The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-21
Ie SERIAL STORY THE ED CE or DARKNESS
 eeeyNlcAr tBY WILLIAM WOODS NsA ssry,es re
MA asRvIcE lNe

again." she whispered IN, never" The Sne wnWlcd rouna and cried paSsionatelS We are Norwegians, don't like him, Do I, Margitp Do IF"
 No" Margit said, and went to her, shyly at first then eraVeN, took her and held hre close, strok- Ing her hair, No, Karen" she said, Over and over again, NO, no, of course not"
 The hotel was rambling, gobled structure of dark brown wood, that stood In a grassy clear Ing half a mile up the hill, An enormous red and black swaStiEa ilag rippled gently from a pole on the porch roof From the broad steps one could see down over the | pine tops to the village itself, and westward out beyond, to the sea, sparkling in summer sunlight In pcacetime the town had been something of tourist resort, and Englishmen and Americans had come up on the excursion boats from Trondheim and Bergen and on summer evenings gathered at the hotel, where there were music on the veranda and Japanese lan- terms strung between the trees,
 But now everything was changed, The gray green uniformed troops were auartered there, and milled about the restaurant evenings, talk ing and drinking beer, During the day, when they were down in the village on duty, or else going through maneuvers back In the hills, the place was deserted,
 There was still the same Scru' nulous cleanliness, but the check cred cloths were gone from the dining room tables, The bright green awning had been taken down from over the porch, and only the flag was there, The cushions from the porch chairs were stored In the attic, The fiooi was no longer waxed for dancing but scrubbed down instead With [ wet brush three mornings Q week The pictures fjord scenes, photo graphs of ski matches, were dowi from the walls, Ease had givef way to military baroness: th' hotel was run according to strictly regulated plan,
 Tn the hotel restaurant, som' 25 or 30 soldiers were sitting q the round tables playing cards O talking in low voices, The room broad, with beamed ceiling, VII warm and hay from cigaTe smoke, Gerd BjarneSen sat steri and decorous In her alcove unde the stairs and watched,
 Even at this hour the men wer In regulation uniform, complet and ready for inspection, Sh marveled sometimes at their ad herence to rule even in conver Sation, Tonight, for example, no word had been said about tn dehacle of stocksund dt was for bldden), even though they coul hardly have had much else O their minds, Tt is aS' bad fc them," she thought "as for u not to know"
 one thing she had noticed ovt and over again, how even in tf midst of laughter, a mans eyt would be fixed on his neighbor lips as If to drag out somethir that lay beyond the words, The were tense. even when restin It showed in their quick, nervo, reactions when one Of them mel toned the war Yet they we' the battle trained troops who he marched into Prague and thu dered over the bloody plains Poland, who had fought six
 the great armies of Europe ar
 never lost.
 She feared and hated and r
 spected them with a silence al
 fixedneSs that not even they cou
 have altered. For she saw the
 not as manifestations in then
 selves, not as episode, but as q
 max to all of her uneventful
 years. She forgot in her hatr,
 of them her own plainness al
 baIrenness, the loneliness, and Il
 still ranking fear of her ste
 .ather that had oppressed h
 even after his death. The thr
 things most important to her, t
 hotel. the memory of her fatht
 and the young boy Trygve. VI
 was not her son. faded into t I welter Of daily trivia before t
 new, physical fact of compa \ of men who sat every event.
 in her restaurant. and take | smoked, drank, and played ! cards.
 | It was about 9 o'clock wh
 Karl came in from his days lea'
 The men greeted him with GU | mods. He waved at them. $ E down. and ordered beer.
 \ Two soldiers were shootil
 darts over in the corner. Towa
 the front of the room. brid
 game was going on. The playe
 were all older men, and went
 their game with great seriousness I Down near the cashiers cage 1 argument developed. Phrases float over. Two million men
 mine throwers the alta, on Kiey." The corporal had gol over. Everyone heard his voiS | unexpectedly loud. Must you a ways be talking about the war?' M The men sitting at the tabl ' looked np at him, and one or tV