The Hidden Places

Coast Range. Chance, the inscrutable arbiter of human destinies, had directed him that morning to a man cutting wood on the bank of the river close by that c

s from here left awhile ago. If you hurry, maybe you can catch 'em. If you catch 'em before they get out over the ba

r had ca

forth clothed with the dignity of massiveness, of permanence. It was as it had been for centuries, calm and untroubled, unmoved by floods and slides, by fires and slow glacial changes. Yes, it was beautiful and Hollister looked a long time, for he was not s

ls-themselves lifting to dizzy heights that were shrouded in rolling mist-marked the limit of his visual range. The ship's bell tinkled the noon hour

ke head of Toba with its aerial ice fields and snowy slopes. Twenty miles below Salmon Bay the island-dotted area of the Gulf of Georgia began. There a snowfall seldom endured long, and the teeth of the frost were blunted by eternal rains. There the loggi

, fishermen, and what-not. A buzz of conversation filled the place. But Hollister was not a participant. He observed casual, covert glances at his disfigured face, that disarrangement of his features and marring of his flesh which made men ill at ease in his presence. He felt a recurrence

hen she did not, his eyes kept coming back to her with the involuntary curiosity of the casual male concerning the strange female. She was of medium height, well-formed, dressed in a well-tailored gray suit. Under the edges of a black velvet turban her hair show

tly bestow a cursory glance upon him and withdraw to some other part of the ship? Hollister waited for that with moody expectation. He found

lf-turned, seemed to hesitate. Instinctively, as a matter of common courtesy to a woman, Hollister took a step forward, picked it

The faintest sort of smile lurked about the corners of a pretty mouth. Her eyes were a cloudy gray. They

much," she s

e had been able to regard his disfigurement unmoved. He wondered how she could. For months he had encountered women's averted faces, the reluctant glances of mingled pity and distaste which he had schooled himself to expect and endure but which he neve

s surprise, the

g near the Cha

ith the curious quality of her gaze, the strangely unperturbed dir

mile. You can see the western isla

uld; but I shall have to take

I don't quit

ver her face at

ence. "If my eyes were not sightless, I shouldn't have to ask a strange

lf comprehend a world devoid of light and color, an existence in which one felt and breathed and had being amid eterna

e," he found himself s

errupted. "I thought every one always reg

bly sardonic inflectio

d eagerly. He was sure he had interpreted that infl

able to see is a handicap. At the same time to have pity drooled all over one

ls tore my face to pieces. People don't like to look at the result. Women particularly. You can't see

w whether your face is straight or crooked? Some one who accepts you sight

r admitted. "Th

and relatives?" sh

country," he said. "And I h

r cheek with a gloved forefinger. What w

myself feeling sorry for you-and you are only a disembodied voice. Your fix is somethi

sant company. At least, that sort of misery which comes from isolati

y. The tone of her voice made Hollister

to be a pretty good sort of a world for me in the old days. I'm not

, and he could not help saying it. There was something about this girl that broke down

no

kick if there is anything to kick about. And it's always sh

m?" Hollister inquired. "You just said

cal low-toned chuck

ens other faculties. You often have very definite impression

"I daresay every one g

ertain impression of you by the language you use, your tone, your inflections-and by a something else w

n in those impressionist

itated

That sounds egotistic,

and and the Redondas a cold wind came whistling out of Homfray Channel. Hollister felt the

an uncomfortable breeze. And do you mind if I talk to yo

iled a

that last,

her toward a cabin abaft the wheelhouse on the boat deck, a roomy lounging place unoccupied s

d I remembered the coast as a place I liked. So I came back here when the war was o

replied, "is

ooked at he

e said aloud. It was to all i

asked quickly. "And how do you

ss," he answere

s-b

s up the river from the mouth. When I got there I decided to stay awhile. It was less lonesome there than in the racket and hustle of a town where I knew

f the Big Bend?" the girl cut in eagerly. "A log house with two rooms, w

. And in this cabin there was a shelf with a row of books, and

ed. "I thought the rats had

day a man would need those books to keep him from going crazy, alone there in those quiet hills. They were

hat for you

wondered who Doris Cleveland was and why she left her books to

things there. Why, I can see every peak and gorge yet, and the valley below with the river winding through and the beaver meadows in the f

shadow of regret, her voice lingering on the wo

ng limb struck me on the head-and I was blind; in less than two hours of being unconscious I woke up, and I couldn't see anything-like that almost," she snapped her finger. "On top of that my brothers discovered that they had no right to cut timber there. Things were going badly in France, too. So they went overseas. They were both killed in the same action, on the same day. My books were left there because

se books he had been poring over all these weeks. She had a mind, he perceived. She could think and express her thoughts in sentences as clean-cut as her fa

our handicap is greater than mine-at least you must feel it so. But you don't complain. You e

the inevitable. I comfort myself with the selfish reflection that if I can't see a lot that I would dearly love to see, I am also saved the sight of things that are mean and sordid and disturbing. If I seem cheerful I

They went to dinner together, and if there were curious looks bestowed upon them Hollister was too engrossed to care and the girl, of course, could not see those sidelong, unspoken inquiries.

d. He envied her courage and fortitude, the calm assurance with which she seemed to face the world which

e was returning there, she told Hollister, after three weeks or so in Vancouver. The steamer would dock about daylight the following morning. When Hollister offered to s

t me ashore and put me in a taxi," she sa

d shot like a pleasant burst of colorful light across the gra

among the great cedars with the snow banked white outside the door. He saw himself sitting beside the fir

subconscious mind, when the steward's rap at the doo