The Hidden Places

tain timber operations on the coast of British Columbia. In these rude camps, therefore, young Hollister spent a year. During that twelve months books were prohibited. H

normous height, where the sea lapped with green lips at the foot of the ranges and thrust winding arms back into the very heart of the land, and where the land itself, delta and slope and slide-engraved declivities, was clothed w

had no cares. He was free. All life spread before him in a vast illusion of unquestionable joyousness. There was a rose-pink tinge over these months in which he fished salmon and trout, climbed the frowning escarpments of the Coast Range, gave himself up to the spell of a region which is still potent with the charm

e gesture, and that he desired to get as far as possible from the charnel house of Europe, and that he shrank from pres

clever in the accepted sense of cleverness. He had married for love,-urged thereto by a headlong, unquestioning, uncritical passion. But there were no obstacles. His passion was returned. There was nothing to make

begin life under reasonably auspicious circumstances. That is to say, he would be a success financially and socially to as great an extent as he cared to aspire. He would acquire wealth and an expanding influence in his community. He would lead a tolerably pleasant domestic existence. He would be proud of his wif

international diplomacy, with the forces of comme

xistence very much as the bombs from the first Zeppelin

that in this day and age he was a fortunate man. He had a great deal to lose. But he felt that he must go. He was not, however, filled with the witless idea that service with the Expeditionary Force was to be an adventure of some few months, a brief period involving some hards

led himself from his business at a great loss, in order to have all

o the last hour. They could well afford that concession to t

yet in certain moods it seemed to Hollister as if an eternity had passed. Th

an item of consideration. He was not disabled. Physically he was more fit than he had ever been. The delicate mechanism of his brain was unimpaired. He had no bitterness-no illusions. His intellect was acute enough to suggest th

sy prey then to the black shadows of forlornness. He was still as acutely aware of the barrier which his disfigurement raised between him and other men. But with that morbid awareness there rose also

n smiling groups, Hollister observed them with a growing fury. They were so thoroughly insulated against everything disagreeable. All of them. A great war had just come to a dramatic close, a war in which staggering numbers of men had been sacrifi

illogical then, he reflected, to be horrified at the visible results of fighting for one's country, of saving the world for democracy. The thing had had to be done. A great many men had been killed. A great number had lost their legs, their arms, their sight. They had suffered indescribable mutilations and disabilities in t

em privately thinking

was their countryman and a person of consequence until t

a proud country to those who had served overseas. Why should there be? He was an individual among other individuals who were unconsciously actuated by rampant individualism except in moments of peril, when stark necessity compelled them to social action. Otherwise it was every man for himself. Yes, it was natural eno

reet. Turning off the main thoroughfare, he passed half a block along a cross street and entered an office building. Ascending

and

n b.c. timber

d into a private office. As he neared this door, Hollister happened to catch a panoramic glimpse in a wall mirror. The eyes of half a dozen clerks and other persons in that room,

r of his country. The responsibility of eight per cent. investments entrusted to his care was not easily shaken off. Business, of course, was a national necessity. However, since the armisti

ng Hollister's card over in his fingers with an anticipatory smile. Blankness replaced the smile. A sort of horrified wonder gleamed in

e say you find me unrecognizable," Hollister said bluntly.

, scar-distorted flesh in a rigid mold. He could neither recognizably smile nor frown. His face, such as it was, was set in unchangeable lines. Out of this rigid, expressionless mask his eyes glowed, blue and bright, havi

e fascination against which he struggled in vain. He did not wish to look at Hollister. Yet

cognized you, as you say," he u

nspoken question. That strange curiosity, tinc

ed. "But your scars are honorable. A

hat is not why I called. You recollect, I suppose, that when I was out here last I bought a timber limit

a client whom he recalled as a person of consequence, the son of a man who had likewise been of considerable consequence. Personal undesira

ssed a

all correspondence relating to this matter," and

apers that were pres

ed for your account July, 1912. Sale ordered October, 1914. We had some correspondenc

a considerable sacrifice. Afterward, when I got to the front, I had no time to thin

. It was impossible to find a purchaser on short notice. Early in 1917 there was a chance to sell, at a considerably reduced fig

ths before that such things as distant property rights had ceased to be of any moment. He had forgotten th

as if it embarrassed him to mention that contingency. "In war-there was that possibility, you understand. We did

d. The carrying charges, as I remember,

ed. "We protected your interests

as soon as you can," Hollister said ab

are again somewhat unsettled in the logging industry. Airplane spruce production is dead-dead as a salt mackerel-and f

e had taken a dislike to Mr. Lewis. He had not been so critical of either men or motives in the old days. He had remembered Lewis as a

made a m

is head with an inquiring air,

from his chair, "I shall cease to trouble you. I have a dra

s hastened to assent, but his to

lister that Mr. Lewis disliked the necessity of appearing in public with him, that he took this means of avoiding the crowded sidewalks, of me

f notes slide through a grill by a teller who looked at him once and thereafter kept his eyes averted-a paraphrase of a hoary quotation, "I

thoroughfare. Electric cars rumbled and creaked one behind another on the double tracks. Waves

not say what caused that feeling. A look, a glance,-the inevitable shrinking. He was morbidly sensitive. He knew that, knew it was

ese dainty women by the arms, thrust his disfigured face close to hers and cry: "Look at me as if I

he did not get over feeling like that, if he did not master these impulses whic

live was the dominant instinct. A man did not put on or off the desire to live as he put on or off his coat. But life promised nothing. It was going to be a sorry affair. It struck Hollister with disheartening force that an individual is n

ollister suffered solely from that sense of being held outside the warm circle of human activities, fellowships, friendliness. If he could not overcome that barrier which people threw up around themselves at contact with him, if he could not occasionally know the s

iform whom he recognized,-a young man who had served under him in the Forty-fourth, who had w

o, To

for that familiar shadow of distaste to appear. Then he remembered that, like him

th, "has a certain familiar sound. Still,

nched from the Black Major behind the brick wall on the Al

shouldn't be surprised at anything any more. I understood yo

of the subconscious rose instantly the remembrance that he had never particularly liked Tommy Rutherford. He was one of the wild men of the battalion. When they went up the line Rutherford was damnably cool and efficient, a

r said. "Come in and gas a bit-

o see a chap, but he's out. I ha

garettes and talked. And as they talked, Rutherford kept loo

you the willies

rd shook

ellows all twisted out of shape. Y

y. "But it's a devil of a han

rawled. "Tough luck, all right. People don't take very much stock in fellow

r laughe

t a discount

truct recruits, after recovering from a wound. He was the military man par excellence. War was his game. He had been anxious to go to Siberia with the Canadian contingent which had just de

gning and going to Mexico, to offer his sword to whichever proved the stronger faction. It would be a picnic after the Wester

was the first man for long to accept Hollister as a human bei

after Rutherford had gone,-until in moving about