Argosy, Vol. 120, No. 1 — page 43: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

RESURRECT ION DAY. rude. He made an uneasy apology that was laughed aside, half finished. They walked together then, an aimless stroll, Dean answering her questions about the dead town and his lonely life. They were returning to the cabin when she re- marked of it: “ You built with excellent taste—really. There’s a very fine line to it, simple as it is. I think you might have been a very successful architect, if. you had tried. But one thing’s odd. Did you build it sto the dune—or did the sand come afterward and bury it? Sand and house seemed linked into one.’ Before she had finished Marta Kree was aware that a perfectly innocent, idle ques- tion had terrorized her host. He gave her a look black with suspicious fears. ‘ CHAPTER III.. BLUEBEARD. EAN’S look slightly alarmed Marta Kree. For several moments he con- tinued to act’ in a very peculiar way, like a man who had received a fright, who sus- pected her of some wrong-doing, who might even anticipate some sort of revenge upon her. Her comment on the shape of the cabin had been perfectly innocent, the result of a real enthusiasm for the little home this recluse had built with his own hands. It was well designed, and she applauded it— as she applauded several things she had discovered about Dean. Up to this moment Marta had been en- joying adventure hugely. The past four weeks had been a gay tapestry of action with the scarlet thread of romance and in- trigue coloring the pattern. Her sudden translation from the demure, commonplace, - and slightly bored woman of business to the leading part in an intrigue to outwit the law and join Burchard, with the pros- pect of marriage, travel, and more adven- ture as the reward, was a welcome vacation from a life of routine—an unexpected gift. Of the ethics she thought not at all. She was too used to Burchard’s spectacular operations to consider their ethical aspect. The long dead and forgotten little town 3 ARGOSY 33 where she had landed « did not disconcert her in the least. This was romance, and she enjoyed it. In the same spirit she took possession of Dean’s home, confident of her welcome, and equally confident of herself should she possibly prove unwelcome. What notion she had of frontier char- acter she had probably formed from read- ing. She assumed that either the owner of this wide-open home would be the crude, somewhat incoherent heart of gold with rough exterior or, at the worst, the black- bearded villain of tradition whom she could manage with her ridiculous pistol. In Dean’s little library she found his own manuscripts, and reading them allayed all fear. From Dean’s essays, the employment of his vast leisure, she had discovered a _ man whose one ideal was peace in absolute seclusion. . The man wrote delightfully of his soli- tary life, describing the long, gray winters of this wild coast, and its brief. lovely summers. He wrote with shrewd observa- tion and humor of his dog Fang, painting a dog portrait that was masterly. He told whimsically of the dead town in which he lived alone, speculating on its brief, bril- liant past. The dunes, the flowers, shy, wild animals, and the everlasting drama of the elements he had translated into prose, which Marta, priding herself on shrewd judgment, un- covered with the delight of one who finds pure gold. And through all that Dean had written ran one refrain, his pleasure in perfect isola- tion. The man was a philosopher and not uninteresting. He had known the world and the wilderness, and in the wilderness he had found content. He had reached definite conclusions: That man’s happiness lies entirely within his own heart; that only in isolation is there perfect contentment; that humanity’s weakness is its instinct to herd. _ War and all its woes Dean would abol- ish by reversion to the primitive—each man for himself and by himself. Trade must be abolished; human intercourse annulled. Recognizing natural laws, he would limit civilization to the one family group, and he quaintly admitted that his own ideal was COMmiclbooa S CO@