The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-08-27


brothers arm tighten about his shout
ders. Like the skiff, old skate"
Rodney obediently glanced about.
1T looks great, Jud. I didn't know it |
was yours"
Good Lord" said Jeb, sit was in
all the papers. Why's he waiting?'
Jeb looked at the launch. Forget TO |
pay him?"
Il paid him." said Rod, 'but told
him to wait"
Jeb laughed again in his warming
way. You would. Did you wonder
if 1 wanted you to stay?-Hey, your
he called to the boy. "Come closer!
Catch" And Jeb chucked a gold
piece which the boy caught, calling
out loud thanks.
All through" Jeb dismissed him.
Nov, old top, are you going to stay!"
I'D like TO, Jud."
Anchor was up; and they were NOV
ing, with deceptive smoothness. out
of the harbor on limpid, lazy lake.
The brothers sat down to breakfast
opposite each other at the gay little
table at the forward end of the dining
salon. Rod had learned that the
guests for the day would be picked up
at the Gleneiths'.
In the shining, perfectly appointed
galley, fmio was cooking, but stew
ard, new to Jud's staff, was serving
the table.
For the first time the splendor and
extravaganza of Jeb's establishment
wrung a remark from his brother.
Doesn't this all cost heap, JUDI
"rll tell you the truth, Rod" Jeb
confided. Expense doesn't make any
difference to me any more. Money
doesn't mean anything. l can make
whatever amount 1 want. That's an
absolute fact A lot of men are past
that point, Rod. The city-the coun-
try-civilization's in a new era. We've
got the production problem complete
ly licked. ="
It was after breakfast when Rod
ney asked at last: How is Agnes"
"She's all right" his brother re-
turned.
when are you marrying her, JUDI"
when that damn trials over. That
was the rottenest piece of luck for
me. We were all set, Rod; we went
to that building to look over an apart
ment, when Agnes opened that
damned door, and"
Rodney, listening, sat still with diff
ficulty: he held himself quiet by grip
ping tight the arms Of his chair so AS
not to betray, too clearly, the tumult
within him. He had had no idea. IN
til Just now, that Agnes was not his
Ten people came aboard the boat
when it lay off the shore opposite the
Gleneiths': Agnes and her mother and
Beatrice and Davis and another young
married couple whom Rod had never
met. The others were paired, also;
but they were not married: two girls
whom Rodney vaguely remembered,
and two boys, whose names he knew.
They were pleasant, casual, unim-
questionable young people before whom
Rodney felt odd and old and awkward.
They looked him over, and their eyes
travelled TO his brother, making COM
parison; but what they said to Rodney
was carefully polite.
They made no real difference to Rod.
Agnes was near him; and If he had
not known that his brother must have
failed to establish possession of her,
| now he would have discerned it
| though she plainly was supposed to be
paired with Jud.
She was in white, with bit Of blue
slashed in the cool silk which chung to
| her as the boat made a breeze; and
she cast off her hat and let the sun
burn her till Rodney drew her back
under the shade of the canvas over the
| forward deck. They remained there
while the others stayed nowhere; and
after a while, Rodney and Agnes were
| alone far forward.
He did not talk much to her. What
had he to say? He sat in a striped
| canvas chair close to hers, and felt
| engulfed in a content which could not
| continue, he knew, but which was COM
plete for the moment
She looked at him and smiled, not
at him but with him, in his content !;
and always, when they would lose
something If their eyes fingered on each
other, she looked away over the water !;
| and as never, never before, Rodney
longed to keep her close to him forever.
| She wasn't Jud's yet, whatever the
papers, whatever Jud himself, had said.
Might she some time in some way be
his?
| Rodney faced the breeze which was
blowing her dress against her slight
body. The appeal of her loneliness,
the allure of her beautiful body, was
only an adjunct to that quality of hers
which had caught him long ago and
would never release him.
He had never had to explain himself
TO Agnes; and she, without speaking of
it, had stood between him and the
world Of others. How he needed her
How much more than did judi How
he could work, what enormous research
he could accomplish, If she were his
wife TO hold in his arms, when he
dropped his task; If she would share
with him the evening and hours OF
night, and meet, for him, the world by
day.
Now he had talked TO her of his
work at Rochester, and of himself, as
he had to no one else. not even to Jud
Rod" she said at last, after one OF
their long silences, I've something tC
decide. Help me. It's about the trial