Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

BROTHERS 0’ - As soon as Neysa McGann had seen the last of the girl at her door, she hurried back to her own cottage. Béfore she did any- thing else she must get supper for herself and for the boy. Entering, she called him shrilly, as was her wont, but there was no answer. Half running and still calling, she searched the two rooms and the tiny out-shed. He was not there. In all his life it was the first time he had been away after dark. Going to the door, she peered up and putts the road anxiously, although it was impossible to see ten yards in the thick dusk. Then after a moment, without eating anything herself, she slammed the gate be- hind her and with her cane in her hand, started clambering up the rocky path that led to Eastrup’s house. Though ‘his win- dows were in plain sight from hers, and on bright days she could catch the crimson flare of poppies in the garden, she had never before turned her steps toward them. ° But she arrived, after all, too late. Larry had already gone, Stella said. Much earlier than usual, as he had a special errand. What was the matter? . “Fetch me a cup of tea, and hold your tongue!” snapped the old woman. “ Half way up a mountain I come clambering, with my old legs like sticks and no breath in me at all, just that an impudent hussy should ask me what is the matter! Mercy, girl! May God bless us an’ morning send not grief too deep to bear!” . “Why? What? What is it?” The old woman had tottered to a bed and thrown herself down. ‘““ What? What?’ What me no whats!” she mimicked bitterly. ‘‘ Get the tea, put no sugar in it, bring it here, then let me rest. Here I stay till morning. As for you, girl, bolt you your doors, light the two candles before your shrine,.and,.as you love God, let not prayer forsake your lips the night!” Not daring to ask another question, the girl got the hot drink for her guest and set the candles going. Then, feeling that she would have to scream if she stayed a mo- ment ionger in the tiny, close-shut room, ae went out on the porch. The night was calm and thick. Not a breath of wind stirred, and a spectral, gray- SPINKLE’S CHIMNEY, claimed the girl irritably. 599 white fog had choked the valleys and was thickening upward toward the peaks. A mile below, the surf boomed and grumbled against the cliffs. From the cove, the meas- ured click-click-click of oars fetching up. be- tween wooden thole-pins told of a solitary dory coming in. For the rest, nothing— not a light, not a sound; only the deep-roar- ing silence all about. Standing still, her hands wrapped in her apron, Stella Eastrup glanced back into the kitchen where the candles were. burning steadily and where, in the room beyond, the old woman drowsed and mutteféd on the bed. Then she sank down on the rough boards, leaned against the corner post, and began to pray. After a long time, having said all the prayers she knew and wept her apron damp, she fell asleep. Hours later, senses tingling, she started suddenly awake. She was shivering with cold. The wind, changing to the north, had blown the fog away. A wisp of moon hung over the cliffs, and a brilliant star gleamed near it. The old woman was standing at her shoulder. “Ye slept!” accused the crone. “ The candles have gone out. Faithless, like all— Hark! ) Crouching beside her on * the step, she gripped her shoulder, pointing over it a gnarled finger. ‘ Canst hear them singing?” ‘““ No!” shivered the girl. “ Hear what?” ‘The water-women.. Banshees crooning their songs. They—” “It is the wind!” interrupted the girl, ‘moaning around the cliffs. And the waves breaking. There is no such thing!” The crone laughed cacklingly. ‘That is what say those who have no ears to hear. The old women know—they who have lost sons at sea.” ‘““There is going to be a storm!” ex- “Tt always sounds like that—”’ ‘““Aye. A storm. There comes the wind.” <A puff beat in their faces. ‘‘ That is their time. Their hair is the spray from the green waves, and with their white arms _they cling around men’s necks—”’ Abruptly the girl got to her feet and went inside the house. ‘“ Keep still!” she snapped. ‘‘ Down in EO NOOO SS (CO)