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Show . ! ' ' ' ' ' r I CHAPTER I. ? " Tho Primitive Norm. "Whether slit lind fainted ov fallen asleep, she did not know, but this ono thin she was sure, it had been dark -vrhea consciousness left bar and it was now broad Any, although the li;ht scorned to come to her "with a greenish fc(ngc which was qxiilo unfamiliar. The transition between her state of yestcr-iinv yestcr-iinv and that of today was as great ais'if she liad boon born into morning from the. womb of midnight and like, a young animal shu drank it in blindly with closed eyes. She could hear the thunderous roaring of the breakers crashing upon the barrier reef. Alonu , her boat had been wrecked in the darkness of the night before rhe j sound softened and mellowed by distance dis-tance came to her in a deep, low accompaniment ac-companiment (o (he sharper and nearer sounds of the birds singing and the breeze rustling gently through the long loaves of the trees overhead, Tho dry sand on which she lay was Boft and yielding and made, a comfortable comfort-able bed for her tirod body, rncked with weary days in the constraint nnd fArrownoss of a small boat. It wns warm, too. She had been drenched when she scrambled on the shore, and foil prostrato on the beach, retaining just strength enough uud purpo?,o enough to crawl painfully inward, to where tho tall palms grow" beforo she lapsed in whatsoever way it might havo been into oblivion. Incoherent thoughts raced- through her bewildered hrain; each one, however, how-ever, briugiug her a little nearer iho p.wakcning point of realization. Then there ran through her young body a primal pang which dispelled the tremu- . lous and .vaguo illusions which her' fancy had woven about horsolf as ahp lay warm and snug and sunny at the I foot of the tall trees, and sho reaHcd i that sho was frightfully thirsty, so thirsty that she did not kne.y how , hungry she was. The demand of: Uo matenjA awakened awak-ened tho animal in hor. Her, thoughts centered instantly; they wejo at once localized on one supreme. i.Y.'strc. Coin-nidcntlv Coin-nidcntlv her eyes unclosed, and she sat up blinking in the. stron light. The nsing sun, still low 07, tho horizon, smote her full in the eyes and loft her for the moment (V.ized again. She sat leaning upon her hands, extended behind her back, st.ring seaward, sa'-ing sa'-ing nothing, thinking nothing, until a strange sound to, 't.he right of he.r attracted at-tracted her attrition. It was a sound made by a huuyun voice and 3'ct it was like noihiug fruman that sho had ever Hl beard. It ws a wordless, language- less ejaculation, but it. aroused hor in-H in-H terest at 'once despite her material Hj crayings.. H Sho v.'xjakly turned her head and Hj there, standing erect, with folded arms, H loolcinv down upon her, was a man. lie was r.nclothcd entirely save for a fan-tas'c fan-tas'c girdle of palm leaves about his wist. Sho stared at. him puzzled, -vrnazed, frightened. Ho roturncd iuv iook with an int ent curiosity, in whieo -there wns no suggestion of evil pvr-j pvr-j pose, rather of great incomprehnsion, Hj art amazing wonderment. There w i. nothing about him; savo the fact that lie was there, which should lwivo caused nnv alarm in her heart, lor with a woman's swjft mastery f tnc risibilities of the o-.hov sx, she 110-ticed 110-ticed in her vaguo terror and wonder-mout wonder-mout that he. was remarkably good to look at. Indeed, she thought tint she ' had novor sgru so splendid a, snocimon of physical manhood as that berore her. In color he was white. Sv mat gmj lie was bronzed by I he tropic- sun, he Was perhaps whiter than sho wa.Jtis hair, which hung about, his head in a wild, matted, "tangle, not uiinichirosquc, was golden; his eyes, bngut blue. Be-neath Be-neath his bcaTd, unkempt but short and curlv, she could seo his firm, ekan-cut ekan-cut "ilps. His proportions wore, suporb. He was limbed and chested u the gM Apollo Belvedere. In him grace and strength strove, for predominance, llo vas totally unlike all that she had read of the aborigines of the South Instantly she. snw him he natural 13 became, the object of her undivided at-tcntion. at-tcntion. There was much in nature that might have awakened her inter-st. inter-st. She sat in tho shadow of great palms; below her ran a long stretch of sand dazzling white in the sun. Bordering this wns, a smooth expanse of sea, waveless and still nnd bluer -than any heaven she hnd ever looked into. Bevond that ran the jagged odgc of the barrier reef, white-crested -iyih foam from long assaulting break-rs break-rs rolling landward over countless leagues of sea. Back of her and on either side the ground gently undulat-ing undulat-ing was covered with tho luxuriant verdure of the tropics. The island was set in tho blue of the Pacific like an emerald bordered with pearls and sunk in n great sapphire of flushing light. She would have time to grow accus-tomed accus-tomed to this scene. Through weary H days of staring seaward and longing for