Riders of the Silences by John Frederick Read Free Book Online Page B

hills, he saw no single
sign of a building. If he reached some such place it would be the same story as
the trip to Morgantown; men simply could not beat a way against that wind.
    Then a cold hand touched his, and he looked up to find her eyes grave and
wide once more, and her lips half smiling, as if she strove to deceive him.
    "There's no chance of bringing help?"
    He merely stared hungrily at her, and the loveliest thing he had ever seen
was the play of golden hair beside her cheek. Her smile went out. She withdrew
her hand, but she repeated:
    "I'm not afraid. I'll simply grow numb and then fall asleep. But you go on
and save yourself."
    Seeing him shake his head, she caught his hands again, and so strongly that
the chill of her touch filled his veins with an icy fire.
    "I'll be unhappy. You'll make me so unhappy if you stay. Please go."
    He raised the small, white hand and pressed it to his lips.
    She said: "You are crying!"
    "No, no!"
    "There! I see the tears shining on my hand. What is your name?"
    "Pierre."
    "Pierre? I like that name. Pierre, to make me happy, will you go? Your face
is all white and touched with a shadow of blue. It is the cold. Oh, won't you
go?" Then she pleaded, finding him obdurate: "If you won't go for me, then go
for your father."
    He raised his head with a sudden laughter, and, raising it, the wind beat
into his face fiercely and the particles of snow whipped his skin.
    "Dear Pierre, then for your mother?"
    He bowed his head.
    "Not for all the people who love you and wait for you now by some warm
firesome cozy fire, all yellow and bright?"
    He took her hands and with them covered his eyes.
    "Listen: I have no father; I have no mother."
    "Pierre! Oh, Pierre, I'm sorry!"
    "And for the rest of 'em, I've killed a man. The whole world hates me; the
whole world's hunting me."
    The small hands tugged away. He dared not raise his bowed and miserable head
for fear of her eyes. And then the hands came back to him and touched his face.
    She was saying tremulously: "Then he deserved to be killed. There must be men
like thatalmost. And Ilike you still, Pierre."
    "Really?"
    "I almost think I like you morebecause you could kill a manand then stay
here for me."
    "If you were a grown-up girl, do you know what I'd say?"
    "Please tell me."
    "That I could love you."
    "Pierre"
    "Yes."
    "My name is Mary Brown."
    He repeated several times: "Mary."
    "And if I were a grown-up girl, do you know what I would answer?"
    "I don't dare guess it."
    "That I could love you, Pierre, if you were a grown-up man."
    "But I am."
    "Not a really one."
    And they both broke into laughterhappy laughter that died out before a sound
of rushing and of thunder, as a mass slid swiftly past them, snow and mud and
sand and rubble. The wind fell away from them, and when Pierre looked up he saw
that a great mass of tumbled rock and soil loomed above them.
    The landslide had not touched them, by some miracle, but in a moment more it
might shake loose again, and all that mass of ton upon ton of stone and loam
would overwhelm them. The whole mass quaked and trembled and trembled, and the
very hillside shuddered beneath them.
    She looked up and saw the coming ruin; but her cry was for him, not herself.
    "Run, Pierreyou can save yourself."
    With that terror threatening him from above, he rose and started to run down
the hill. A moan of woe followed him, and he stopped and turned back, and fought
his way through the wind until he was beside her once more.
    She was wringing the white, cold hands and weeping:
    "PierreI couldn't help itbut when you left me the whole world went out, and
my heart broke. I couldn't help calling out for you; but now I'm strong again,
and I won't have you stay. The whole mountain is shaking and falling toward us.
Go now, Pierre, and I'll never make a sound to bring you back."
    He said: "Hush! I've something here which will keep us both safe. Look!"
    He tore from the chain which held it at his throat the