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Show V" r-- Yi y Brady !LLU3TPATmSM'MJnRt y SYNOPSIS. llS w.1an i.m'" SCtkrtth-l- ? cr",f Ol,hor on Ione-vnii- "l't'ry Inhabitant, a P,'ttk ny Known Ian- - nn man's eon tempt, that no man shall marry her on suffrancp, and "Right." said the Burgeon, who was a man of very few words and general' ly good ones. "My young friend," broke In the chaplain. "If I might advise" "Hut this," returned the Islander, with fierceness, "Is not a matter for advice, I don't know the world or Its customs. I must appear strange to ycu men. Hut I take ft that a man's choice of a wife, a man's settlement of bis future Is not a thing that be brooks counsel over. At any rate, I want none of It." "Come with me," said the chaplain; "we will talk It over. I have lived in the world," he Wvnt on, gently. "Perhaps I can help you. Have we your permission to withdraw, Capt Ashby?" "Certainly," said the captain. "Pardon me a moment, chaplain,' interposed Whittaker; "but the young lady has asked that some of us go ashore to take her deposition as to the matters that have been alleged concerning our friend here. Capt Ashby. will you?" "Certainly, Mr. Whittaker, I will go And if you will accompany me, doctor, and you, chaplain, I shall be glad. Mr. Whittaker, you are a notary public and can administer the necessary that" her own Ideal. She i1'"'nltto ' " wnim hit Ul Deueve that the mun is Jo.,n Kevell Charnnrk of child. Katharine 1! ronton wita a 7 ni.c.'inuai-product or a leudlng Ht-on the imx writing pjrrrtly. m attracted .. .. utt..ini,,n .. . . . . M. - ti. mull l.milll.inulu "u "'r' d"( , to nu- Into praetke. Vrlea '.'T A few ..n hi reveals to Her that hedays only lofty ideals to iu her. While drunk he attempts pruts. to kins her. She knocks him down and leaves him union- clous and e0Hc-- In the darkneiw In a gasoline launch. During a storm ulio in cast ashore on an Islund. Three years' Kivt's 1,16 mun !facl1 splendid educa-tloTheir lova for each other la revealed I ",e rescues her from a cave where he had been Imprisoned by an eartii-- . quake. A ship Is and they llKht a 'beacon to summonsighted It. Ixmifiord on his . yacht, Rights the beacon and orders his yacht put in. The woman recognizes the yacht and tells her companion that a man on board had Injured her In the greatem recoKiilxea Katharine. He Jells the man that she had been his anil narrowly escapes belnu killed An American cruiser appears. Officers near the whole story and Katharine to marry him. Katharine axks declare that she will marry no one but her . ... . Island TU enmni.nl. ,n I.... " " oaths." '"the ""-- nnvn lie mill loves her Cbut that revelations have "Very good, sir," returned Mr. Whit tnade a change. taker. The other gentlemen bowed CHAPTER their acquiescence. "The lady said she would like to be undisturbed until "la the present Charnock married?" evening." "No," returned the chaplain, "he Is "At two bells in the second dog an old bachelor." watch then have the cutter called "That will make It easier for our oway," returned the captain. friend here," said Mr. Whittaker, "pro"Deg pardon, captain," said the sur vided the evidence is thought convinc- geon, "but do you or any of you know this lady to be Miss Brenton?" ing." "The best evidence that he could pre"No," said the captain, "I don't sent," returned the chaplain, "U In his know her. Do you, Mr. Whittaker, or face. He Is the living image of his you, chaplain?" father as I knew him, and he has fam"Well, then," said the surgeon, as ily characteristics which I think would both the officers shook their heads, "it enable almost anyone to identify him will be necessary to have some one ashore who does know her in order to without question." "Sir," said the islander, addressing swear to her Identity to make her the chaplain, "did you know my deposition worth anything." "There la Langford," said Whittamother?" "That I did," returned the old man. ker, "he knows her." "Her name was Mary Page Thornton, "Very good," said the captain; "send and she was one of the sweetest girls a boat over to the yacht and present In Virginia." my compliments to Mr. Langford. Ask "And will you tell me about her, blm if he will meet us ashore at quar and about my father and my people?" ter after five o'clock. Say to him also "With the greatest pleasure," said J that I should be glad to have him dine , at seven. Chaplin, . 