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Show fuH ; AMts Williams fftg4 15r" her name be- ione, almost out of '!, -l think I'll 6 oarse. 'Til after " ? It went with him. ST ote t wnen she fol-lDlfndtner fol-lDlfndtner did he look lb Jed rapidly aft to in descended before pafv. At the foot of I S' she found that be 3Twait for her; and (td him he asked .flat wbatwere you and Rich- about?" J wretchedly: "Oh, ,IJJ 1. I don't want to be Butl'veieen you so often to him, and if I come V. I try not to j try as hard as I can. But kelp it Mary." i .ia to reassure him, ana I hii questions, she remem-pearls. remem-pearls. "Richard'! wor-I wor-I said. "There were some ', ..packet In hii desk, and time southeasterly, and Richard took every opportunity to catch the sun, or to take a lunar.. They sighted the Diego Ramirez Rocks one morning an hour after breakfast; and Mary put on her coat and went up the companion and found Richard exuberant as a triumphant tri-umphant boy In the knowledge that his calculations had been accurate. ac-curate. The men forward were shouting instead of talking, their voices high-pitched with triumph, knowing that presently they would turn at last northeasterly for the long run home. "Now, I'll snatch a wink, Mr. Forbes," Richard told Mat. "Call me when we come abeam of the Rocks." So he and Peter went below with George and Mary; and Richard stripped off his great sea coat. Mary said: "You're dead for sleep, Richard. Go lie down." He nodded. "I could sleep three days in a row," he agreed. He went into his cabin and closed the door behind him. Mary made George lie down in his bunk for warmth's sake, and covered him over. She returned to her own cabin, and drifted off to sleep. Later she roused a little; heard Peter say in the common room outside her door: "I tell you you're wrong. But anyway, watch yourself. Dick will But Mary knew. So many inci- I dents i-ut of the past came now to enlighten her. This man facing them with a weapon in his h-nds was ! the same George who could not en- ! dure the -bought of leaving her with ! Joseph Neargood at Gilead. He was the same George who could not see ' Frit. Aulgur give her a pearl. He I was tiie same George who was for-cer for-cer tormented by a devil of jcal-ousy. jcal-ousy. It did not occur to her to ! wonder why the passion in him had thus suddenly come to a head. Certainly Cer-tainly he had lost control of himself. him-self. She moved toward him, said pleadingly: "George, you're sick. Let me put you to bed. Please!" "I'm sick to death," he told her. "Sick of you! Don't touch me. I've shut my eyes to your wantonness long enough." His word stopped her like a blow. Richard protested gravely: "George, you're talking in circles. If you've got anything to say, say it. What's on your mind?" "I'm talking about you and Mary making love to each other all the time," George told him; and his own rage choked him, and he coughed, bending double, clutching at his chest, his face dark with lack of breath before he could speak again. "Do you think I'm blind?" he challenged then. "I think you're crazy 1" ) m stolen." S lit Where did Richard get ' rere mine." Once b'egun, ( tell him everything; but At his hand tightened on J did you get them, Mary?" 10 gave them to me the j left Gilead." dm?" His eyes cleared 11 '1 suppose he'd had r'jean. Probably dove for self. Was that it?" j she said. "I think I know ijpenei" She told him the j to best guess at what the ; :!it be; she related now at massacre at the island, and 4 of the ship. tod killed Aulgur, yoa ; she reminded him. "I sup-sewrehis sup-sewrehis pearls, and they ; ind Jarambo found them tthooner." :down, shaken by what he tabling for solid ground Our Islanders slaughtered s!" She said. "But they did it ley loved you, George." moment he cried in a sud-:rgth: sud-:rgth: "Mary, I'm glad they it world's better without f, why didn't you tell me sdore?" we so ill." Cap'n Corr know about the it'" myone else aboard know?" in knew, of course. He's J told everyone. And they Sie smoke from the burning 'before they reached the is- Sled briefly, said in a slow f himself: "Everyone knew tat no one told me." how unhappy it' would si" d shortly. "I know now itand with you all. You "weak woman of a man, ltobe guarded and cajoled ;H protected from the George." j his head. "Oh, I sup-i sup-i be all right when I've ltover; but it's pretty hard furself so contemptible in ""other men!" He went lft "bin and shut the door shutting her out. appeared for supper, he 10 e himself once more. cheerful at the sup- ,peter did most of the ,ie was m to do. Since Wen he killed the whale JJ broken Richard's arm. ferantly sure of himself, condescend. ,:k night, the weather ' w wind came more lht VtifIened' and was inrlcned sail a lit-,dkmostofthe lit-,dkmostofthe night s.h'P. using as much J wisely could, extract-;eh extract-;eh gale all it would h. ! Weather eot no 4 y',but U ot n bet 1 8 hard drove her care-t care-t aay and tiie days that "I'm crazy, am I?" George visibly visi-bly fought to control himself; to speak impassively. "Oh, I don't blame you so much. Why wouldn't you make love to her, when she begs for it? Captain Corr, leave her alone. No matter what she says. Because if you ever touch Mary again, or speak to her, I'll kill you." Richard said miserably: "Man, you're sick!" "Maybe I am. But I'm not too sick to pull a trigger. I've killed as big a man as you, with a pickaxe, pick-axe, and he had a gun! Don't you touch Mary again, or speak to her. "Speak to her?" Richard echoed. "Why, sure I will; and I'll touch her too if it comes