The Enchanted Canyon by Honoré Willsie Morrow
page 29 of 461 (06%)
page 29 of 461 (06%)
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below.
"I can't stand it!" he muttered. "I can't stand it!" and turning, he bolted for the hotel. He stopped before the log fire in the lobby. A little group of men and women were sitting before the blaze, reading or chatting. One of the women looked up at the boy and smiled. It seemed impossible to Nucky that human beings could be sitting so calmly, doing quite ordinary things, with that horror lying just a few feet away. For perhaps five minutes he struggled with his sense of panic, then he went slowly out and forced himself to the railing again. While he had been indoors, it had ceased to storm and the view lay clear and clean before him. Although there was a foot of level snow on the rim, so vast were the ledges and benches below that the drifts served only as high lights for their crimson and black and orange. Just beneath Nucky were tree tops, heavy laden with white. Far, far below were tiny shrubs that the porter said were trees and below these,--orderly strips of brilliant colors and still below, and below--! Nucky moistened his dry lips and once more bolted to the hotel. Just within the door, John Seaton met him. "Well, Enoch?" There was no coldness in Nucky's eyes now. They were the frightened eyes of a child. "I can't stand that thing!" he panted. "I gotta get back to N' York, now!" |
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