Harold Titus

“ The last, mad day! Suit case, waders, rods, hip boots, tackle boxes, creel, landing net piled about him like offerings to some fat god, Gideon Limes sat in his shirt-sleeves, glaring at the final barriers which kept him from freedom. Vera vibrated between him and her desk, rattling off letters with amazing speed, eyes bright, color high, nerves strained. But now and then she looked at Wash Kirk and the light in her eyes softened her mouth lost its tensity and she smiled, most adorably.
Noon—two o'clock—an hour until train time. Pen in hand, Gideon Limes hurriedly read the final letters. ”

“ He faced Ned Lytton who stood there with an evil smile on his lips, and all the love for his dead father, all the outraged sense of property rights, all the brooding, the waiting, the accumulated tension caused something in him to swell until he felt a choking sensation, until the hate came into his face, until he drew his clenched fists upward and shook his head and bellowed and charged, madly, blindly, wanting only to have his hands on his enemy, to take his life as the first men took the lives of those who had done them wrong! ”

“ DAVID MacKINNON shouted a protest to a man who ran before him with an ax to cut the lines that held his hooker against the dock, and then he realized that it was useless to keep her there, for in her vitals roared a furnace that no line of buckets could extinguish. She drifted off, flames belching through her one hatch, illuminating the night. With a sharp thud, a leap and a shower of flame, the gasoline-tank exploded and burning fluid clung to spars and rigging and took hold and ate until the Annabelle looked like some pageant-ship festooned in fire as she drifted on to her flamboyant death. ”

“ David ran down the beach peering into the thickness. His lantern flared as he reached the water's edge—and just as Eve was crossing toward the outer door—and he stopped, holding it against his body to lift the chimney and adjust the wick. Its light, for the moment, was screened from the house.
And so, when Eve looked out, she saw no evidence of a lantern. The bark of the whistle came again. She stepped into the sand; she started forward on a run, and an arm swept across her face, covering her mouth, cutting off her breath, and another grappled for her hand. ”

“ Every afternoon they had gathered there, Two-Bits with his slowly healing back, Jimmy Oliver, after his leg had mended and he could hobble with a cane, Joe Black, whose arm was just out of its sling and, occasionally, Riley, who rode up the creek holding gingerly his one shoulder, to fight the battle over again.
Summer was ripening and the golden sunlight spilled down onto peaceful mountains from a mighty sweep of sky. A gentle breeze bent the tall cottonwoods, making them whisper, making the birds in their branches sing in lazy contentment. Unmolested cattle ranged in prospering hundreds. ”

“ The tug captain, who had followed, stammering unheard entreaties, gave up and ran for the doctor, whimpering that the Dane was crazy from his fight with the lake.
A watchmaker, glass in one eye, looked up, startled by the apparition that fell against his door and burst it open, crushing his weight upon the little show-case and jamming it back against the shelves, penning him behind it. The blue eyes that laboriously sought and clung to his were fired with the light seen in the eyes of men who are crazed by one idea, whose mentality is consumed with its intensity. ”

“ They were riding the hills, the Captain snuggling close to the pinto pony Jed rode. The sun poured its light down on the white land. Far away, over on the divide, they could see huge spirals of snow picked up by the wind and carried along countless miles, finally to be blasted into veils of silver dust that melted away into distance. An eagle flapped majestically to a perch on a scrub cedar across the gulch; a dozen deer left off their browsing, watched the approach of the riders a moment, and then bounded easily away. The sharp air set their blood running high, and it was good to live. ”

“ Helen cried and dropped her paddle. "A beauty! He'll go two pounds. And you did it well!" Her eyes danced, her red lips parted in a glad smile and there was an excitement in her face, which Taylor had never seen there before, the enthusiasm for play, and as he looked at her, leaning forward, one arm stretched out to touch the trout, he saw a new part of her to dove-tail with her capability at her work, her tenderness with children: she was at that moment, a laughing, spontaneous young animal, lost in admiration of the fish he had caught, and in admiration of him. ”

“ And so King Norman ruled, sufficient unto himself, with the commerce of an every-day world slipping past his dominion, amassing wealth, making his position more secure, the great passion for the girl growing with the years, standing now and again on the decks of his tugs as they passed the lake ships, the broad brim of his black, round-crowned hat blown back, hands clasped lightly behind him, head forward—truly a kingly figure, powerful, aloof, unchallenged. ”

“ They planned to send their men into war. And, alone in an adobe shack, one of war's most faithful lovers sat through the brilliant nights and smoked cigarettes and gazed through the lone window at the moon-glossed mountain peaks in the distance. Real action was inevitable. Jimmy Crogan was out of it; that was as certain as is death. He did not wonder what they would do with him. The delay in his trial caused him no worry. There was work for fighting men, and he was to rot, like an ordinary sneak thief. ”

