THE OMINECA HERALD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL ff, 1934 “A way-out,” she said, after a Uttle, us though to some one she was seeing beyond thelr circle of Hght. “God coming te ug like this, taking us back to freedom and—tuUfe, And this Ilttle world—ours—gone |" Paul knew the thing he wanted to aay would ‘come in’ a moment, the thing he had made up his mind to say to her when he came down from the rocks, It was a fury of emotion, roll- ing up slowly through his birthright uf stotelsm ioto a storm of speech—-a pusxten of desire breaking loose, a bit- lerness against Hfe as it had been aiverr him to live, a determination to tirn It his own way at last. tefare she conld move his arms were about her, “| have ved a hel? tn this place,” Le cried, “Not beenause I was afraid to Me, but because in dylug [ knew 1 would lose you. Only in lite can I luive you, and I want Hfe because of that. way out! It Is Just'as true that God gave you to me here, That world up there means nothing to me—except with you In ft. It, too, has been a hell for me. Now I'm going to make ‘lt a heaven, I won't let man-made law and convention stand In the way of what fs right and Intended to be. Yon are mine, and I shall have you and Keep you, one way or the other, We'll face the world together, and tell it so—or we'll go out there and never . let it know we live. It is for you to say which [t shall be!” Steadily her -hands had pressed against him, and with that pressure came such 4 change in her face that the fierceness of Paul's arms relaxed, and he saw an idol crushed and broken in her eyes. To the level of that ruin he had sunk his own fdeal of Carla. He let her move away from him, and stood with a grim, set face before her, “lm sorry,” he sald. “I know yon are thinking that T am vile and uon- clean.” “Not that,” she spoke quickly, “T would rather think EF am the one whe is unclean,” That was all she said, and ke sinde no effort to answer her, Words be- came futile, even impossible, as she looked at him, What he might have sald, hls pleading, the arguments he had built for himself, and for her, crumbled under the travedy which had come Ike a sickness into her white, henutifnl face—a tragedy that was filed with appeal, with pain, and for’ a moment or two with an utter toneli- - ness, as tf she had fost something. which could never come back to her. fie had seen the same look In her eyes the night her mother died. Then it had filled him with a great pity, Now Its tenderness, Its yearning for a thing gone, shook him co the founda- lion of hig soul, He saw Carla ‘ag he had always known she would be when it came to her love for a man. Oniy a love that had no scar of ugli- ness upon it would she take to her breast and hold there, The memory of tove, ita burned-out ash, a love that | was crippled and blind but clean, she would cherish with the sacred faith- fulness of an altar nun. But not such a love as he had offered her—a theft, though it could be made a legal theft, from another woman, Even ag he, felt this crushing sense of hig loss of her, another emotion, a freéelng of. bis spirit, a rejoicing with his grief, en- tered into him. Carla, as she stood before him, he could worship through all eternity, “The Carla’ he had asked tor, yielding: $o hiro; would have de- scended out of heaven to the ieval of |}; his own debasement, Clonrly as she had geen hig peastoh and folt' tha crush of big arma, Carla pow saw this You say it Is God showing us a. . en The-€ rippled -eribonka TNS PheS Oliver Cuss ‘WO ood change tn bfm, and slowly, belleving joyously, a miracle wrought itself In her face, and all that Paul head seen broken down built ttself up again Softneas came inte her mouth, and she smiled at him. “Shall we go, Paul?" He bowed his head, then picked up the cont which had been her pillow and shook the sand from it. “Yos. The cleft In the rock faces west, and T think the sun was settiny when I found It. If we can get out before dark and make a racket, some one my be Dear enough to hear ts,” Re Nghted a torch, and they walked ucross the sund together. At the pile of rocks he took her hand, helping and guiding her, until they came to the bevinning of the ledge frum where He Lighted a Torch, and They Walked Across the Sand Together, he had lovked duwn on her sleeping form beside the fire. He cotd her about It:-as they paused for a wo- tHont's rest. Carla looked at the fire in the plt of #loam below them. It was dying aut, The yellow pool of light was narrow- Ing and growing dimmer. A sob cume jn her throat, “We won't need—ever—to forget,” Bie said. “No, never,” “Expeciully—the ttle fre,” “And you—sleeping beside it,” added Paul. They continued upward. was shut oul. The ledge widened and ‘turned, so they were going through