1 with me Al. me vuupiain, Kinaiy. "Meanwhile will Mr. Charnock take lunch and you Capt Ashby and these gentlemen will eon with me later?" wish to hear your story," Now, to go back to the island. The "Take him to your cabin," said the woman stood on the strand proudly, captain promptly, "and tell hlra the sternly erect, without a things he wants to know. We can resolutely, sign of unbending until the boats wait" reached the sides of the two ships. "No," returned the islander; "I can Even then she herself in the I have wait. waited all these years bonds of a controlkept of steel. She turned and a few hours more or less will slowly, walked up the beach, entered make little difference. You have a the grove of palms, mechanically found right to know my story, and here It the path and plodded along it still is." erect and unbending, until the wind Rapidly, concisely, with a fine draof the trail and the thickening of matic touch, he told the story as be ings the grove hid her from any chance knew it of his life on the Island. He watchers on the ship. was so entirely unconventional that and not until then, did she Then, he interwove the bare details of the give way completely. She threw her strange relation which he gave them self down upon the sand in the cool with personal touches. He made no shadow of the great rocks in what to secret of his love and worship for the her had suddenly become a weary of girl, the belief in her which he had land, and outstretched her arms as it cherished, of the reverence in which to clasp the earth to her breast in det had held her. He exhibited that fault of the man she had dreamed of ;ange commixture of feeling with and trusted, she bad loved and lived he regarded her as a human for, and lay there a silent, shuddering He wretched figure. in and as a "ed that he was at once her mas- Her crushing disappointment at his e and her creature, yet through it all failure to rise to the measure of her there ran such a thread of bitterness, Ideal of him, the total end of her of grief, of resentment, of shame, that dream of happiness, the breaking of his auditors, at first unpossessed of all her the closing of all her hopes, him to listened to his the key feelings, the asunder of her 'imbitions, tearing with amazement and could scarcely whelmed her In agony. realize or comprehend. He told the heartstrings She had thought that never could hustory of the two lives up to the sight- manity experience more than the pain ing of the ship upon the island, and superinduced by the horror of her po then, his heart failing him, he turned sition upon the ship, but that pain to to Whittaker and bade him take up the present was like a caress. For to the relation. all that old horror was added a new It was a delicate matter of which to sense of loss, of disappolnment and which with epeak. but the simplicity despair. Like Elijah of old, dismayed, the first part of the tale had been pre- disheartened, broken, she prayed that He cue. hi3 officer sented gave the she might die there on the sands. was a man of retentive memory, of a quick apprehensive power, and with CHAPTER XIX. 4 nice sense of discrimination, a rare man, indeed. And be told the rest of The Man's Failure. the tale with a subtle sympathy forfive o'clock a boat put oft from At I- situation and the actors thai en- the big white cruiser, conveying the inter to the fled him so to present it the captain, the other officers red lllttle group of officers that he islander, and langford to the shore. The woman transas it it almost made them see met them on the sand. She had dispired. carded her woven tunic and was "'mfwhut," asked the captain, when dressed In the laded blue blouse and the final word had been said, "do you skirt which she had worn when she Charnock?" had left the yacht and which she had propose to do now, Mr. that lie had ever since preserved with surh scrutime drat It was the man startbeen so addressed and the pulous care for an emergency like this. Whlttaker's Mr. heard had Well was It for her that the garments He ed had been were loose and else she words as one in a dream. He on the over that dreadful scene could not have put them on, so splenIds. Mis