May 15, 2025 • 13 mins
Transplanted from New York to save his familys business in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Price Ruyler quickly ascends to the top of the citys bachelor list. Yet, he remains immune to the local girls advances and their mothers schemes. That is, until he encounters the enchanting Helene, leading to a whirlwind proposal within just a week. As they journey into their fourth year of marriage, Prices love for Helene remains steadfast. However, he begins to sense a shift, sparking questions about her enigmatic past and whether any family secrets were lost in the earthquakes aftermath.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter thirteen of the Avalanche. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Lyne Thompson The Avalanche by Gertrude horn Atherton, chapter thirteen.
(00:22):
Eileen had shrieked and fled. Rila stood in the room
with the ruby in his open hand. He saw that
Ellne was standing quite erect before him. She had made
no attempt to leave the room, nor did she appear
to be threatened with hysterics. He groped until he found
the electric button. The room, as Rayler had inferred, was
(00:42):
missus Thornton's winter boudoir, a gorgeous room of yellow brocade
and oriental stuffs. Will you sit down, he asked. Ellenne
shook her head. She was very white, and she looked
as old as a young actress who had been doing
one night's stands for three months. Behind the drawn mask
of her face there was her indestructible youth, but so
(01:05):
faint that it thought itself dead. She looked at her hands,
which she twisted together as if they were cold. Will
you tell me the truth now? Asked Pryce. Don't you
guess it? When I came here to night, I believed
that you were the victim of blackmail. I was not
watching you. I hope you will take my word for that.
(01:27):
We I had a detective on the case. Scolding merely
wanted to nab the man who was blackmailing you. Do
you still believe that I overheard your conversation with Aileen Lawton?
I don't know what to believe. I am a gambler.
My father was a gambler. He kept a notorious place
in San Francisco. His name out here was James Garnet.
(01:50):
My grandfather was a gambler. He was even more spectacular.
I know all that, don't mind you knew it for
the first time. She looked at him, but she turned
her eyes away at once and stared at the oblong
of dark framed by the window. Why Spolding told me
to night only? Mother told me a week or so ago.
(02:12):
She'd been recognized shortly after I married. When she found
out how the women played bridge and poker here. She
made me promise I'd never touch a card, never play
any sort of gambling game. I promised readily enough, and
I thought nothing of her insistence. Mamore was old fashioned
in many ways. I mean, the life we lived in
(02:34):
Ruon was so different from this that I could understand
how many things would shock her. I never thought about it,
but it was about six months ago. You were away
for a week and I stayed with Polly Roberts at
the Fairmont. I knew, of course, that she played, and
that Aileen and a lot of the others did, but
I hadn't given the matter a thought. One heard nothing
(02:57):
but bridge, bridge, bridge, I was the word. But I
found they played poker, Polly and Eileen, Alice Thorndyke, Janet Maynard,
Mary Kimball, Nick, Doremus Rex and one or two other
men who could get off in the afternoons. I never
had dreamed any one in society played for such high stakes.
(03:18):
Janet Maynard and Mary Kimball could afford it, but Polly
and Alice and Eileen couldn't. Still, they often won enough
anyhow to clean up and go on. Doremus is a
wonderful player. That is how I got interested watching him,
after he had explained the game to me. It was
a long time before I was persuaded to take a hand.
(03:41):
It was so interesting just to watch, and not only
the game, but their faces. Some would have a regular
poker face, others would give themselves away. Once Aileen had
the most awful hysterics. We were afraid someone outside would
hear her. The deadening was burnt out of the walls
of the fair at the time of the fire, but
(04:01):
we were in the middle room of the suite. Nick
told her, in his dreadful, cold, expressionless voice that if
she ever did that again, he'd never play another game
with her. That meant they'd all drop her. And she
came to and promise, and she kept her word. Poker
is the breath of life to her. I think she'd
become a drug fiend if she couldn't have it. At last,
(04:25):
they persuaded me to play. We were playing at Nick's,
and after a light dinner served by his jap, we
went right on playing until midnight. I never thought of
you or anything. I seemed to respond with every nerve
in my body and brain. I one and one and one,
And even when I lost, I didn't mind the sensation.
(04:46):
The tearing excitement just under a perfectly cool brain was wonderful.
