Show BI am ck an e e 0 BY BEATRICE illustrations by irwin myers copyright by masslo mass co THE STORY on a pleasure trip in eastern waters philip amory english world war veteran now a trader on th the s liland island of papua new guinea plunges overboard to save the ive iko of a musical comedy actress known as gin suns sling A amory ory becomes I 1 interested n te rested in pla Laurl a urier cr member of 0 a wealthy new south wales amaly family ile he tells her of his hie knowledge of a wonderful fold cold field on the joland island though he does not disclose the name of the place gln gln sling tells him pla pia is onga engaged d to sir richard fanshaw amor amory y however la Is confident that the girl to Is not indifferent to him his holiday ended he arrives back at daru Hs he meets an englishman spicer there on development business for a syndicate of which aih fanshaw Is head fan name recalls to amory a long lone forgotten incident CHAPTER ill continued 7 the tide was down and the cutter aground I 1 cannot tell with what abat anxiety I 1 examined her I 1 would almost have set sail on a tree trunk it if nothing else could be had bad to get away beyond all belief I 1 found the hull sound bound enoah to float with a bit of balling the mast was inas smashed but I 1 thought we could rig one up with the boom setting the lie jib behind it I 1 went to look for bavitt found him sleeping peacefully in his hole and dr dragged ed him out by one leg hurry I 1 urged the tides on the turn and well never get the boat down unless we catch it shell float come on Ar arilia he objected me old me hun gerry want to go took look tor for some house I 1 get kal kal food there was nothing for it but a lie I 1 had already decided that bavitt should know nothing what he did not know he be could not spread abroad this Is a desert island I 1 told him coolly full of ghosts up to the brim find and spilling over lets get away sharp and you can pick a few coconuts to take along if youre as hungry as all that not the coconuts on the ground tavitia those are ghost coconuts get them off the tree we loaded the boat with nuts land and started work on the broken mast I 1 was mad to get away it was not yet dawn but the moon seemed paling and I 1 heard beard among the palm tree tops inland the first faint notes of waking parra keets lf if they were to hear bear us it if they came out my secret was lost and I 1 had bad some idea by this time as to how the power that owned omega regarded people who poked inquisitive noses into secrets how they might be likely to treat me it I 1 was caught taviel and I 1 got the large er jib set with the gaff for boom and got under way in the new yellow dawn a mile distant I 1 saw the island clearly small low pricked with palms one like a thousand others and I 1 judged that taviel would never know he had riot not landed on turl after all back again in omega I 1 got charts which I 1 should undoubtedly have had before and the sailing directions I 1 looked up the island on which I 1 had so unwillingly landed this was what our own admiralty volume said about it iota this island lg Is the leper quarantine station for the omego group serious penalties are attached to landing yes 1 I said closing the book and I 1 can add to that getting a leper away from it to valparaiso or elsewhere Is five years on the breakwater 0 0 0 all this I 1 remembered point by point as I 1 walked the man goes of daru darn three thousand miles away from from omega in distance years in point of time I 1 remembered it clearly without omission as if it had h happened yesterday and most clearly of all did I 1 remember now the face of the man who wore the yellow dress with the black spots bl big as plates undoubtedly it was the face of sir richard fanshaw everything came back to me the height of the man his thinness his chestnut hair and yellow brown eyes the slim arched nose and neat chin the lips unusually red tor for a mans the voice peculiarly resounding and deep in tone even the injured and deformed anger nail that I 1 now remembered I 1 had bad seen geen as six sir richard Ut chard came up the ships accommodation ladder sliding one hand along the guard rope I 1 was as sure as I 1 was of my own existence that plas pias fiance was the leper who had that night escaped from iota island not while I 1 stayed in omega which was no longer than the call of the next nest boat did anyone discover what had lapp happened ened down in aukland I 1 came upon a paper that related the daring escape from iota of a foreign speculator named fellows who had been buying up certain commercial interests tor for his country and who had in the course of these affairs deemed tv if necessary to take out pa pers transferring his nationality to the flag that waved over omega A luckless transfer it placed him beneath the domegan laws and when a dramatic accident the flie discovery of a seemingly harmless mark upon his body when bathing obliged him to go up to the local doctor tor for examination he was sent without mercy to the quarantine island there were those who hinted that fellows recently acquired commercial interests had something to do with the ease case that a big company was behind the doctor be that how it might fellows was sentenced to iota and but for the daring rescue would probably have spent the rest of his days there fellows had been nine weeks on iota nine weeks on an islet inhabited by the terrible things I 1 had seen I 1 I 1 you a dry thread on you he observed better shift an islet reeking with contagion and innocent of any modern sanitary precaution whatever ne ile might or might not have had the germ with him when he went there but nothing was more probable