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Show 2oz? 'I‘HIC lMllK l'lllil‘ffi'l‘ THE FOREST "l would have prownted it." he said. nodding his head gravely. Y He was silent for a little: then with a sudden jerk he said: "Where has she gone f" "Gone?" l repeated stupidly after him. "Yeswthat‘s not deathhto go like that. She must be somewhere stills somewhere in this beastly forest. I don't believe that he heard me. "Semyonov l" he said slowly. "What did he do t" "He. was very quiet," I answered. "He didn't say anything. He looked awful." "Yes. She strapped her fingers at him anyway. He couldn't keep her for all his bullying." "It pretty well killed him," i said rather fiercely. "Look \Vhat here, Treneliard. herriwhat! . . . her saw you -r~aliterwards~when .. fate .' "She looked very peaet-l'ul quite happy," "No restlessness in her l'aeef No anxiety!" V "None." "But all that li'liefithat energy. it ean't have stopped. Quite suddenly. it rvl/t'l She can't have. wanted not to know all those things that she was so eager about before." He was suddenly volulile. exeited, leaning forward, staring at me. "You know how she was. You must have seen it numbers of tinies~how she never looked at any of us really, how we were none of us~no, not even Seniyonov-anything to her really; always staring past us, wanting to know 263 Don't think of yourselffor of her. Every one's in it now. There isn't any personality about it. We've simply get to do our best and not think about it. It's thinking that beats one if one lets it." "Semyonov . . . Semyonov," he repeated to himself, smiling. "No, he had not power over her." Then looking at me very calmly, he remarked: "This Death, you know, Durward. . . . It simply doesn't exist. It can't stop her. It can't stop any one if they're determined. before Semyonov does, too." I'll find her Then, as though he had waked from sleep, he. said to me, his voice trembling a little: "Am I talking queerly, Thu" Ward? If I am, don't think anything of it. It's this heat. the answer to questions that (we couldn't solve for her. She -and this place. Let's get back." He only spoke olive more. He said: "Do you remember that first drive~rages wouldn‘t give it all up simply for nothing, simply for a bullet . . ." he broke oil. i ago, when we saw the trenches and heard the frogs and "Look here, Trenehard," I said, "try not to think of her just now more than you can help, just now. for a stiff time, I believe. We're in This will be our last easy after- thought there was some one there ‘4" "Yes," I said. "I remember." 777 "\Vell, it's rather like that now, isn't it . noonAI fancy, and even now we ought to be back helping A pretty girl, twenty-two or twenty-three years of agt‘a eanm Obviously the daughter of the red-faeed proprietor, Kikitin. up to us and asked us if we would like any more tea. You've got to wor< all you know. One's nerves 5h" :961 wrong easily enough in a place like this-and after what and Would be stout later on, her red cheeks were plump has happened I feel this damned Forest already. But We mustn‘t let our nerves go. \Ve've simply got to work and curls. her black hair arranged eoquettishly in little shining She smiled on us. think about nothing at all-thin]: about hotlzing at all." "No more tea ?" she said. |