Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-09-17
CHAPTER IL


to Laurel Canyon. Other cars flashed
past. Laughter, song, earnest voices
in wisps and snatches fell upon our
ears and were swept away, but in
none was there the note of deadly
earnestness that vibrated in Elsa's
voice.
We had started off from Dwight's
amid laughter, Elsa in her working
girl suit, which proved to be one of
Margaret's street dresses. She car
ried an overnight bag the lightness
of which she explained by saying:
"Just pajamas, Barry. l have to
have something" We had moved off
down the curving driveway and en-
tered the road which descended Hol-
lywood's backdrop of hills.
She was very sure, this young
woman with the almost golden hair,
and eyes believed to be gray, and
which Dwight called blue.
"Put me down anywhere on Holly
wood Boulevard" said Elsa. We
had emerged from the winding can
yon road and were speeding into
Hollywood. II start from there
Its eleven O'clock" 1 reminded
her.
1T doesn't matter. Time never
meant anything to me-"
And so dropped her on the boule-
ward. She flashed me smile, pat
ted my cheek with soft, caressing
hand, and skipped out to the side
walk in that working girl suit and
carrying the overnight bag with just
pajamas, because she had to have
something. The crowded sidewalks
swallowed her up. I got into a traf-
fic snarl. After a while it was bro
ken up and I moved on.
Near Vine Street the crowd opened
for a brief moment on the sidewalk,
and there went Elsa, the working
girl suit and the overnight bag.
Then crowd, night, and the moving
traffic contrived to shut her wholly
from sight, and l drove onward re-
flecting upon things like bravery and
courage and marveling at what we
call youth. Wondering, too, about
Aunt Kitty's overdose of morphine.
For the district attorney, who was
an old friend of mine, had asked me
if l wanted to try my hand at the
problem.
One usually dashes into railway
terminal. In the taxicab as one
approaches, the demoralizing dis
Covery is made that it lacks but
three minutes until the 4:36 is due
to leave, or the train for the White
Mountains, or Seattle, or wherever
it is you are going. By not waiting
for your change, communicating a
red cap and prodding him along, you
gain the gate just in time to be num-
bered among the passengers. 1t is
all right, of course, if you have the
sporting instinct. Only fixed ideas
occupy the mental processes once
you enter the terminal. You grasp
thoughts like luggage, tickets, gate,
kiss somebody goodbye; and your
legs do the rest.
I had just seen my sister and her
two boys off for New York. l had
driven them down in my own car,
so there had been four minutes in
stead of three, and the boys had en-
tered into the spirit of the thing.
Therefore, we made the gate with a
full minute to spare, which accounts
for the word Anne was able to put
in about Reed Barton.
"Where?" asked, turning to stare
back through the crowd which had
closed in behind us.
"Over by the information booth.
Here, kiss me goodbye, quick!
Don't forget to write" The gate
slammed and they all went running
down the platform, boys, Anne, red
caps, boiling and bobbing in a last
melee.
The fact that Reed Barton was
standing still had caught Anne's at
tention. He would be doing just
that in the station when others were
rushing about like ants in disturbed
anthill.
81 try to live with the fundamen.
tails" he had said one night al
Dwight's. "Simple things are more
satisfactory. The world is befuddled
with needless things, with compleXi.
ties. They are so many that there
is no longer room in life to live.
must have time for the contempla.
ton of beauty
''Finding beauty?" l asked, slap.
ping him on the shoulder. He turned
his gaze upon me, reaching slowly
for my hand and said:
1--WE just seen one of our slaves
off for Observation-Disclosures slave
A mining engineer"
Somehow his words brought back
that dreamy, sun-baked town fal
down the western coast of Mexico
and a vague wind of prescience
stirred uneasily within me as at the
prospect of some horrible thing. L
a1Iau ona Of thnsa stranoe unaccnllnf