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Joan listened Was there sound or silence? A faint and indescribably

low roar, so low that it ht breeze It was the roar of the caony, the wild life in ceaseless action--the strange

voice of gold, roaring greed and battle and death over the souls of

men But above that, presently, rose the murmur of the creek, a

hushed and dreaet

by this horde of wild old and

blood Would it purge itself and clarify in the valleys below, on

its way to the sea? There was in its murmur an imperishable and

deathless note of nature, of tiold

Only by straining her ears could Joan hear these sounds, and when

she ceased that, then she seehed upon and claimed by

silence It was not a silence like that of Lost Canon, but a silence

of solitude where her soul stood alone She was there on earth, yet

no one could hear her mortal cry The thunder of avalanches or the

booht have lessened her sense of utter loneliness