that way. Have some sense! Why wouldn't I?" George cried explosively: "Because "Be-cause you're in love with her, and she with you!" But on his own words, a paroxysm of coughing swept him, bent him, silenced him. He dropped the revolver on the desk, clutching at his chest with both hands. It was long before he could speak again. Through that long moment Richard Rich-ard looked at Mary, and Mary looked at Richard. Before the moment mo-ment ended, each knew. It was true! While their eyes met in that long exchange like a revelation, revela-tion, like vows exchanging, these two forgot George, racked and helpless help-less by the desk. His words unlocked un-locked at last a long-closed door. What he said was true, and while their eyes held now, they both knew it! They knew that they had loved each other always, and would love each other always. They had not guessed the truth before; but they knew it now forever, beyond doubt, beyond change, beyond forgetting. Each thought wonderingly: I was blind not to know then that this was true. But now they knew. Now they knew; and the knowledge was a gulf deep and terrible and hopeless. Their eyes held hard, till George recovered; and they did not know he had recovered till he crossed to thrust at Mary with a movement like a blow, to break the bridge of their exchanging glasses, and to cry. pitifully furious: "Don't! Stop! You shan't even look at him so!" She spoke in a panic of haste, desperately des-perately denying, as much to persuade per-suade herself as her husband. Mary whispered: "George, George it isn't true!" She looked at Richard Rich-ard again. She knew it was true, knew he knew. "It isn't, please! she cried like a prayer George faced her, challenged: So it's not true?" Of course not!" He lifted one hand, brushed it past her like a scornful blow. You're a liar!" Mary begged: "George, please! He swung to her, staring at her narrowly. "You want me to believe you don't love him?" he demanded. -I don't, George." He grinned mockingly. He slipped nis arm through hers. "All right, Z said "I believe it. I believe yoU You're my wife, and you love me. Is that true?" "Yes, yes, yes." You love me with all your heart?" "Yes." "And soul?" "Yes " -Fully and completely and passionately?" pas-sionately?" "Yes yes, you know I do. He had begun this catechism in . rferisive; but under her ear-Snefs ear-Snefs h s derision faded. He was Stot without her. wanted so much to believe her. that he began to do Sqhe saw with a slow rising nope Aid begin to believe ner; r the truth. She thought. A" C 1 fe I'U have to lie to him, pr. make him believe I love hi knew don't, he would di. "he Ttobecontimed) Mary begged: "George, please." blow you to pieces. He keeps a gun in the top drawer." She sat up in swift alarm. As her feet touched the floor, she heard Peter go on deck again; and then George opened her door. He grasped her arm, his fingers crushing it so that she uttered a low cry of pain. She looked up into his face and saw it twisted and convulsed con-vulsed by some terrific passion; and she whispered in a quick terror: "George! What's the matter?" He said harshly, "Come out here! I want to talk to you and Captain Corr." Holding her, he wrenched open the door of Richard's cabin; and Richard asleep in the bunk opened his eyes, his head rising from the pillow, and then his whole body rose as he came to his feet in a sharp alarm, steadying himself with his good hand. "What's wrong?" he asked. He brushed past them into the common room, leaped toward the companion, compan-ion, thinking only of the ship, thinking think-ing her in danger. When Richard, emerging from the cabin, brushed him aside, George had lurched toward the desk; and before Richard reached the foot of the companionway, George dragged open the top drawer of the desk and lifted out of it the heavy old revolver always kept there. At his cry, his command, Richard turned and saw the weapon leveled at him firmly. For a moment he did not move, staring in a bewildered astonishment; astonish-ment; but then, his concern still for his ship, he said curtly: "I'll be back!" And he went up the companionway. Mary began to understand wna was coming: to foresee the content of the next half hour. She heard, as though far away, voices over their heads; but she did not look up. She stared at George as though he were a stranger seen for the first time; and she waited for Richard to return as for a rescuer. When he descended the companionway. compan-ionway. he closed the scuttle behind be-hind him, shutting them m. tie stopped at the foot of the ladder looking from one of them to the other. George had turned, stood braced now with his feet wide apart, tlM back to the desk. The Venturer quartering the seas, was combining a pitch and a roll in an exasperat-ing exasperat-ing motion, slithering upward at an angle, poising, lurching down aga George had put on some composure. compo-sure. He was steadier now and quieter. qui-eter. He backed 8f'"s still holding revolver, and faced them both; and he spoke ui crisp, slow tones. He said evenly: I want this business between you stopped, helplessly at Mary. "I'm so t,red I rn dumb." he Pfnk;"gbtcahuCi;re not to George. "Maybe it cau e I'm short of sleep I don t know what he's talking annul. Chapter Xv 'iS?d ursings-he toddled in, ay' ref"sing rdPass "Rested in this ."W of the Horn which !e ja man, questions. :j4 "Th' Rich"d as- I. to. I don't Dl6iit a 01 shortening 9,ansee i"g " " 8tayS 6Crosrees long e1 beIor;' and We n tell don. ?rk if Jt That help.d the nights Shourskep,tUle deck of darkness, not Coue was by this |