“ Bayard, too, fought his bitter fight. The urge in him was to take her, to bear her away, to defy the laws that men had made to hurt her and to devil him; but something behind, something deep in him, forbade. He must go on, nursing back to strength that mockery of manhood who could lift his fuddled, obscene head and, with the blessing of society, claim Ann Lytton as his—her body, her soul! ”

“ Shame on you, Dick Hilton, and shame on me for having tolerated, for having believed in you ... little as I did! Oh, I loathe it all, you and myself—that was—because if it had not been for that other self which tolerated you, which gave you the opening, this ... this insult would never have been. You, who failing to buy a woman's love, would take it by strength! You would do this, and talk of your desire as love. You, who scoff at men whose respect for women is as real as the lives they lead. ”

“ Michigan Mays are not balmy, and the caretaker kept a generous supply of pitch-pine in the bark box beside the great fireplace; and at dark Tom and Lola would sit cross-legged on pillows before the blaze, fingers intertwined, voices low, reading their future in the leaping flames.
Before them the dog would stretch, feet far toward the fire, eyes closed to a slit, quirking an ear occasionally, now and then flopping his tail in lazy satisfaction, and when the flames grew unusually high he would let his tongue loll on the stones and pant with happiness. ”

“ Until he was almost inshore the man retained that strained position over the tiller and then, with a start, put down his helm. The mackinaw came into the wind, came to rest against the landing, and the man stood up.
He remained there for an interval with the canvas whispering and the reef-points rattling in gentle staccato, staring at the girl as if transfixed, as if oblivious of any other thing on lake or land, and then he stepped out of the boat, clambering over the rail without once taking that set stare from Eve. A long white welt of scar ran over his right eye into the hair. ”

“ Danny's eyes and nostrils and ears took it all in as he moved toward the outer doorway. When he gained it he paused, a hand on the low lintel, and looked out upon his world.
Away to the south stretched the gulch, rolling of bottom, covered with the gray-green sage. Over east rose the stern wall, scarred and split, with cedars clinging in the interstices, their forms dark green against the saffron of the rocks. Up above, towering into the unstained sky of morning, a rounded, fluted peak, like the crowning achievement of some vast cathedral. ”

“ An hour later Eve stood on the extreme point of the sand spit which strikes out eastward to form the High Island harbor. The stiff south wind whipped the skirt about her slim legs and riffled tendrils of dark hair about her erect little head. In her nostrils was that fine, clean smell of wind over great bodies of fresh water, damp, and soft with spring. Her blue eyes were very bright, her lips parted, and cheeks stained with color as she watched. One after another, tugs had appeared from Norman Eldred's harbor and had gone their way to the business of fishing. ”

“ Beck stood a long time under the stars that night, the feel of her lips still on his, but an uncomfortable doubt in his heart. He was tolerant, as mountain men are tolerant, but he had been bred in a hard school; he had learned to weigh men and to discard those who were found wanting. He was not vindictive, but he took no chances. Placing his trust in those who had showed repeatedly that they were unworthy of trust was taking a chance and though Jane Hunter had done her best to make her reasoning carry, he could not comprehend. ”

“ Trees rocked and twisted in the force of the draft. A mighty column of smoke spouted into the heavens, rising straight up, seeming uninfluenced by the wind and from it rained needles and twigs and small branches, all blazing, and from it came sounds of terror, sounds that went straight through the reason of strong men and touched raw emotions that had been buried for generations. Fire, man's first friend, had turned into his raging enemy, mighty in its wrath, terrible in its manifestation of power. ”

“ Far away to the north and eastward snow-covered peaks, triplets, rose against the bright blue of the sky. As Bruce and Ann looked they lost the silver whiteness and became flushed with the pink of dying day. The distant, pine-covered heights had become blue, the far draws were gathering their purple mists of evening. The lilac of the valley's coloring grew fainter, more delicate, while the deep mauves of a range of hills to the southward deepened towards a dead brown. ”

“ When that other man who called himself a king came here, it was with a measure of pomp and dignity. He had followers; he had the driving purpose of religious fanaticism, but when King Norman came, it was without the fervor of a pilgrim seeking new soil for his faith and deeds, without a follower except the shy little girl with the great blue eyes and blue-black hair, her face whitened by infancy spent in a convent school, and the sooty-faced ruffian in the fire-hole of the rickety tug which Eldred wheeled out of the straits himself—for that was all men called him when he came: Norman Eldred. ”

“ SALOON
Unconsciously his tongue came out to wet the parched lips and his fingers plucked at the seams of the new overalls.
Why not? the insidious self argued, why not? All changes must come gradually. Nothing can be accomplished in a moment. Just one drink to cool his throat, to steady his nerves, and brace him for the fight he would make—later.
As he stood there listening to that inner voice, yet holding it off, he did not hear the fall of hoofs behind him or the jingle of spurs as a rider dismounted and approached. ”