a tunnel in the rock, where water jad once made ita way to underground depths, ‘They had gone only a short distance when Paul stopped and smothered his torch In the sand until its flame wes extingnished. After. thut they saw ao pale reflection of tent ahead of them, When they renched ft they could look up through a Jong, narrow fissure that sleped steeply, with day at the top of [t. It wns a two or three hundred-yard elfimb, Hit tered with broken rock, which half choked the ascent in places A mass close to them’ ‘had freshly falten, "Y spoiled my shirt on that,” anid Paul. “I loosened the stuff and came ‘down with ft. I hope ‘there Isn't an- other place like {t farther up.” Paul, was breathing deeply from his exertions, and Carla was fighting for breath. He could see where the. sharp The fire . Vranas witch ‘he was hotding ‘at her | breast. ‘ate going to take the stlck and pry one of the rocks loose, but not from the edge of the wall, ‘for no foothold ‘of the way when the avalanche starts.” eh ag Bs : Her skirt was’ torn, ard ‘through’ a réut in her sleeve the ‘white- ness of her arm -revealed Itself, ‘Her face wes streaked with rock dust, and hollows which he had not noticed, clearly before were In her cheeks and under her eyes. Qver them was a broader light of day. He could have flung a stone.up to the level of the earth, and beyond that: was a sky of vivid blue, still touched by the glow of a declining sun. It was this light, descending in a pool upon them, which made him see another Carla. .The mel- lowing ilfumination of the. pitch pine, the velvety softening of shadows, the pale unreality of first daylight had concealed things from him. Now they were revealed, betraying a change which could no longer keep itself be- hind the mask of her courage. Some- thing in her had died since they left the pitchwood fire. The ash of it wag in her face, the ghost of it in her eyes, and she knew that he saw [t and tried to smile at him bravely, He wanted to take her fn his arms, and his lips almost cried out the desire. Carla saw that, too, and when the thing of iron in him triumphed over both voice and act, gratitude eased the ‘anguish in her face. “I'm glad you understand," she said, as if he had spoken, and knew what was In her mind. “I might run away. That would be easier for me. I could hide myself somewhere, and always love you. Nothing can kiil4 those things—memories—and love, I would be satisfied to do that. I would be—almost—happy. But I must do the other thing, I must go to Claire. Tt will be hard to do that.” : ‘Her admission of her love for him was made in a quiet and fntrospective way, as if his physical self had ceased to be a living part of it. It wag this, and her reference to Qlalre, which strengthened his determination not to weaken her faith In him again. - He moved to the edge of piled-up debris and began to investigate it, cnutloning her to stand back a Little. The rubble loosened under his feet and alid down. There was quite a little rock slip before he had gone far, sending up a cloud of dust between them. Through this, when it had set- tled, Carla followed him, She heard him'‘calling to ter to go back, but in & moment was standing at his side. Almost above them, so steep was the ascent, the fissure narrowed to half a dazen feet In width and was choked with loose rock and sand, Paul looked nt it with somberly appraising eyes and instinctively put himself between It andCarla. Another explosion of dyna- mile sent 2 senreely perceptible tremor: through the earth.’ Slight as it was, a tiny strenim of sand and pebbles came trickling down from the sispended avalunche, He caught her hand and took ber swiftly bagk to safety. “A noirer shot would send that thing down en us,” he sald. “Wait here until | find ont more about it.” “What are you going to do?” ‘she asked. “First, elfimb the edze -of- the wall and see what is beyond.” He did this and returned to her Io a few minutes, “Finny how little things put them. selves In our way!" Fle tried to spewk Hightly. “The fissure is clenr as a floor beyond that slug of debris, which is rendy to topple, - We could be out In five minutes if it were not for that As It ls, I've got.to take a chance.” “And—the chunce?" “We must get over the loose atuff, Either that or go back-—to the little fire.” rd “We must go on,” she sald. "Yes, we've got to go on’ We passed a atlck back there five or six feet long. By hugging close to the wall T think I ean reach one of the keystones in, the glide and loosen it. It won't be difficult, and, the . whole thing will come down like a house with the foundation pulled out from under it. I'm going to take you. back a distance.” “And when the slide comes, ‘where will you be?" “Against the rock wall, as small as Iocan make