Part 6 (2/2)
She had nerved herself for the last cul ordeal, and his remark was like a blow to her self-possession So far, everything had seemed phantom-like, as in a dream, but the brutal truth of what he had said shocked her eyes wide open to the reality of as taking place Nor was her distress unnoticed by the Irishman
”I'm sorry to be troublin' you with retfully ”I reat day for Michael Dennin, an' he's as gay as a lark”
He broke out in a ubrious and ceased
”I'm wishi+n' there was a priest,” he said wistfully; then added swiftly, ”But Michael Dennin's too old a caner to miss the luxuries when he hits the trail”
He was so very weak and unused to walking that when the door opened and he passed outside, the wind nearly carried him off his feet Edith and Hans walked on either side of him and supported him, the while he cracked jokes and tried to keep thee the forwarding of his share of the gold to his ht hill and ca the trees Here, circled soleook and Hadikwan, and all the Siwashes down to the babies and the dogs, come to see the way of the white rave which Hans had burned into the frozen earth
Dennin cast a practical eye over the preparations, noting the grave, the barrel, the thickness of the rope, and the diameter of the limb over which the rope was passed
”Sure, an' I couldn't iv done better hed loudly at his own sally, but Hans's face was frozen into a sullen ghastliness that nothing less than the tru very sick He had not realized the enor a fellow-man out of the world Edith, on the other hand, had realized; but the realization did not make the task any easier She was filled with doubt as to whether she could hold herself together long enough to finish it She felt incessant impulses to scream, to shriek, to collapse into the snow, to put her hands over her eyes and turn and run blindly away, into the forest, anywhere, away It was only by a supreo on and do what she had to do And in the rateful to Dennin for the way he helped her
”Lind ed to mount the barrel
He bent over so that Edith could adjust the rope about his neck Then he stood upright while Hans drew the rope taut across the overhead branch
”Michael Dennin, have you anything to say?” Edith asked in a clear voice that shook in spite of her
Dennin shuffled his feet on the barrel, looked down bashfully like ahis lad it's over with,” he said ”You've treated me like a Christian, an' I'm thankin' you hearty for your kindness”
”Then may God receive you, a repentant sinner,” she said
”Ay,” he answered, his deep voice as a response to her thin one, ”may God receive me, a repentant sinner”
”Good-by, Michael,” she cried, and her voice sounded desperate
She threw her weight against the barrel, but it did not overturn
”Hans! Quick! Help th going, and the barrel resisted her Hans hurried to her, and the barrel went out fro her fingers into her ears Then she began to laugh, harshly, sharply, metallically; and Hans was shocked as he had not been shocked through the whole tragedy Edith Nelson's break-down had colad that she had been able to hold up under the strain until everything had been accomplished She reeled toward Hans
”Take ed to articulate
”And let me rest,” she added ”Just let me rest, and rest, and rest”
With Hans's ar her helpless steps, she went off across the snow But the Indians re of the white man's law that compelled a man to dance upon the air
BROWN WOLF
SHE had delayed, because of the deet grass, in order to put on her overshoes, and when she e husband absorbed in the wonder of a bursting alrass and in and out a the orchard trees
”Where's Wolf?” she asked
”He was here a o” Walt Irvine drew himself aith a jerk froanic miracle of blosso a rabbit the last I saw of him”
”Wolf! Wolf! Here Wolf!” she called, as they left the clearing and took the trail that led down through the waxen-belled le to the county road
Irvine thrust between his lips the little finger of each hand and lent to her efforts a shrill whistling
She covered her ears hastily and rimace
”My! for a poet, delicately attuned and all the rest of it, you can make unlovely noises My ear-drums are pierced You outwhistle - ”
”Orpheus”
”I was about to say a street-arab,” she concluded severely
”Poesy does not prevent one fro practical - at least it doesn't prevent ME Mine is no futility of genius that can't sell geance, and went on: ”I aer, no ballroom warbler And why? Because I a that cannot transe value, into a flower-crowned cottage, a sweet rove of red-woods, an orchard of thirty-seven trees, one long row of blackberries and two short rows of strawberries, to say nothing of a quarter of abrook I a, and I pursue utility, dear Madge I sing a song, and thanks to theinto a waft of the ind sighing through our redwoods, into a s back towonderfully - er - trans-transhed
”Name one that wasn't”
”Those two beautiful sonnets that you transmuted into the cow that was accounted the worst milker in the townshi+p”
”She was beautiful - ” he began, ”But she didn't give e interrupted
”But she WAS beautiful, noasn't she?” he insisted
”And here's where beauty and utility fall out,” was her reply ”And there's the Wolf!”
Fro of underbrush, and then, forty feet above thee of the sheer wall of rock, appeared a wolf's head and shoulders His braced fore paws dislodged a pebble, and with sharp-pricked ears and peering eyes he watched the fall of the pebble till it struck at their feet Then he transferred his gaze and with open hed down at them
”You Wolf, you!” and ”You blessed Wolf!” the man and woman called out to him
The ears flattened back and down at the sound, and the head seele under the caress of an invisible hand
They watched him scramble backward into the thicket, then proceeded on their way Severala turn in the trail where the descent was less precipitous, he joined them in the midst of a miniature avalanche of pebbles and loose soil He was not demonstrative