I only ceased to enjoy it when I realized what
it meant when I couldn't keep away from it, when
I lived for the hour, when we would meet at Polly's,
or at Nick's, or at Aileen's, any of the places
where we were supposed to be dancing, but where there
(05:08):
was no danger of being found out. Of course, I
dared not have them at home, and the others lived
with their families or had too many servants. I came
fully to my senses one day when Nick told me
I was a born gambler, if ever there was one.
Then when I realized, I became desperately unhappy. I was
(05:28):
the slave of a thing. I was deceiving you. When
I was at the table, I loved poker better than you,
better than anything on earth. When I was alone, I
hated it, but I couldn't break away. Besides, I didn't
always win. I had to play in the hope of
winning back, or if I won a lot, it was
a point of honor to go on and play again
(05:48):
and give them their chance. Missus Thornton found out, she
gave me a terrible talking to. I'm afraid I was
very insolent, but she came up that night of the
assay and warned me that you were downstairs. I was
playing in Polly's room. We had all danced two or
three times, and then slipped up to the next floor
by different stairs and lids. I liked her better then,
(06:12):
of course, she did it for your sake, not mine.
But she's a good sort, not a cat. You have
not noticed. But I have not bought a new gown
this season, except that little gray one, and this, which
was made in the house. I dared not pour my
jewels for fear you would miss them. I've been in hell. Then.
It was that evening you heard Mademan reproach me for
(06:35):
breaking my promise. I had lost a dreadful lot of money,
and Nick had scurried round and borrowed it for me.
I didn't know then that he meant all the time
to get hold of the ruby. I am sure now
that he cheated and made me lose well. I sent
the maid away that night and told ma'aman she was
nearly off her head. I never saw her excited before
(06:57):
then she told me the truth. I felt as if
I had been turned to stone. But I felt suddenly
cool and wary. I knew I must keep my head.
It was as if my father had suddenly come alive
in my brain. I had never lied to you before,
merely put you off. But how I lied that night.
(07:18):
I felt possessed, and I knew I must not be
found out. And I made up my mind to stop
playing as soon as I came out. Even if I
had known that my father and my grandfather had been gamblers,
I never should have touched a card. I far rather
have drunk poison. I made up my mind then and
(07:38):
there to stop, and I felt quite capable of it.
But I had to go on and square myself, for
I owed that money to Nick. But when I played,
it was with my head only all the fever had
gone out of my veins. I loathed it. I loathed
still more deceiving you. I one and one and one.
(07:58):
I thought I was delivered. I was almost happy again.
Some day. I meant to tell you when it was
all over. Then I began to lose horribly thousands. It
ran up to twenty thousand. I did not betray myself,
and the girls thought I had money of my own
and could pay my losses quite easily. They didn't know
(08:19):
that Nick always helped me out. He was never the
least bit in love with me he couldn't love any woman,
but he said I played such a wonderful game and
was such a sport, never lost my head, that he
wouldn't lose me for the world when I threatened to
stop and never play again. But all the time he
wanted the ruby. I found that out when he told
(08:39):
me he must have the money. Inside of a week,
he'd taken it out of his business, and it really
belonged to his partners, and they'd find him out and
sent him to prison. I offered him my jewels. They
would have brought half their value. At least I could
have told you they were stolen, only one more life.
It was then that he said he must have the ruby.
(09:01):
He had known about it ever since you came out here,
but after he saw it on me that night at
the Gwinn's, he was more than ever determined to have it.
I laughed at him. At first, it seemed preposterous that
he could demand a ruby worth two or three hundred
thousand dollars in payment for a debt of twenty thousand.
I thought of selling my jewels and furs and laces,
(09:24):
or pawning them and raising the amount. He only had
my iou for that sum, but I didn't know where
to go, so I told Aileen. She wouldn't hear of
my disposing of my things, said it would be all
over town in twenty four hours. She advised me to
get the twenty thousand out of you on one pretext
or another. I tried, you will remember. Then Nick began
(09:49):
to haunt me. He whispered in my ear wherever we met,
and was nearly frantic. He said he could hold me
up to shame without compromising himself. I had written him
some frantic letters, and he said they read just like
like the other thing. I felt perfectly helpless. I knew
(10:09):
that even if I did manage to pawn the jewels,
you would miss them from the safe and trace them.
