Part 27 (1/2)
”What time is it?” she asked
He drew out his watch, and as they both looked his blood ran cold
”Twelve minutes,” she murmured, and there was not a quiver in her voice
”Let us sit down, John--you on this box, and I on the floor, at your feet--like this”
He seated himself on the box, and Joanne nestled herself at his knees, her hands clasped in his
”I think, John,” she said softly, ”that very, very often ould have visited like this--you and I--in the evening”
A lump choked him, and he could not answer
”I would very often have come and perched myself at your feet like this”
”Yes, yes, my beloved”
”And you would always have told otten that, John--or have grown tired?”
”No, no--never!”
His ar her closer
”And ould have had beautiful ti, and--and----”
He felt her trehtened about hih the smother of her hair, came the _tick-tick-tick_ of his watch
He felt her fu the tiht of the lantern fell on the face of it
”It is three ers, and now she drew herself up so that her arms were about his neck, and their faces touched
”Dear John, you love me?”
”So much that even now, in the face of death, I am happy,” he whispered
”Joanne, sweetheart, we are not going to be separated We are going--together Through all eternity it irl, wind your hair about ht!”
”There--and there--and there, John! I have tied you to me, and you are buried in it! Kiss reat loneliness swept through hi breath, and the lips he kissed did not kiss him back, and her body lay heavy, heavy, heavy in his ar her oblivion in these last moments, and with his face crushed to hers he waited For he knew that it was no longer a matter of minutes, but of seconds, and in those seconds he prayed, until up through the war bell--ca the Hour of Four!
In space other worlds ht have cruht have been written and the lives ofseconds in which John Aldous held his breath and waited after the chi of the hour-bell in the watch on the cavern floor How long he waited he did not kno closely he was crushi+ng Joanne to his breast he did not realize Seconds, minutes, and other minutes--and his brain ran red in dumb, silent madness And the watch! It _ticked, ticked, ticked!_ It was like a ha up through her hair But it was not in her hair now It was over hi, but a throb, a steady, jarring, beating throb It grew louder, and the air stirred with it He lifted his head With the eyes of a madman he stared--and listened His arms relaxed from about Joanne, and she slipped crumpled and lifeless to the floor He stared--and that steady _beat-beat-beat_--a hundred ti of a watch--pounded in his brain Was he ered to the choked mouth of the tunnel, and then there fell shout upon shout, and shriek upon shriek from his lips, and twice, like a ht her up in his ar--and calling her na upon the spirit of the dead she looked into the face of John Aldous, a low
”John--John----”