be
strong. l shouldn't tell you it's hop
ing, wishing, praying about you that's
made me so tired, but I want to tell
you. Because IL Hal, we can't
go: I've got to go in" She moved
little, as If she were going to let her
head go against his shoulder. But she
stopped herself, and her low, lovely
voice murmured, "My darling"
'You don't have to tell me anything"
said Hal, shocked by the quiet decision
that was trying to rob him of this
time he had so surely looked to: "all
you have to do is listen to me, to the
things 1 must tell you. You can rest,
listening to them-just up there, a lit
tie way, by the river. Well sit against
tree, and when you want me to
stop, I'll stop and you can sleep on
my shoulder. I promise, if you tell me
to, won't speak again-not word,
not even what, keeps on running and
trembling in all my nerves, muscles,
heart, tongue, everything: love you.
love you so that"
Hal, don't, oh, don't, please, Hal
darling" Her free hand gripped his
arm hard, and he couldn't tell whether
1t shook to enforce what she said or
whether the desperation that shivered
under her voice was in her body, too.
Barry" said Hal in severe quiet.
you've got to listen. Why do you
brighten yourself? Why do you try to
brighten me-before you've let me say
what l must say, before"
Her exclamation was whimper of
fear, and she turned her frantic head
toward the cabin. "Sister Anastasia ]"
The door opened on the neat, lighted
room of raw boards, with the nuns
silhouette in the oblohg. Eyes, sweet?"
she said, her modest voice tranquil
and soothing as the sound Of little
wind among sleeping trees.
Sister, 1 just wanted to know you
were there I'm coming now. Please
wait for me-" She bowed her head
as If to see more clearly the joining
of their hands in the dimness. Good
night, my darling" she said hurriedly.
I'm a coWard-a coward, and I'm so
sorry"
She had her hand away from him,
and quickly she was at the nuns side
in the lighted. doorway.
"I'll bet you," said Kerrigan, and the
smoking cigarette end in the corner of
his mouth looked short enough to burn
him, "1'll bet you if we went in to
town we could find something would
knock us out from under our hats"
"I'll bet you we couldn't" said Hal
listlessly, the echo of Rasputin's long
droning in his ears again. "I'll bet
you two something's we couldn't"
Sir. a wager" said Kerrigan. "Do
we ride or walk?"
Walk" said Hal. Its not far"
In spite of the fact that he had no
use for it, he felt the soft, imperma-
nent refreshment under the stars. 1t
was to him as if, out of a world MUIR
murous with simple expectancy and
unentangled pleasure in the hushed
resting of the night, he were singled
out for traffic with deviousness and
complication. Put into plain order of
words, it was all so straightforward
he loved Barry; she indicated by every
look, every gesture every shading of
her low voice that she was, at the
least, ready to love him. SO there they
were-or should be. If she wasn't sure
of herself, she could tell him so; If
there was more definite barrier
against her coming to him, it could be
spoken, faced, and-if not demolished
then circumvented. That was so sim
pie. Barry was candid of nature, as
n