The evening world. Newspaper, August 5, 1916, Page 9

“THE j I il itt eo $y ase COMMANDMENT BY ANTHONY VERRALL et length upon the evens he wae weak. NEWS @raining of bie lite Muld bed been checked; an@ whea morning dawned ened to utter belplesonens he could not, or 414 Not, epeak, He suffered agonies, but hie face betrayed no sign os he ley upon the erase of Judith'’s bed. Home of @n overwhelming joy just strug: ing to ite birth, At noon @undown Judith eooned Qoora cakes end put hand to eat. In her ey @ome light of exultation, for love possessed her tm ite eweetness. Her womanly ministretions bed only commenced on that first epring with all the tenderness of ber poten- tlal motherhood. enter nmann sommes ‘World Dail — ‘ettg” tm the deaert, He to complied to retumm 0 the canis, The diminishing envply of gume fade to 8 wontles partnership tm ite pumuit, (FRe euring drice up and, facing thie new pert, the we, working altemaiely, dig down tn an attempt il t iH Hi FEY sé= if CHAPTER XXII. ig (Oontinned.) When Nature Stirs the Blood. HOARSE cry escaped Ghent as he suddenly launched himself forward to kill the Honess with hie naked hands. Hie descent pon he creature was so ewift and unexpected that he landed on her » With his hands et her throat whe could rise from her crouch- Instantly, however, she let out @ound of rage and surprise and folled on her back to assault him with ber claws. Bhe gashed his shoulder with the @ret mad rake of her talons, Together they had lurched entirely over on the ground, Ghent with his fingers @ug fiercely in her neck, the lioness thrashing and clawing in @ fury that tt esemed no man could hope to with- etand. Over they went again, rolling on the level earth that lay before the @ave. With one of hie knees in the tomach, Ghent bore down upon her heavily. The she-beast had ripped him, arm and leg, however, and was swiftly inflicting deep, ugly @ashes upon him. Judith, abruptly awakened by the sounds, came running to the opening, her heavy stone-hammer tn her hand, What sho saw was a half-naked man Upon the earth, eo closely hugged tu the lioness and @o wildly embroiled with the beast in fighting and vio- ence that to tell which was upper- Most or which was more terrible would have been an impossible Bhe ran toward the two savage beings, her hammer raised high for @ blow upon the animal's head. But @he could not strike—she dared not strike, for the fear of killing Ghent. In the utterly confusing paroxysms amd commotion of her rage the pan- ther tossed and scrambled caveward till one of her claws caught for a mo- ment in Judith's skirt and tore a full half from her porson, Ghont all thie time had never for a second loosed bis terrible grip on the creature's throat, Both of his knees wero Pressing now upon her lungs and ab- domen. He was strangling and erushing the life from her body. ‘When he presently had her borne helpless on the sand the man beheld {s.@ Jagged piece of rock in the reach ‘'\of his hand, Hoe relinquished the @rip of five of his fingers, snatched up the weapon which the mountain had provided and crashed tt down apon the creature's skull with all his might, The huge brute shivered, He struck again, and yet again, and all the flerce activity secmed to wilt and gbrink from the quivering frame of the panther, ‘The battle was done, CHAPTER XXIll, The Might of God. LL that night Judith labored to save John Ghent from death, All night she tore strips from her garments, and bound up his wounds, end ran back and forth between hor eave and the spring for neoded water. Ho bled tremendously. The panther had torn not only channels in his flesh, but the flesh itself from hie bones. His logs were aquiver with the lacerations of nerves and voins end thews. He bat lain for fifteen + Minutes unconscious before the frst He mended slowly, for tis wounds Were doop, and new blood was making im hin veine, Day after day of their silent compantonship went by with Joy to the served and the server, Only souls chat have passed through trav. ail auch as theira could lie #o naked, mide by aide, im the eanctifying ai. lence that reveals the uttermost of all there could be to reveal., A week thus passed, and Ghent was barely atrong enough to sit with his back against the wall of Judith'’s cave while nature worked at his outs and injuries, He never complained; not even in his sleep did @ groan betray him, His progress now was rapid— his progress in everything save speech. He and Judith ecemed ¢urther from apecch than before, At the end of ten days he could be kept no longer on hie back or sitting down throughout the day. He got to Die feet,.grom time to time, to limber the sinews and flesh newly knitted in bie lewe. It was one of these days that eome strange oppression came to haunt the very air. Both Ghent end Judith were af- fected, they knew not how or why. A sense of impending disaster, or a restlessness of the inner self that was responsive to hidden warnings, took Possession of them both, yet nothing seemed to happen, It was nearly at sundown that the awesome silence and the pause of the