I ceased to feel cool. I nearly went off my head,
but I stopped gambling. I felt sure by this time
that he could make me lose, but I couldn't prove it.
Aileen told me I must give him the ruby. He
promised me before Aileen that he would give me back
(10:30):
my IOUs as well as my notes, if I would
hand over the ruby. He knew I was to wear
it to night. Finally I gave in yesterday Nick called
me up on the telephone and told me to come
down to the California Market to lunch and to bring Aileen.
He told me there that unless I promised to give
(10:50):
him the ruby to night and kept my word, he'd
either give my IOUs and my notes to you or
to the merry Tatler. He didn't care which. I could
have my choice. I said I would do it, but
it was terribly conspicuous. Everybody would notice when it was gone.
He said, I must conceal it anyhow until we are
(11:11):
masked after supper, and then I could pretend I had
lost it. He discussed several plans for having me slip
it to him, but it was Aileen who insisted we
should come here. Missus Thornton never opens her boudoir at
a party. Everywhere else would be a blaze of light
in this dark corner. We should be safe, especially if
(11:32):
he came from the outside and I from the inside.
How did your detective find out? I think Aileen did
a decent thing for once in her life, she went
on in her monotonous voice. I felt reckless after that,
and I really was gay and almost happy. At dinner
last night, the dye was cast. I didn't much care
(11:54):
for anything. I thought, perhaps it was my last night
with you, that when I told you I had lost
the ruby, you were suspect and turn me out of
your house, tell Memment to take me back to rule.
Then came that awful moment when you said you had
to go away, and I could not wear it. For
a few moments, I thought I should scream and tell
(12:14):
you everything, but I was both too proud and too
much of a coward. Then I knew I should have
to rob this safe, and somehow I hated that part
more than anything else. I did it just ten minutes
before Rex and Polly called for me to motor down here.
It had seemed the most horrible thing in the world
to be a gambler, but it was worse to be
(12:35):
a thief. I remember the combination perfectly. I have that
sort of memory. It registers photographically. I had seen you
move the combination several times. Perhaps I deliberately registered it.
I can't say I have lived in such a maze
of intrigue lately. I can't say that is all, except
(12:55):
that I didn't get the letters and the other things.
He had an envelope in one hand. Spalding has it
beyond a doubt end of Chapter thirteen,
Chapter thirteen of the Avalanche. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Lyne Thompson The Avalanche by Gertrude horn Atherton, chapter thirteen.
(00:22):
Eileen had shrieked and fled. Rila stood in the room
with the ruby in his open hand. He saw that
Ellne was standing quite erect before him. She had made
no attempt to leave the room, nor did she appear
to be threatened with hysterics. He groped until he found
the electric button. The room, as Rayler had inferred, was
(00:42):
missus Thornton's winter boudoir, a gorgeous room of yellow brocade
and oriental stuffs. Will you sit down, he asked. Ellenne
shook her head. She was very white, and she looked
as old as a young actress who had been doing
one night's stands for three months. Behind the drawn mask
of her face there was her indestructible youth, but so
(01:05):
faint that it thought itself dead. She looked at her hands,
which she twisted together as if they were cold. Will
you tell me the truth now? Asked Pryce. Don't you
guess it? When I came here to night, I believed
that you were the victim of blackmail. I was not
watching you. I hope you will take my word for that.
(01:27):
We I had a detective on the case. Scolding merely
wanted to nab the man who was blackmailing you. Do
you still believe that I overheard your conversation with Aileen Lawton?
I don't know what to believe. I am a gambler.
My father was a gambler. He kept a notorious place
in San Francisco. His name out here was James Garnet.
(01:50):
My grandfather was a gambler. He was even more spectacular.
I know all that, don't mind you knew it for
the first time. She looked at him, but she turned
her eyes away at once and stared at the oblong
of dark framed by the window. Why Spolding told me
to night only? Mother told me a week or so ago.