that which never came, it would H be imprinted upon her soul, ctchod H upon her consciousness with a graver's burin of unsatisfied desire. H But for the. moment the one object of H her faculties was tho man. Beforo nn- H turo, in nature, throughout nature tho H supreme interest is ahvayH in man. H In her surprise, astonishment, ad- H miration and curiosity she oven forgot B for the moment that sho was hungry 1 and that she was thirsty; that she was starving for food and dying for water while she looked upon him. She was not tho first woman nor will she he the last to forget earth and sea 1 and every material passion whilo sho looked upon a man. So ICvc might have looked on Adam awakening in the pri-mal pri-mal dawn. "Kay, from his view point, so Adam might have looked on Eve at that self-same hour. Por this woman H had looked on many men, this man had i H seen no woman but this. It was the man who broke the si-1 si-1 lonco, as it had been tho man who had broken the spell of her' slumber. Ho made that queer little chuckling noise in his throat which sounded fn-miliar fn-miliar enough and 3'et she had hoard it from the lips of no man beforo. Tt meant nothing to her except that he -who stood beforo her at least was not dumb, although the noiso he made -was certain- no articulate speech as she knew speech or could imagine it. Hl .At an3' rate it was a stimulus to her. Sho opened hor own parched lips and strove to make reply, but her thirst, "with ?i rising terror and nervousness 5ia?, O"1"11! and no sound came f or, , q c nian might be preparing to kill hor. Ho could do so, if he willed she thought, but she must drink or die. If she could not speak, she could make signs. Sho leaned forward, raised her arms, hollowed her hand and dipped as if from a well and made as top0"1' i: into her lips. Then she stretched out both her hands to him in tho attitude of petition. The man ntnred hard nt her. His brow wrinkled It was such a simple sign that an' savage would have comprehended it, she thought, and 3et it appearod to her, watching in despair, that it took a long time for the idea to bent into his briiu. She could wait no longer. She rose to her kneos nnd stretched out her hands again. 'Water!" she gasped in a lioarso whisper. Water, or T die!" ; Tho man had started violent- at her , speech. Giving him no time to recover, re-cover, she went through the motion again, this time with greater effect, for tho man turned and vanished. She sank down on the sand too exhausted to follow him even with her eves. If he brought the water she would drink it ami live: if he did not, she would lie where she was and die. She did not care much, sho thought, which would happen. She had so sickened of lifo before she essayed that open boat, that sho believed it was f imply an animal craving in her which would make her take the water in case it should be brought her. And 3'ot when he did appoar with a cocoanut shell brimming with clear, sparkling liquid, she tfclt as though the elixir of life had been proffered he.r. She siezed the shell with both hands which yet so trembled that most of the precious water spilled on her dress as she carried it to her parched lips. This was good in the ond. for if that vessel hnd been the famed Jotuneheim drinking horn, she would have drained it dr3' ere she set it down. As it wns, she got but little; yet that little was enough to set her heart beating once more. Emptying the shell of the last drop and with that keenness of perception per-ception which her long training had intensified and developed, marking the while that, it had not been cut clean by any knife or snw or human implement, imple-ment, "but was jagged and broken as if from a fall, she dropped it on the sand and looked again toward Ihe man- He hold in his hand fruit of some kind, she did not know what it wns. Tt might have been poison. What mattered it? Having drunk sho must also eat. Tt looked ediblo, it was inviting in-viting to the eve nnd smell, and as she sunk her teetfi into it. sho found it agreeable to the taste also. lie had brought it to her. If he had meant harm, present harm, surety he would not have given the wnter, " She ato it confidently. As the man saw her partake of what he had given her. he clapped his hands and laughed. She was grateful for trial laugh. Jt wns more human than tho babbling sounds which he made before. There was but little of the fruit, just what a child would have brought, and this again was good for her, for had there been an abundance, in her need she would have eaten until sho had made herself ill. When she had partaken, par-taken, she rose to her feet. Before doing do-ing this she had extended her hand to him as if seeking assistance, but he had simph- stared at her uncomprehending, uncompre-hending, and sho had been forced to get to her feet unaided. Once standing, stand-ing, sho trembled aud would have fallen but that she caught his arm and steadied hen-c.lf by holding tight to it. The man started back at her touch. Color came and went in his face: little shudders swept over him; his mouth opened; ho looked at her with a singular expression of awo not unmixed with terror in his e3rcs, for this wns the first time in his recollection, recollec-tion, or what would have been his recollection rec-ollection if his retrospective faculties had been developed, that he had ever felt the touch of a woman's hand, of an3 humau hand, upon him. Noticing his peculiar demeanor iu the, to her, perfect' natural situation, Hie woman, summoning some of the remains of the reserve force which is in ever3 human bod3' uptil life is ! gone, released, his arm and stared about her, leaning against tho dunk of I tho nearest palm. This time, and for tho first time, she took in that expanse of sea, louel3r yet beautiful, upon which her 03'es were to look so often. Out of the" deep and the night she had come. Into what deep and into what da3 had she arrived? Sho turned and surveyed tho shore. The beach curved sharpb' to the right and to the left, tho long barrjer reef following roughb- its contouT until the land ohscured it on either side. Back of her stretched a grove of palms and bnck of that rose a hill; its crest, bare and crag-like, towered above a sea of verdure. Through a chanco vista she saw the mass of rock as a mountain poak. On one side high, precipitous cliffs ran down close to tho shore and shut out the view." Over them water foil to tho beach. Save in the person of the a man beside be-side her there was not an evidence of humanit3' an3wliere. No curl of smol;f; rose above tho trees. No distant, call of human voices smote the fearful hollow hol-low of her ear. Tho breeze made mus'c in the tall palms and in the thick verdure ver-dure farther up the hillside, birds sang softh' here nnd there, but there was a tropic stillness to which the great heaving diapason on tho distant barriers was a foundation of souud upon which to build a lonely quiet. Human beingd there might ho, there must be, on that island, if island it were; but, if so, tliC3 must bo abiding on the farther side. She nnd the man were alone. Standing on her feof. with a slight renewal of her strength from what she had eaten and drunk, the woman now felt less fear of the man He had treated her kindl3. His aspect was gentle, e.von amiable. He looked at her wistfull3', bending his brows from time to tiino and ever and again shaking shak-ing his head, as a great dog looks at tho master with whom he would fain speak, whose language he would fain understand, to whom ho would fain impnrt his own idoaa if ho could. She Btared at him perplexed. She wns entire' at loss what to do, until hor 03'cs roving pnst him detected a dark object 011 tho water line just whoro the still bluenosB touched the white sand. The sunlight was reflected re-flected from glomus or metal, and thinking that she recognized it, idio stepped from the shade of tho palms and mndo her wn- unsteadily toward it. The man, without n sound, followed fol-lowed closed nt her side. Her vision had boon correct, por sho drew out of the sand a lcailic r unnd bag, such ns women earn. It had boon elaborate' fitted with bottles and mirrors and toilet articles. Alas, it was in a sad state of dilapidation now. Tho bottles wore broken, their contents con-tents gone. The bag had been 13-ing in the boat when it had been hurled on tho - barrier in the night and the same storm and tide which had boruo hor ashore had hurled it also on tho sand. But it had come open in tho battering, and its contents were pitia- I hy ruined. With eager eyes and fin-j fin-j gers she examined everything. She found intact a little mirror, n pair of scissors, a Htt.lo housewife which was not a part of the fittings, and sho won-derod won-derod how it failed of boing washed awayj two combs and a package of hairpins. Sho had fought ngainst starvation and thirst and loneliness and despair' as she had fought against men, ami she had not given wav. She had sot her teeth and locked her hands and ondurcd hnrdship like tho stoutost-. stoutost-. hearted, most determined soldier in I the history of human stnulc8. But I as the realization of this small misfortune mis-fortune burst, upon her, she snnk down on the sands nnd put her head in her hands and sobbed. She had her cry not, ut t nrly unhindered, for the man stood " by, skaking his head and staring nt her and making mak-ing those strange little sounds, but offering of-fering in no way to molest her The water was beautifully dear and she could sec on the other "side of the barrier the rGiuains of her boat. Perhaps Per-haps some time, if there wore need, she could get nt that boat, but for the present all the flotsam and jetsam of lier wild and foarful voyage in3' in a water-soaked bag full of broken glass nnd battered silver, from which sho had re'scuod a pair of scissors, a mirror, mir-ror, two combs, a housewife full of rusty needles and some hairpins. 