earth were broken. The thing came not suddenly then, A distant roar that swept ever onward with incred- ible velocity ushered the mighty cata- clysm to the mountains, Sounds of wrack and devastation made articulate, but concentrated in @ tumult such as @ca nor gale nor cataract may ever create, involved cn- Ure creation, On its heels oame the dreadful thing itsclf--the earthquake Tending the very hills and flappin, tho oarth-crust like a rag of 1: and sand, and heaving through adamant ledges und gravel like a tidal wave on some molten sea which the earth may no longer contain. Ghent had staggered galvanically to bis feet, He reslod about tke some @rotesquery in human form, Judith was flung upon her knees. She got up and was shaken oncemore to the earth, from whioh she dared not rise. The rocks all about the two seemed tor- tured, and the earth to contort itself fantastically, Ghent was cast down @t Judith’s side, away from the wall of the cave against which he hud gone spinning, and with muffled crunching, grinding and sounds of earth-agony the cavern was blotted from being, and only a@ short, shal- low wrinkle in the slope marked the place where the rock and gravel bad toppled in to level up the cavity. A hatful only of rock-dust arose to float above the hill, ‘The temblor was done, with a few slight tremors lke shivers of the earth in fright, and the man and woman gased at each other, appalled. Ghent was the first to rise to his knees. Judith remained on the earth before him, propped at an angle by one of her strong bare arms. Ghent looked at her peculiarly as bis lips slowly parted for spasch. “It must have been God coming home.” She gave @ little shudder, but she did not speak for @ time, and then ehe said: “The cave—is gone.” Ghent looked at it silently for fully @ minute, Judith had risen, He, too, Stood up, despite his weakness. “Gone,” he presently echoed sol- em “He has shut us out together, It hae taken the might and impa- tlence of God to bring us face to face.” He paused in his speaking. Hila breath was coming fast; his form wae shaken, A light of sublimity burned ta hia eyes, Then, as she looked at him in @ tense, ailent way, he added: “I love you, Judith, Though all the tribe of Ghent should writhe in their graves, I love nothing but you!" She looked at him ailently, She did not shrink from him, she simply put her hand to her face, a» one in doubt, and slowly backed @ little away. He made no effort to approach her, or to touch ber hand Thus they stood despite man's crude conventions. Her office, '™ AWFUL SORRY, BUT | WONDER ON ACCOUNT OF THE IF TESSIE WAR I'VE GOTTA’ RAISE YOUR ROOM RENT WOULD BE SATISFIED WaTH A FRESH AIR STROLL TO-NIGHT? } HEALTH® there, each gazing on the other's eoul for a time that seemed eternal. “I don’t know—I don't know—what I must say,” she eaid to him finally, “I will have to be alone—to think.” Ghent could make no effort to givo hasto to her needed meditations He was ready to avide by her present de- sire; he would be equally prepured to abide by her final dowaion, “I'll go back to my ehelter and wait,” he said. Bho said nothing more, even at the wringing of Ler hearta, when ho went, in his weak, unsteady way, down tho slope and up the strip and so to tho pring and his camp. CHAPTER XXIV. “That Ye Love One Another.” OR three days and nights the man was kept waiting, and saw no eign of Judith. She had moved her few bo- longings down the hill to the shelter of the greenery, and there bad debated with her nature. What the ond of ét all would be he dared not conjecture, The past, with itn deeds of rage and murder, rose between them now, and he and Judith seemed held apart by a chasm, deep, dlack, and impassable. For himself he hated all the past; he hated the horrible sins which his tribe had committed in the name of vindiotiveness and folly, If it came to @ choice between Judith and bis own dead kin, he chose the livin; and the new, sweet way, which he felt was God's own dictation, unmis- takable and mighty. Meantime Judith had undergone a succession of attacks, cold and hot, which had wrought her by thetr very alternations to a joyousness of spirit she could scarcely understand, But & woman plans for a lifetime, while a man plans more often for a day. She loved John Ghent with all her soul and body. In one great passion- ate outburst of her nature she had utterly repudiated all the past, with ite horrors of hatred and rapine, Having given her love to this man once for all, it seemed as if all the hatred that had gone before served merely to intensify her passion, A woman could banish all allegiance to such @ thing as @ family feud, when @ man might oling to it in some sort of mistaken sense of honor, But she could not so quickly aban- don her lifelong echeme of chastity, which the man could forget tn a mo- ment. It was not the feud that once had been that was halting Judith's decision; it was aoul-deep question- ing of the rights of love and a mating with only nature for a witnei It was not in response to the process of her mind that Judith at length was decided; it was eolely in obedience to the urging of her body and her soul—those close associates that work In euch harmony with God, being clamored tts one long reitera- tion of love—and her decision had really been made from the first. She told herself it wae cruel to permit John Ghent, in his half-mended way, to live in bis shelter alone. She re- buked herself for lack of sympathy, but she knew these arguments were merely weak temporizings and wide of the actual mark. In « fever of excitement and happ!