The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-10-14

learn to live with those dreams. To
sit with her now, far out alone be-
side the little fire was itself an un-
real and precious thing, now that
he no longer fought against it. "A
quiet peace had come upon this
place; or something as near peace
as he ever knew any more. She
was very near to him, so near that
though their shoulders did not
touch, it seemed to him that he
could feel her warmth; and that he
could feel her warmth; and he1
hair, with the freight in it, was q
warm smoky mist, shot with gold
clouding his eyes.
They sat for long time listening
to the faint coyote song and the lit
tie popping of the fire. Once, as
they sat quiet, he heard far off a
thing he could not understand. II
was so distant and so muffed that
he could not at once decide whether
it could have been the fall of rock
from a high place, or had been the
report of a gun far away up the
canyon, smothered by close walls
and the drift of the air. He glanced
at Marian to see if she had noticed
it, and saw that she had not.
Marian looked at him, the fire.
light pooling long shadows under
the lashes of her steady eyes. y
just thought of something"
"What was it,"
"This-isn't it kind of funny
this is exactly the situation we were
speaking of the other day"
He was puzzled. ''When was
this?"
SIN Inspiration"
For moment he didn't get it
Then it came back to him in a rush
the blast of sun upon the dusty
waiting hostility, the groups Of
spurred and booted men in door
ways, watching without seeming tc
watch; and he had stood talking tc
Marian across the door of car, not
thinking about what was ahead.
eff you and I were set afoot, -
she quoted, some place far off in
the mountains at night, with only
one blanket between US"
He was resting perfectly still or
one elbow, looking at the fire; but
he could feel her eyes, so near his
face, watching him under her lash
es. And behind her eyes he sup
posed she was laughing at him.
'I was right" she said. ''You
didn't know it then, but you can
see it now. You sect seems q
good deal different, now that we're
really mere"
"Does it," he said without ~ex-
preston. He got up with sort OF
stiff, slow measure, for the little fire
was burning low. He went beyond
the fire, squatted on one heel be-
side it, and fed it pieces of stick.
"You see, I know you, Billy
Sometimes I think I know you bet
ter than I know myself" Her eyes
wavered and drifted out toward the
low young stars. Il can remember
when I was afraid of you. If we
had been out here then-two years
ago-I would have wanted moth
ing so much as to get back among
other people. That's all gone, now
He looked at her. She had never
seemed more lovely, more human,
more elementally desirable than
she looked now, a tired girl in cow
country work clothes, slim and
lazy, relaxed by the little fire as if
she had never known any other
resting place in her life. Her face
was quiet, almost grave; but though
her eyes looked drowsy there was
a little CLEAN In them that did not
come from the flame in front: a
small provocative glimmer of fire
within, which he had seen in her
eye only two or three times in his
life-and never before the last two
or three days.
Their eyes met and held, his
steady and masked within, hers
seeming to laugh at him a little,
half yelled by her lashes.
II said," she reminded, "that il
we were-in a situation like this
there wouldn't be anything for me
to worry about, nothing at all. And
you said, if thought that I was