myself" “You mean,” sald Carla, with quick understanding to her eyes, "that you is there. “Four intention ‘Js to’ stand In front, and make an effort to get out sure I can do it.” - edges of the stones had bruised the if it ghould ¢ come . the other way? Let us go ‘together, Paul, we can get over ft safely.” ; “Wait here “until I get the atick.” “If we try to climb over it together we will not need the stick.” “But we cannot cilmb It. I know. I have geen a hundred of. those things in the pit. They are Like hatr-trigger ‘guns, even when they look golid. It ig necessary to loosen a rock and then make a run for it, The stick will give me a few feet start,” ‘ “But it may be more firmly fixed than you think.” you must remain here." She accompanied him to the down- ward exit of the small, room-like Prison they had entered, and listened to his footsteps until the sound of them grew faint. Then she ascended to the crest of the rock slip again, A score of feet beyond lay, the danger. point: Between it and where she stood was the. rough. depression,,: out of which Paul would be compelled to. race for his lifa should he loosen the avalanche. Thera was an overhang of .rock,. high up, and she did not sea how he could escape it. She turned to look back in the direction he had gone. It was Mke: Paul to take the situation in this way, as if it were an unim- portant incident rather. than a tragic thing. -Light was fadiog swiftly. ‘and eve- ning shadows were falling between the deep, close walls of the crevasse, A radiance was in Carla's face, as If a voiceless spirit within her were send- world above, She could hear Paul's footsteps returning, the fron nails fn his boota striking on rock, and her lips moved, yearning to call his name. Then. ahe ran down into the hollow and up its farther edge. After-all, it might-not be such a sword of Damocles over them, If it were’not, then. Paul could only scold. Ii it were—. She. began to cmb: ‘. CHAPTER XII - ¢ Paul heard the crash. Hie was a8 ittle beyond the place where he had left Carla, and ran to It, calling her name. “He leaped’ through the “dust which was settling quickly and heav- fly, and saw the hollow choked to the brim, with the debris of the avalanche. Carla was caught in the last grip of it, near the. crest of the rock slip. The upper part of her body was out, and she was alive when Paul reached her. He tried to speak as he tore at the rocks. But his volce was gone. He saw Carla's eyes Jooking at him with the light fuding out of them. She made no sould. Her eyes were closed when he had her in his arms at last. Yet she was not dend—he found himself saying the words over and over as he climbed with her. out ef the fasure, “ Tt may be that the full story of Carla Haldan and Punt would never have heen’ known had It ani been for the happening: of this night. It seems reasonable that: neither. . Claire. hor Lucy-Belle nor the ethers “would ‘have tuld the more, intimute of its details, A madman told the atery, The mad- man was Paul He came inte the en. fineers' cainp in the middle of the night They did not Know him at first, for brush and Hinks and rocks had disiigured “him In the darkness. His’ fice was ‘like that of a min who hid bees heaien with naked fista His clothes were half gone, iis feet were neoding through the ‘shredded Teather of ‘his bouts, In hls arms he careled a woman; a- dead worn, they thought, Sat cunt: Derwent: unwrapped the coat with which her head and shoul. ders were protected . and saw fer face could he clearly ‘reallae that the man was Paul, They took Carla to the Mistassini. She was, enrried gently. but quickly, Ina ittter—with ‘half a dozen. men taking turns tn-benring her, _—- ven then, In his’ exfiaustion, Paul insisted’ on walking at her side until the: last nerve-in him broke! Jt: was ‘Continued Next Week * eee t Beer LAND. ‘SURVEYOR ad. Allen: : ‘Riitherford Ae gee Surveys promptly executed . — It may be that” “My stick will prove it. Until then | ing a message to some one in the’ ‘find her ‘so: like a> lily-petaled flower ‘Coutd I? } hand so elosely that a° joyoua little melody of-routent came fora moment ‘afraid: you would be angry with me. ‘things to'soy.’ Paul,. Aghting, with the grimly set lines ‘of an Tadlan to his | face, > -Iittle more add she would: have cried, : her own weakndéds - letting down the its. which Tobbed him of a day and ad night of ‘conscious life, - -SWhen.he came, to himself again,?@ after hours of tortuous, sleep, Der- . ; Her Eyes Were Closed When He Had Pp. Her in His Arms at Last, | went told him that Carla: “was badly hurt but would live, ‘ Claire, le said, had returned to her people {np New York the second day after his supposed death, Lucy-Belle had gone with her, Word had been sent to her that he and ‘Carla were