- ness she completed a task of dressing Herself in the panther’s tawny hide, and, shaking down her glorious hair, which covered @ portion of her naked ehoulders and neck, ahe took her rook-basin tm ber hands, by way of a feminine excuse, wended her way up through the greenery and slowly came to the spring. There she filled hor receptacle. It was middle afternoon, and not once before by daylight had she thus ap- peared whore Ghent could behold her since the day when the temblor brought tts oriais, She beheld bim now, from the corner of her eye. He was standing in front of his shelter, looking down where she stood. To her womanly eyes be had nover ap- peared more manly—more like a god. Bareheaded, bare of arma, bure- legged, and olad in his wolfakin, he ‘was much @ lord as any Eve must welcome for her master, At length she placed her receptacle upon the earth and started up the hill, Hor eyes were raised to bis, at last, even with the distance atill be- tween them. As she slowly climbed the hill, however, the lighter joy de- parted from her breast, and in its place came a deep and sober happi- neas which left no emile upon her Ups, no Light of idle ooquetry within her eyes. Her beart-beat increased tremendously but her footsteps did not falter, When she drew quite close she could @ee that his face was very white, Tihe lustre of his cyas was @ fire of divinity, not a flame of pas- sion, He made no movement forward to receive her. She halted at last within @ yard of where he stood, and they looked long and steadily upon each other, like two strong beings, equal, stripped of all pretensa, seri- ous in the contemplation of their mating. It was Judith who finally spoke. She came toward him elowly, “I love you,” she sald, and she Placed both her arms about his neck and felt bim fold her to his body. Thon her pent-up emotions, pria- 3 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnAAAAnAAAAAnAnAAAAAAAAANAAAAAAAAAAAAR } Betty Vincent's Advice to Lovers HE fact that you know @ person very well by no means excuses you from being as courteous to him as you would be to a casual ac- quaintance. I believe one reason why marriage oures #0 many love affairs is to be found in the fact that husband and wito forget to be polite to each other. Courtesy ts the lubricant that makes all the wheels of life run smoothly, If @ man loves @ woman well enough to marry her he ought to be even more considerate, even more mannerly, to her than to his othe? friends. If a woman cares sufficiently for a man to make him her husband sho should show that inatinctive delicacy tn her treatment of him which she usually evinces toward her fance. Bott words may butter no parsnips—but they accomplish many other useful things. Mor (he iri to thane ner parts roper for er - Rorrafter each number, or ehouki the man thank the girl?” He should do thanking. To Win His Love. “L. K." writes: "I am eighteen and deeply in love with @ boy three years my junior whom I met six months ago at @ party, love?” Don't try in any way except by being your simple, natural self when you ere in his society. “A. Ary writes: “I am nineteen old and in love with a girl ty-one who works in the De you think the of! Nothing, It ere well rid in ages would affect our future hap- Diness if we were to marry?’ Not necessarily, since the differ- slight, although there al- ways is an added clement of risk when @ man murrice @ Womaa older than hinself, A Wedding Invitation. “B, W." writes: “I have received an invitation to @ church wedding, cluding the reception at the bride's home after the ceremony, The in- Vitation saya 'R. 8. V. P.’ I expect to fo to both the church and the house, but don't know if I am to write to aay 00. What shall 1 do?” rite and say that you will attend both the weddin, “M. 8." writes: “What are the in- tentions of a young man who calls on me occasionally but never makes aa ageinent for the next time? He probably wishes to enjoy your friendship. "E, K” writes: “When being intro- duced to a number of persons at one time, i it necessary to keep repeat- ing, ‘Iam pleased to meet you?” Kio, ‘That js rather awkward, You may simply repeat the name of the person, as the introducer gives it to you, and emile cordially, “C. J.” writes and the reception, “A young man has How can I win his| beon paying me attention and I love jhim. He did something to tease me jand wouldn't stop when I asked him to do #0, But when I retaliated he became very angry and since then has not come to the house, What must I do?” geema to me that you of eo wnresso: e ath eet ecto oned