0 vanitns vanitntum! She was wearing a serviceable dress of blue serge with a sailor's blouse and a short skirt. Putting her precious treasure trove within the loose blouse and carrying the battered bag which she meant to examine more carefully later, sho turned and made for the shade of the trees again. For ono thing the sun was rising rapidly, was gaining power and beating down with great force upon her bare head. She hnd enjoyed Ihe protection of a wonderfully plaited straw hat on her long voyage, else she could not have borne the heat, but I hat, too, was gone. As sho walked inward, she noticed again off to her right that stream of water which dropped over tho tall cliff in a slender wntcrfall, a sweet inviting in-viting pool at. the baso before, it ran through the sands toward the sea She made her wav thither nnd at the brink knelt down and took long draughts of it. Eating and drinking evidently went together in the mind of the man. for when she raised her bond, she found him standing before her with both hands filled with some of the fruit she hnd partaken of before and other fruit. She thought she recognized tho breadfruit bread-fruit and a species of bannua. At a 113 rate, she ate again, ami having 113- tins time rocovored to some extent hor mental men-tal poise, she ate sparingh' and with caution. Then, having satisfied her material needs, she knolt down by the stream and washed her face and hands. How sw(eet was tho freshness of that water to her face, burned 1)3' the sun and the wind nnd subjected for a long time (o the hard spni3' of the briiv seas. She would have been glad to havo taken off hor clothing and plunged into the pool, to have washed the salt of days from her tired hod, to havo h:id the stimulus and refreshment of its sparkling coolness ovor her weaiy limbs. But in tho presence of her dog-like dog-like attendant this was not jot possible. possi-ble. Still she could and .must arrange her hair. Of all rhe articles in ner dressing dress-ing one, she was more fervently thankfu' nt that moment for th. combs than anything else, tho combs nnd the little mirror and tho hairpins- -small things iu'locd, but human happiness ns a rule turns on things so smalf that tho investigator vA promotor thereof generally overlook them. :Vud we know not the. significance of the little until upon some desert island we are left with only those. Washed, fed and dressed for it is astonishing Ihe difference that the neat coils in which she arranged her hnir mado in her apparaucc and now in her right mind, she rose to lier feel As sho did so, as an experiment, she handed the man the little silver-backed silver-backed minor. He stared into it and again uttered that cry of surprise. Then he turned it around as if to look on the other side. Then he looked again nnd still again. She look it from him unresisting; his eyas full of strange terror. Iifc was full of surprises sur-prises for him that day. Ho had not. only been touched by a woman but ho had looked at a man "ns well. She put the mirror into her waist and then looked at her watch. By a miracle it was still running, and in a panic, lest it should run down and sho be timeless, she wound it up again, whilo ho watched her with tho samo great interest. She would learn presently pres-ently that tune on that islnnd wns the least notable of all facts and the least valuable of all the things that she had to spend. Tt wns still early, about S o'clock. How was she to pass the day? Sho must do something She felt she could not sit 1 d I3- staring from sea to shore. Sho must be moving. No business called her; she must invent some. Tho compelling ncc-cssit3" of 11 soul not born for idleness was upon her. Sho would explore the land. That wns logically the first thing to be dono, anywa3; and this was a highly trained woman who thought to live by rule nnd law, albeit her rulos were poor ones. She started inland, the mnn following follow-ing after. Sho had gained confidence in herself with every passing moment. The man who looked nt her as a dog she would treat as one. She must have some privnev. She could not al- 1 wnvs hnvc him trailing at her heel?. She turned bv a great boulder, pointed j to it, laid her hand on the man's 1 shoulder and gently forced 'him to a sitting position by it. Then she wnlkcd 1 a wav. lie stared wistfully after her ; departing figure, and as she turned around to look at him, he sprang to his foot. . , "No, no!" sho cried imperatively, making backwnrd threatening motions with her hands, whereat ho resumed his sitting position, staring at her until un-til ho lost her among the trees. Present' sho turned and caino back to him. It was so deathly lonely without with-out him. He leaped to his feet as ho saw her coining and clapped his hnnds as n child might have done, his face breaking out the while into a smile that was both trustful and touching. She felt hotter since sho had him under un-der this control, aud together they walked on under tho troes. CHAPTER II. Conscious of His Manhood. ; High noon and they were back at tho Innding place nnd she nt lc-nst was very tired. Accompanied b3' the man, who mado not the slightest attempt to guide