The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-09-14

III.
II you don't get what you want from
sheer stubbornness, you'll get it be-
cause no one will have the heart to
refuse you"
"A very dangerous combination,
eh, Hector" Autumn observed.
She refused a second glass of
wine, although Hector filed his own
once more. She moved to the man.
tel and examined one or two of the
curios upon it, amulets, ancient dice.
an Italian dagger with a jeweled
hilt, a string of Inca beads hanging
down over the Dutch tiles. Some of
the things she could recall. others
had been acquired by Hector in his
travels since she had last seen him.
Presently her eyes fell upon a
strange brass object with a strap
attached to its top. She picked it
up. Instantly sound of unutter-
able purity pierced the room with
thin, thrilling resonance that seemed
to drift on and on, beyond the con-
fines of the bedecked walls. Star
tied and entranced with the beauty
of the sound, Autumn turned to Hec-
tor and saw that he had risen and
was coming toward her.
81 picked that up in Spain on a
walking trip took one year through
the mountains" he told her. "It is
a Basque bella Basque sheep
bell"
"I've never heard anything so
lovely!" Autumn exclaimed, turning
the bell up to examine it more care
fully.
Hector looked down at it and
whimsical wistfulness came into his
face. ST should like you to have it,
Autumn" he said. when you come
in again, take it out with you. There
is no one else would give it to, my
dear-not even your father"
She looked up at him in quick,
pleased surprise, holding the bell so
that it chimed again, light and clear
as the echo of a fay song in some
unearthly place. DO you really
mean that, Hector?" she said softly.
81 know how you hate to part with
your treasures-and this one"
tits very DID," Hector murmured,
and his eyes narrowed with a
strange absent dimness, as though
he were looking into the remote past
where his spirit abode in brilliant
reality. "Some shepherd-in the
Pyrenees, perhaps-heard that bell
fifty years ago-when your grand
mother was a girl here in these
hills, just over from Ireland. When
your grandmother was breaking
hearts up and down the Okanagan,
my dear, some shepherd boy was
listening to that plaintive note on
some mountain-side-on the other
side of the world"
What lovely thought" Autumn
observed eagerly. "But was Grand
mother Odeli such heart-breaker
Hector? have never been told much
about her. For that matter, they
have never spoken much of mother,
either-and | have always wanted to
know" Her voice faltered and she
shrugged her shoulders as If to dis
miss the subject,
Hector took the bell from her
hands and held it thoughtfully or
his palm, stroking the satiny tex.
ture of its semi-spherical upper hall
with his eloquent fingers. 1.-THE Odel
women" he said slowly, had small
| respect for hearts"
Autumn leaned back, resting hel
! elbows on the mantelpiece behinc
her, and glanced up at him diff
IDENTIFY from beneath her lashes
Even mother?" she asked.
He swung the bell just percepti
bly,, and the eerie threne of it, &
| vanishing wrath of sound, caught a
her throat. 1t might be the mingled
tears and laughter of a ghost heare
/, from infinity. Hector did not reply
| at once.
"You knew mother very well
didn't your" she prompted him
"She couldn't have been more thar
ten years younger than you"
"Millicent Odell-" IT might hav,
been the wine he had had, Autumn
thought, but it seemed to her tha
for an instant he was quite Oblivion:
of her presence. His narrow, brown
face with its myriad fine seam.
! glowed as though he were listening
ardently TO the music of that name
! the name of her mother, twenty
years dead Then he glanced dowi
! al the tetl orce more. 81 hav,
| fashioned a little conceit about thi
| bell, Autumn. Perhaps you woul
like to know what it is"
"Do tell me, Hector"
He smiled boyishly. "It is lik
the Odell women. It's beauty casts
spell over a vast distance. It's mu
sic echoes and re-echoes into eter
nity-and haunts you forever.
as an elfin soul, my dear, and it
power is blacklist magic"
Autumn clasped her hands am
laughed with delight, although an in
comprehensive tremor stirred with
] in her. "You were meant to be
poet, Hector-not collector of an
tiques," she said gayly.
The doorbell rang and Hector wen
quickly to answer it. Autumn's lug
| gage had arrived.
Autumn Dean reined in where tht
road curved out to a steep inclin'
above the town, and looked bacl
down upon the diamond-studded val
ley she had left. When she was
little girl she had thought of th
town Of Kamloops by night as jew
eled brooch lying on a bed of blacl
velvet, the river a ribbon of din
silver festooned about it.