for years in her bowom, abruptly broke their bonds. She eobhed con- vulsively, amd Ghent as he hekt her, understood, He presently put one of ands egeinst her cheek and, Talsing her face to his, kissed her on the lips, For a long time they looked tn each other's eyes, silently; and then she beh him suddenly stare straight paat her, with fixed, troubled eyes that blazed as if in fear. In the alertnens taught her by the desert Mfe she turned abowt before could speak.. His hand, when she dropped ft, fell at bia side like « thing ef lead. Then she too stared lke @ being transfized—and Ghent put bis hand out upon her, “You ace it too—you eee it?” he eald te her weirdly. “Ite not a mi- rage—not a wild fancy like the cact! down below.” She made no response, but con- tinued to gage in unbelief across the wide ravine, There, on the opposite slope, plainly and sharply out against the hill ef rook and sand, were two astounding figures—e tall, dusty, «ray-bearded man and @ emall, gray, overloaded burro, slowly, deliberately coming down and down, on thelr way to the green casis and the spring, “A man!” said Judith finally, “It lcan't be any mistake, It's surely man.” “1 don't believe it--1 can't believe tt!" said Ghent, in deep agitation, “1'e just another trick!" Nevertheless he went down the slope with Judith’s hand pressed firmly in his own, his eyes still fixed upon the approaching beings from the world outside the desert, At the epring they wafted. The man with the gray ttle donkey had discovered them at last, Ile halted for & moment, as thoroughly sur- prised as elther Ghent or Judith could have been, then came on down the wlope a trifle faster, in a wondering way of bewilderment. Ghent went forward to greet him. He halted on @ ledge of rook and re- garden the visitor with blasing, eager s. “Man,” he said, “where have you come from? Have you fetched any coffee—and salt?” Judith had come to his side, The traveller halted, took off his hat and passed hae hand across his forehead. Then rubbing his eyes he looked at the pair anew, “I couldn't believe I seen ye’ he said. “A man, b’God, and e woman.” “John Ghent,” sald Ghent, “and— my wife,” alee CHAPTER XXV. The Tore of Gold. HE man who had cometo the desert apring was Hi Win- tere, prospector and sole Serrives <4 60 cepetiien which bad tempted the desert jueet of gold, remaining at for two days only, wore rapitly faliing, of e thirty yoore Metened to the tale of Judith Haines. He nothing, eo great was the marvel of their story, Miles te the westward, Uttle railroad tank town at the edge Of the desert, He expected to remain had glowly imparted as he laid off the burden from his donkey. With- out further ado he had made up 6 slab of bacon, a et potatoes from his pack, opened his ene solitary can of tomatoes he had fetched againat the wants of eome @tetant day to come, and prepared a mea) guch as Judith and Ghent had met gaseé upon for many weary three of them dined there to- @itting on the ground and eat- fag with their fingers from the one tin plate with which the old prospec- ‘was provided. lt was @ won- @inner for the pair whe had ived @o long like cave-dwelling sav- ages; and they ate In allence, 80 filled were they both with the marvel of this man’s appearance on ‘When at length it was finished and “My friend,” he sald, “do you know what it meane ¢o the pair of us who have lived here all these months to hear you talking ef remaining for two or mere months before you take us out of thie terrible desert? Have you thought of that in your huat for o mine? “Well, ne, not exactly,” sald Win- tere drawiingly. “I didn’t reckon on finding ne one here.” “All right,” said Ghent. “New that you have found us, I want you to pack up to-morrow and show us the way to that railroad.” ‘The gray old prospector retighted his pipe and reflected for a momeat in silence before he answered. Then he ald: “Wal, I guess that's reason—fer you folka anyway. I don't suppose I'm ever goin’ to hit it. Never have, May mot be any gold in all this country qnyway. Might as well etart in the mornin’.” “Winters, I'd like to shake hands with you,” sald Ghent, to whom the man's answer had come with no little surpriac. fa @ lot of gold in these hills I've seen it. I know where its bedded. I'll show you the place and give you half of any rights you may reckon I possess. But, man, ‘we want te start to-morrow.” ‘Thus 1t came that early on the day that followed, Ghent and the tall, lean ol4 miner walked together up the great ravine, go echoing with awful memories for the man who had one day staggered down its long, rocky way, returning from hig three-day effort to escape the desolation, and eo came at length to the mighty amphitheatre, then to the break in ite eastern wall, and halted in the tunnel that two gold- hungry men had dug, where the vein. of yellow metal gleamed go brightly in the wall. Judith was waiting at his shelter when Ghent once more returned. It had been her home for one night only, while Ghent and Winters slept on the ground at the spring. She loved {t for what It had been to Ghent, and