her, after some "difliculty sho had succeeded in forcing her way through the trees' to tho top of the hill. Part of the time she had followed tho course of the rivulet from which sho had drank at the foot of the cliff. She was determined to got to the top. for sho must sco what was upon tho other side. Humanity's supreme desiro when facing the hills has always been to ?ce what was on the other side. The stim ulus of the unknown was upon her, but it was coupled with a very lively desire begot of stem necessity to know what there was to bo known of the laud upon which she had boon cast up by tho sea. Her view from the hilltop sho did not essay tho unclothed and jagged peak; she could make her way around Its baso and see all that there was to see was not reassuring. Sho could detect on tho other side of the island no more evidence of life than was presented by that she had first touched upon. In every direction lay the un-vcxed un-vcxed sen. The day was brilliantly clear; there was not a cloud in the skj. No mist dimmed tho translucent puritv of the warm air. Nothing broke the far horizon. The island, fair and beautiful, wns set alone in a mighty ocean. In so far as sho could tell, she and tho man were alone upon it. The thought oppressod her, She strove, to throw it off. The silonce of the mnn oppressed her. ns well. Sho turned to him at last and cried out, the words wrung from her by tho hor ror of the situation. "Man. man. whence came youi How are you called? What language do you spenk? Why are you here 7" Tho sound of her own voice gave her courage. Waiting for no answer, and indeed she realized that nono could come, she stoppod to the brow of tho hill, where the trees happened not to be. and raising her voice, called and called and called. There were answering answer-ing echoes from tho jagged crag behind be-hind her, but when these died nway there was silonce. uubroken save bj the qucor bnbbling, chuckling noises of the man. Sho looked at him with a sudden sinking of tho heart. Hnd this godliko creature roaming the woods, this faun of tho island, been denied a brain, articulate spoech? Was she doomed to spend the rest of her lifo alono in this paradise of the Pncific with a harmless madman forever by her side? What a situation was that in which she found herself? Sho was a higbb' specialized product of the greatest of universities. In science and in philosoph she was a master and a doctor. She should havo had rosources within herself which would enable her to be independent of tho outside world, a world in which her experience, self brought, hail been bitter, in which the last few weeks had been one long disillusionment. And 3'ot sho vas now overwhelmed with a. craving for compauionship, for articulate speech as if sho had never looked into a book or given a thought to the deep things of life. If this mnn besido her would onlj do some-thing. some-thing. sa3- something, bo something rather than a silent satellite Tfo2 staring In wonder. If she ooiiwF .1 solve tho mystery of his Pre'83 swer the interrogation that uST existence (here alono presented Her future, hor mcnom ' ft 1 should have engrossed C m she waS 0 do, how a10 was 0K Tho terrible problems in whip-VTll prosonco on the island im-niT1 l.1 should have boon the"1 g o0'1! attention; thoy should have lood for thought to the keeneiirt; woinon. She simply foreot thnP1 lier puzzled wonder at hinif iH have been much simpler from onen'i of view if she had found tho S&7 inhabited, and yot since llm 3.1 human a,!d al.vi, in "piteof W' ment, her heart was g,,,d that" Sho motioned to him lo sit and then .she sat in front of InS studied him. He looked as li til f' a fool as like a knave. She conT deed detect no evidence of nny fffcft'0, tm.l capacity but she thougfit, JE studied him keenly, that ho nnS unlimited intellectual posaibli ' There was a mind back of iffS blue eyes, that broad noble brow K it seemed to hor a mind onttrolyifA. veloped, mind utterly lntont. HerlT a soul, she thought, half in fancv&fof 1 in earnest, that was virgin to tho -Sk be How wise, how deeply learnoDit h might bo, she was face to facatl this primeval norm. & Could sho (each this man anviP; Ho scorned tractable. roverontialSi'w erontial now. Knowledge was if Would it be powor with him? Htliti"1 she open those sealed doors ofctf mind what floods would otEi01 therefrom of powor, of passion7 sho be swept away? It niattorcd,! c Sho must try. Tho impulse HeizaU-rt" to begin now. Fixing her dnrfcD so upon him, she pointed directly a(W with her lingers. ' Af,lii ''Man." she said, clearly analfhste phatically. f y Ho wns nlways looking at heri a pi had scarcely taken his eyes fro&toloi sinco she had seen him in fch,it( grass by the shore, but at her ttf'r'l j and word his eyes - brightened. ;JtJf was that little wrinkling of tho.r-Jtln again which she hnd noltced,fen ward and visible sign of an inwaR? ' tempt ab comprehension. .HJ.B "Man!"' sho said passion,H "Man," she repeated over and1,,11 again. ijiW 1 (Continued on following pagii-al |