(02:12):
She'd been recognized shortly after I married. When she found
out how the women played bridge and poker here. She
made me promise I'd never touch a card, never play
any sort of gambling game. I promised readily enough, and
I thought nothing of her insistence. Mamore was old fashioned
in many ways. I mean, the life we lived in
(02:34):
Ruon was so different from this that I could understand
how many things would shock her. I never thought about it,
but it was about six months ago. You were away
for a week and I stayed with Polly Roberts at
the Fairmont. I knew, of course, that she played, and
that Aileen and a lot of the others did, but
I hadn't given the matter a thought. One heard nothing
(02:57):
but bridge, bridge, bridge, I was the word. But I
found they played poker, Polly and Eileen, Alice Thorndyke, Janet Maynard,
Mary Kimball, Nick, Doremus Rex and one or two other
men who could get off in the afternoons. I never
had dreamed any one in society played for such high stakes.
(03:18):
Janet Maynard and Mary Kimball could afford it, but Polly
and Alice and Eileen couldn't. Still, they often won enough
anyhow to clean up and go on. Doremus is a
wonderful player. That is how I got interested watching him,
after he had explained the game to me. It was
a long time before I was persuaded to take a hand.
(03:41):
It was so interesting just to watch, and not only
the game, but their faces. Some would have a regular
poker face, others would give themselves away. Once Aileen had
the most awful hysterics. We were afraid someone outside would
hear her. The deadening was burnt out of the walls
of the fair at the time of the fire, but
(04:01):
we were in the middle room of the suite. Nick
told her, in his dreadful, cold, expressionless voice that if
she ever did that again, he'd never play another game
with her. That meant they'd all drop her. And she
came to and promise, and she kept her word. Poker
is the breath of life to her. I think she'd
become a drug fiend if she couldn't have it. At last,
(04:25):
they persuaded me to play. We were playing at Nick's,
and after a light dinner served by his jap, we
went right on playing until midnight. I never thought of
you or anything. I seemed to respond with every nerve
in my body and brain. I one and one and one,
And even when I lost, I didn't mind the sensation.
(04:46):
The tearing excitement just under a perfectly cool brain was wonderful.
I only ceased to enjoy it when I realized what
it meant when I couldn't keep away from it, when
I lived for the hour, when we would meet at Polly's,
or at Nick's, or at Aileen's, any of the places
where we were supposed to be dancing, but where there
(05:08):
was no danger of being found out. Of course, I
dared not have them at home, and the others lived
with their families or had too many servants. I came
fully to my senses one day when Nick told me
I was a born gambler, if ever there was one.
Then when I realized, I became desperately unhappy. I was
(05:28):
the slave of a thing. I was deceiving you. When
I was at the table, I loved poker better than you,
better than anything on earth. When I was alone, I
hated it, but I couldn't break away. Besides, I didn't
always win. I had to play in the hope of
winning back, or if I won a lot, it was
a point of honor to go on and play again
(05:48):
and give them their chance. Missus Thornton found out, she
gave me a terrible talking to. I'm afraid I was
very insolent, but she came up that night of the
assay and warned me that you were downstairs. I was
playing in Polly's room. We had all danced two or
three times, and then slipped up to the next floor
by different stairs and lids. I liked her better then,
(06:12):
of course, she did it for your sake, not mine.
But she's a good sort, not a cat. You have
not noticed. But I have not bought a new gown
this season, except that little gray one, and this, which
was made in the house. I dared not pour my
jewels for fear you would miss them. I've been in hell. Then.
It was that evening you heard Mademan reproach me for
(06:35):
breaking my promise. I had lost a dreadful lot of money,
and Nick had scurried round and borrowed it for me.
I didn't know then that he meant all the time
to get hold of the ruby. I am sure now
that he cheated and made me lose well. I sent
the maid away that night and told ma'aman she was
nearly off her head. I never saw her excited before
(06:57):
then she told me the truth. I felt as if
I had been turned to stone. But I felt suddenly
cool and wary. I knew I must keep my head.
It was as if my father had suddenly come alive
in my brain. I had never lied to you before,
merely put you off. But how I lied that night.
(07:18):
I felt possessed, and I knew I must not be
found out. And I made up my mind to stop
playing as soon as I came out. Even if I
had known that my father and my grandfather had been gamblers,
I never should have touched a card. I far rather
have drunk poison. I made up my mind then and
(07:38):
there to stop, and I felt quite capable of it.
