The Silver Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page A

now. “He’ll have to make up his mind before he’s much older if he does,” he added. “We appear to be in for a fairly stiff climb and I’m not going to let him pass me on any of those devilish little hairpin bends one comes across in the Alps!”
    “Has he been behind us for long?”
    “About twenty miles or so, but I think I saw the car at Chamonix. It could be coincidence, of course,” he added lightly. “There are plenty of these little Dauphines on the road. Grand little cars they are. Full of pep! He’ll probably show us his dust on the next straight.”
    The Dauphine, however, stayed behind, following them at a respectful distance until they reached Sancey-le-Bas. It was a remote little place lying on the floor of a narrow valley, with a snow-fed river flowing through it, and the soundlessness of high places wrapping it around.
    John did not seem impressed. With a quick glance through his driving mirror, he said, “We’ll push on and see what we feel about Sancey-le-Haut, shall we? There’s sure to be an inn of sorts there, and if we’re going to have mountain air we may as well have cowbells and all the rest of it!”
    Adele knew that he was trying to shake off the green Dauphine, but she did not question him. The chill of the unknown had clamped down on her again and all she wanted to do was to leave Sancey-le-Bas and the Dauphine behind.
    Slowly they wound up the mountain road, leaving the trees and the valley far beneath them. High above the road the peaks were white with snow and blue in the crevices where the ice lay.
    “It’s like Bourg-St. Pierre,” Adele said in a stifled whisper. “Only the snow has gone from the valley.”
    “All these Alpine villages look much the same,” he answered almost curtly. “Don’t think about the past if it distresses you so much.”
    “No, I won’t. I’m sorry,” she apologized.
    She looked back for the Dauphine, but the road behind them was deserted. The occupant of the other car had obviously decided to remain in Sancey-le-Bas.
    The inn at Sancey-le-Haut was unpretentious, but like all French establishments, it was scrupulously clean and the food was excellent. When they had satisfied appetites sharpened by the keen mountain air, they were both quite ready to turn in for the night.
    “All the same,” John decided, “we ought to walk off some of this food. Come on, we’ll walk up to the waterfall and back. It can’t be much more than a kilometer, and we need the exercise.”
    It was dark when they went out, but the whole world was full of stars. They glittered like tiny elfin lanterns above the peaks, piercingly bright against the dark blue of the heavens, so that they had no difficulty in finding their way.
    They had seen the waterfall from the road leading up to the village and they could hear it in the silence of the night as they approached. It was a magic moment, and Adele was not surprised when John took her hand and drew it through his arm.
    “We’ll never find a place like this again, not in a thousand years!” he declared enthusiastically, drawing deep breaths of the keen air as they gazed down into the gorge at their feet. “I’m glad we didn’t go on to Brian c on after all.”
    “It’s a lost enchanted valley,” Adele said above the sound of the falling water. “A place where anything might happen.”
    He turned abruptly toward the village.
    “You’re tired,” he said. “Shall we go back?”
    They drank a nightcap in the small parlor of the inn, which had the dank smell of all unused places. The fire afforded them little warmth, and Adele walked around, examining the cheap lithographs on the wooden walls.
    “Do you think we’re going to find anything when we reach Cap Ferrat?” she asked suddenly. “Anything about me?”
    He put down his glass and came toward her. “You’re not to worry,” he said, taking her by the shoulders in the way that had become familiar to her now. “Leave that to me. I have so few