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If she prayed to the stars for mercy, it was denied her Passionlessly

they blazed on But she could not kill herself In that hour death would

have been the only relief and peace left to her Stricken by the cruelty

of her fate, she fell back against the stones and gave up to grief

Nothing was left but fierce pain The youth and vitality and intensity

of her then locked aruish and torth of es of this catastrophe Will power see, but the flesh

of her, that medium of exquisite sensation, so full of life, so prone to

joy, refused to surrender The part of her that felt fought terribly for

its heritage

All night long Carley lay there The crescent moon went down, the stars

moved on their course, the coyotes ceased to wail, the wind died away,

the lapping of the waves along the lake shore wore to gentle splash, the

whispering of the insects stopped as the cold of dawn approached The

darkest hour fell--hour of silence, solitude, and , ray dawn Carley dragged her bruised and aching body back to her

tent, and, fastening the door, she threw off wet clothes and boots and

fell upon her bed Slumber of exhaustion ca shadows of cedar boughs

on the white canvas told that the sun was straight above Carley ached

as never before A deep pang seemed invested in every bone Her heart

felt swollen out of proportion to its space in her breast Her breathing