But I had to go on and square myself, for
I owed that money to Nick. But when I played,
it was with my head only all the fever had
gone out of my veins. I loathed it. I loathed
still more deceiving you. I one and one and one.
(07:58):
I thought I was delivered. I was almost happy again.
Some day. I meant to tell you when it was
all over. Then I began to lose horribly thousands. It
ran up to twenty thousand. I did not betray myself,
and the girls thought I had money of my own
and could pay my losses quite easily. They didn't know
(08:19):
that Nick always helped me out. He was never the
least bit in love with me he couldn't love any woman,
but he said I played such a wonderful game and
was such a sport, never lost my head, that he
wouldn't lose me for the world when I threatened to
stop and never play again. But all the time he
wanted the ruby. I found that out when he told
(08:39):
me he must have the money. Inside of a week,
he'd taken it out of his business, and it really
belonged to his partners, and they'd find him out and
sent him to prison. I offered him my jewels. They
would have brought half their value. At least I could
have told you they were stolen, only one more life.
It was then that he said he must have the ruby.
(09:01):
He had known about it ever since you came out here,
but after he saw it on me that night at
the Gwinn's, he was more than ever determined to have it.
I laughed at him. At first, it seemed preposterous that
he could demand a ruby worth two or three hundred
thousand dollars in payment for a debt of twenty thousand.
I thought of selling my jewels and furs and laces,
(09:24):
or pawning them and raising the amount. He only had
my iou for that sum, but I didn't know where
to go, so I told Aileen. She wouldn't hear of
my disposing of my things, said it would be all
over town in twenty four hours. She advised me to
get the twenty thousand out of you on one pretext
or another. I tried, you will remember. Then Nick began
(09:49):
to haunt me. He whispered in my ear wherever we met,
and was nearly frantic. He said he could hold me
up to shame without compromising himself. I had written him
some frantic letters, and he said they read just like
like the other thing. I felt perfectly helpless. I knew
(10:09):
that even if I did manage to pawn the jewels,
you would miss them from the safe and trace them.
I ceased to feel cool. I nearly went off my head,
but I stopped gambling. I felt sure by this time
that he could make me lose, but I couldn't prove it.
Aileen told me I must give him the ruby. He
promised me before Aileen that he would give me back
(10:30):
my IOUs as well as my notes, if I would
hand over the ruby. He knew I was to wear
it to night. Finally I gave in yesterday Nick called
me up on the telephone and told me to come
down to the California Market to lunch and to bring Aileen.
He told me there that unless I promised to give
(10:50):
him the ruby to night and kept my word, he'd
either give my IOUs and my notes to you or
to the merry Tatler. He didn't care which. I could
have my choice. I said I would do it, but
it was terribly conspicuous. Everybody would notice when it was gone.
He said, I must conceal it anyhow until we are
(11:11):
masked after supper, and then I could pretend I had
lost it. He discussed several plans for having me slip
it to him, but it was Aileen who insisted we
should come here. Missus Thornton never opens her boudoir at
a party. Everywhere else would be a blaze of light
in this dark corner. We should be safe, especially if
(11:32):
he came from the outside and I from the inside.
How did your detective find out? I think Aileen did
a decent thing for once in her life, she went
on in her monotonous voice. I felt reckless after that,
and I really was gay and almost happy. At dinner
last night, the dye was cast. I didn't much care
(11:54):
for anything. I thought, perhaps it was my last night
with you, that when I told you I had lost
the ruby, you were suspect and turn me out of
your house, tell Memment to take me back to rule.
Then came that awful moment when you said you had
to go away, and I could not wear it. For
a few moments, I thought I should scream and tell
(12:14):
you everything, but I was both too proud and too
much of a coward. Then I knew I should have
to rob this safe, and somehow I hated that part
more than anything else. I did it just ten minutes
before Rex and Polly called for me to motor down here.
It had seemed the most horrible thing in the world
to be a gambler, but it was worse to be
(12:35):
a thief. I remember the combination perfectly. I have that
sort of memory. It registers photographically. I had seen you
move the combination several times. Perhaps I deliberately registered it.
I can't say I have lived in such a maze
of intrigue lately. I can't say that is all, except
(12:55):
that I didn't get the letters and the other things.
He had an envelope in one hand. Spalding has it
beyond a doubt end of Chapter thirteen,
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