“ And his footsteps went up the resounding dock.
Eve was more alone than she had ever been in her life. A show of strength, her father had preached, was the assurance of safety; she had summoned that front almost daily for years, but it had never been convincing perhaps to any man, and she even had confessed her weakness and fear to MacKinnon.
But now it was not so. What protection she might have would come from her own wits and strength of heart, and as she stood there in the darkness of the boat listening for David's next movement or word, that front which she had only assumed became real. ”

“ The air was cool and damp and sweet, and from the water back in the rushes, from the midst of the current itself, May flies were hatching, coming to the surface like bubbles, spreading their new, damp wings, struggling a moment and then rising into the air to mingle with millions of their kind, to find mates, to function and pass on in their brief cycle, weakened by their hour of life, dropping back to the water which had given them life and into which they had put the life of their kind. ”

“ On the wall of the boiler-house a clock ticked and a small lever functioned to send the velvety bass voice of the fog-whistle in a five-second bellow down the wind to warn those mariners who could not see the light in this murk; silence for twenty seconds, except for wind and rain and the surf running on the gravel; another blast, then silence for twice the former period.
Nothing was in sight on the lake, though she strained her eyes to see. A light burned in the keeper's dwelling, where Ned lay sleeping. ”

“ The whip-line traveled out, its block dragged through the lather of surf and the watchers on the beach saw many hands, working with the speed that desperation can give men, drag it into the pilot house and Martin's glass let him see the line made fast to the post of the steering wheel. A good anchorage, that; as good as the electric light pole near-by to which the shore end of the hawser would be made fast, permitting them to take out enough slack so the men yonder might not sag into the surf too much as they swung shoreward in the breeches buoy. ”

“ And even then a rider was speeding across the hills toward her, lashing his horse, crashing through brush, leaping down timber, clattering over treacherous ledges to save time: and other men were riding on Jimmy Oliver's orders, bringing the cow-boys in off their circles, assembling them in Devil's Hole where a group of men stood silent and sullen....
Oh, she would fight on, desperate in her determination to crowd thought of a lost love from her life! She welcomed combat for it would be as a balm to that gaping wound of loss. ”

“ But he was Lars, Lars the unthinking, and he could deal only with those things which, to him, were essential. Just now life and the safety of his cargo were secondary matters. He had forgotten his torture at the girl's whims. He remembered only that he loved her, just as he had loved her even while Tim Bell loved her. Only then it had been a forlorn love and now it was leavened by hope. He had learned how to hold a woman's love. That was what made him put aside fear of the lake, the blizzard, thought of his single-handedness, as inconsequential trifles! ”

“ Helen Foraker had heard, had seen the enmity between Taylor and Rowe. She stared at John and as he dodged that first blow she turned and stumbled through the doorway and ran across the street, leaping into her car, fleeing for the sanctity of her forest where she could think and reason and try to straighten this thing out for herself.
She had driven him out, yet he had blocked Rowe in his purpose. He had betrayed her and today he had been her defender. The throbbing of her heart almost choked her: wild hope and abject misery blinded her. ”

“ His belly seemed to hang unbelievably close to the ground, his stride lengthened, his tail stood rippling behind him, his feet smote the road as though spitefully and he stretched his white patched nose far out as if he would force his tendons to a performance beyond their actual power. But he could not make it; the task of overcoming that handicap in that distance was beyond the ability of blood and bone.
As he went on, leap by leap, and saw that his gaining was not bringing him beside Ann in time, Bayard commenced to call aloud to the horse under him, and his eyes grew wide with dread. ”

“ The sage is green and brash in the near sunlight, soft and purple out yonder; the hills sharp and hard and detailed under the faultless sky for unthinkable miles about, then soft and vague, melting in color and line, rolling, reaching, tossing in a repetition of ranges until eyes ache in following them and men are weak about their middles from the feeling of vastnesses to which measurements by figures are profane.
Jed and Danny searched for horses along two parallel ridges. ”

“ Eldred beat upon it with both fists and cried out, but no response came. He listened and heard heavy feet on the tower stairs. He moved down the steps and looked up ward. The red of the sunset was gone, having endured but that passing moment, but up above another red appeared, as if the crimson of the west had been caught and preserved and focused by the lens in the tower. ”

“ Tom Beck was gone, his love for her was dead, miles were between them, and she believed she knew him well enough to understand that he had put her forever behind him. She had lost the true fulfillment of life, perhaps, but something remained. And the question came: Why not make the best of it? Why not keep what remains? Why not fight for it? Why not stand alone? ”