she had waited for him here in womanly shy- ness “Judith,” said Ghent, looking as be- fore into her eyes, “we are going home—gotng out of this place, to peo- ple and the work. If you wish to be free—it you wish to plan eome other way—if you wish you hadn't said it, yesterday-——why, this is the very best time in all the world to tell me what you prefer.” Bhe looked at him steadily, ¢2e eoft- Ress Jnoreaging in her eyes. “Tf you mean—that you take tt all back™——- ghe started, but be could not permit her to finish. ‘Don’t eay it—<don't say it!" he in- terrupted almost fiercely, “I love you-I want you to be my wife, I TAKE THE EVERING WORLD WITH YOU ON YOUR VACATION So that you will not miss may continue to enjoy the daily magazine, comic and other Gpecial features. Include them Order the Evening Werld Mailed to Your Summer Address MY LADY OF DOUBT By RANDALL PARRISH A romance af the Revolution with hero and heroine in @ series brought bogether ine i deepens with every chapter. tare loved you @ @reet dea! longer than I in the winter 1 found © phere of gold and hammered out & bracelet for your arm. I didn't even know what it was for-—-tut that te what 1 wae A wedding-ring could be large «cough, mM for my desert mate to wear Judith—there it {e," and he held it forth tn his open hand, abruptiy, the crude, massive tore so roughly splendid in the eum. “Will you take It end wear it—or shall I leave it behind we when we go?” fhe knew what he meant the leave tng of the tore would be but a eyme boliem for leaving all that they both had Bnally become to one another, thie was her wish, now that treedem ‘wae proffered by the fates. Ghe made 0 reply. Ghe merely took the crude Gold twacelet from his hand and lipped tt far up on her naked arm, where & shone with « splendor bar- bario, Then she placed her arms once more about hie neck and went home to the shelter of hii wat. ‘ CHAPTER XXVI. The Triumph of Nature. YEAR had gone by tn the deoort—a long, tragic year with @ new repetition of the Gaye of heat, the coél, oti = pighte of beauty and austerity; the coming of the autumn eiroceos; the parching of all the caale, the failing of the spring and the awful despair of every living thing that strove for existence in the atrip. ‘The Spring bad returned again ie ite beauty and tenderness, replenish- ing the hope that burgeons anew with every year. Nighte and daye of miraculous charm had succeeded one another in @ round of divinely or- dered loveliness. Then, on one of the long, balmy afternoons, when all nature smiled in beneficance, there camie down the slope of the western hill, that rose above the gorge @ little train of beings—twe mea, three burros and two women who rode upon horees. ‘There wae first « gray old prospecto: then Ghent, who walked at Judith’ aide, and behing them the prospector’s wife, If the lean old gold-sccker typified petience, and Ghent and Judith typi- fled God's iret created pair, then the wife of the miner assuredly typified that eolld, admirable aymbol of wis- dom. resourcefulness and tenderness - that hae made of the Western fron- could have been the mother of a na- tton—for the things she knew and the largeness of her heart. She had come here to mother Judith Ghent. Down by the spring old Winters made his camp, and there for a while Judith rested. Ghent olimbed the, slope to where the ruins of his shelter atill remained among the rocks. The storms of the Winter had torn away the roof, and the walle were gaping open to the elements, ‘With tools from the pack be est joyously to work, while Judith, in a new, more radiant way of beauty, and with no took of tragedy remain« ing on der face, smiled in companton- ship upon him. By evening he hed made it once more a substantial cave. house, provided at last, however, with something for better than a couch ef mountain grass. ‘The night that came down was one of marvellous beauty, with the silence of centuries, desert-deep, laid far and wide upon the universe, Bt almost seemed as if the vast machinery that moves the stellar globules in their round must deliver up the mighty sound, that would come in some huge anthem to the place, Ghent was profoundly stirred by all the fearful majesty of night and Nature's mysteries, here so nakedly revealed—and yet inscrutable, It was Certain to his soul that God was here —in this place He had made to bide at times alone. At length he slept, but when tho gorgeous starry dipper had swung to ite midnight declination, the long, wetrd wall, the mirthless laughter and the questioning bark of a man- detecting coyote roused him from hie bed. He came forth from his shelter, « Jook of slumbrous strength, primor- @ial might and conscious mastery upon his muscled frame, In his eyes burned a light of mingled tendorn and passion, In his hand he clutched the handle of the rude stone hammer that Judith had made the year be- fore, Like a guardian cavemaa watching at his door to protect his mate with his life, he sat on a stone in the starlight and waited there till dawn, (The End.) any of the weekly novels and your summer reading.