than that he bad taken it away with him in any case leprosy I 1 knew could tie he dormant for many years might when acquired develop so slowly that the victim could live an ordinary life without being suspected for a very long time if fellows was indeed fanshaw it if tie he had gone to omega to carry out a daring speculation in domegan products concealing his name and altering his nationality a course that sounded very like what one had bad known of him in the war then the most horrible peril that can be conceived hung over pia and there was no one but myself to get her out of it myself with a hundred odd pounds of capital no position and no reputation save the unlucky one or of being in love with her myself against a rich and famous man high placed in n society and approved by plas ilias family no doubt approved by the girl time against me place against me everything against me save one thing the tact fact that Fa fanshaw was coming to new guinea CHAPTER IV it was late before I 1 ended that restless tramp the night bad turned to rain as it so often does in darn my torch when I 1 snapped it on to see the way auy shone on a myriad of crystal rods dancing all over the road the frogs frog had begun their nightly chant port port port I 1 starboard starboard 1 in the near distance among the mangroves man groves of the beach an alligator belled as they do on these wet steamy nights I 1 said to myself with sudden resolve ill go to bassett Rae sett tell him the affair and see what tie he says they were not yet gone to bed in the residency I 1 could see thera them fr from om the roadway bassetts bassetta Bas grave ministerial Ister erial tal face he was the son of a well known parson and looked it Nort hangers narrow countenance that was like the face of a schoolmaster until you caught something strangely hard at the back of the blue bine eyes purchase hair ruffled like the feathers feather of i a hen and features as always on the verge of a laugh seeming to takes take the world and his share of it was assuredly a hard bard one very merrily indeed spicer was nt mt to be seen I 1 was glad of it for or island houses bouses offer small privacy find and I 1 had that to say which would not pass with Fans baws friend the others looked in their fresh white shirts and pipe clayed shoes exceedingly clean comfortable for table and peaceful enjoying for a few days an oasis in the desert of hardships that made up their common lives into the midst of this I 1 came wet and bedraggled and I 1 make no doubt looking like a last years corpse I 1 could see the effect of my looks mirrored instantly in the faces about me but nobody jumped up or said my G d happened to you or the row or any other silly thing such as fellows elsewhere would certainly have thrown out at me these fellows were riot not given to td taking any circumstance in life other than quietly wheres SpI selcer cerr I 1 asked of bassett it did not occur to me to offer any explanation of my return when I 1 was supposed to be abed with fever nor did anybody ask tor for one sit down lie ile went back to maid stones hes staying there Nort hanger got up 1 I must be going in he said the will ha be sending a patrol after me ready purchase if there was a hint purchase took it they were gone in another minute and bassett and I 1 were left alone la in the austere shiny shilly parlor cassett bassett in 10 his precise way became busy he brought out a suit of clothes neatem and better mended than anything possessed it if somewhat cheaper in kind and handed it to me you a dry thread on you he be observed better shift he went off into the kitchen and I 1 heard beard him stirring up a sleeping boy beard the tha clink of a kettle lid ild the jingling of glasses bassett came back looked at me as I 1 sat fresh clad and made no remark the boy followed almoas immediately with hot punch and is quinine bottle I 1 helped myself to lo a share of both 1 I wanted to ask you something I 1 said yes answered bassett it was a brief reply but it carried a good deal the tone the look of Bas bassetta brown eyes beneath his high ministerial erial looking forehead the settled attitude hands crossed on knees all suggested calm reliability and what he must have known I 1 desired above all things as sick men consulting doe doctors sinful men consulting priests desire it the professional attitude I 1 knew he would do anything that could be done I 1 told him the whole than thing it was not easy to tell because 7 I 1 had bad to bring pla into it and I 1 found to my intense disgust that my voice got unsteady when I 1 spoke of her bassett listened quite to the end making no comment when he thought I 1 ha had d quite done he came out surprisingly with you are very much in love with this girl it was not a question it was a statement made much as physician might offer a comment on the condition of ones lungs or liver am I 1 I 1 said stupidly something had hold of me I 1 hardly knew what it was but it shook me what was the matter had I 1 not agreed with myself that the wind which was pia laurier had blown through my life ind and passed away to save her frow from marriage with one incredibly vile that was a duty but a duty that de evolved on me merely as a man not as the man who loved her I 1 had been so certain that I 1 should a not 0 t therefore did not love the girl with the black shingle and blue eyes the girl who even if she were ten times free was not tor for me wanderer rolling stone black sheep things cleared in my brain the thought that had come to me was nothing brilliant nothing new it was only this if I 1 am hurt I 1 am hurt well then ive got to stick it I 1 found it steadying comforting even TO BE CONTINUED |