l",iirt Wi,s ,pra'-- d nnd didly had she developed In waist and l,,lnd ? Jrn again. chest and limb. She wore stockings He saw her Pastnnd shoes, and. save for a certain naEg but the rre-rnHe roul-- l see tural elegance and freedom in her t. in the Sim: f lupine f the future. bearing, she looked much as any other answered he -womun, except that few yiomen were know." I don't not made any as beautiful as she. -Hut surely this has After a momentary hesitation and a fforence in your feelings? Is in glance at the islander, who, after his can't toll The difference first swift, comprehending survey of vir not In me." "said woman, stood with averted head-s- he, mistake the frlphtful conscious, painfully of hl every tlpS!ln.lmi.reHslveiy,"buts..eha8 gesture and movement the lieutenant commander performed the necesthought she This ceremony h?B , . . nd if I love her. 1 love sary Introductions. womnn the was who, spokq. It over, t u "I sent for you, gentlemen." she bedifference." wlut gan, "In order that a necessary deposi" interposed Whi.tation might be made to enable, if possi111 she my" she paused and bowed for ble, She says that tFmi2 1 pt "-- r pro-tens- , lifYe no mnn'a nltv 1 J. mlt-tre- r XVIII-Continu- mally toward the islander "this to establish his identity, upon which, as I Jearn from Mr., Whittaker, much seems to depend. 1 have here" "Hut could you not do this more conveniently later on the ship. Miss Ilren-ton?- " interposed the captain. He had been told that she intended to stay on the Island, but be could not believe it "We shall be very glad indeed to offer you passage home. The ship is fitted for a flag and the admiral's quarters are yours to command. We art sailing direct to the United States, with a stop at Honolulu, and will be glad to restore you to your friends." "Sir," said the woman, "I have no friends who care enough about me to welcome me or whom I rare enough about to wish to see. My mind Is made up. I shall stay on the Island, fen-tlema- at least for the present." "Hut my dear young lady," began the officer. "Capt Ashby," said the woman, "you are the conimanderof that ship?" "I am." ."To you is committed the ordering of her course?" "To me alone, Miss Hrenton." "You decide all questions connected with her on your own responsibility?" "I do, certainly; "Sir, this Is my ship, this island. If I choose to stay here, I ennhot think you will endeavor to take me hence by force." "Hy no means." "Nor have I any more fondness for having my decisions discussed than you would have for hearing your but" orders argued or questioned." "It is my island," cried the man, roughly, "and if you stay, I stay." "We lose time," said the woman, Ehortly. "I am here to give my testimony; you are prepared to take it?" "I am," said the lleutenant-com- - "No," returned the woman, quietly; "my mind Is made up." "Katharine!" exclaimed Langford, extending his hand in one final appeal. "Not with you, either," said the woman. "My dear young lady," began the old chaplain, "think what it is you do. tins any human being with such powers as you possess a right to bury herself in this lonely island? Is there no call?" "Sir," the woman interposed, "your pica might move me if anything could, but. indeed 'tis useless as the rest." "Hear mine, then," said the man, abruptly, even harshly. The woman turned and faced him as unrelenting and as determined as she hud faced the others. What could he say? There was but one plea that could move her. Was ho about to make that? "We have loved each other," he went on, brokenly. "It was my dearest wish, my most settled determination, to make you my wife. That wish I still entertain, that determination has not departed from me. You have refused to marry that man" "And would you have me do so?" asked the woman. "No, a thousand times, no. I am sorrier every moment that I look at him that I did not kill him. Hut having refused him, there is nothing now that you can do but marry me. And as you have refused him, 'it makes it the more Incumbent upon me to marry you and to take you away. Your honor demands it" "My honor!" flamed out the woman, Indignantly. "I have said it" returned the man, doggedly. "Gentlemen, you will forgive our frankness," said the woman, turning - K fin in . 'i ot. & T" v to-da- . " be" demi-goddes- easy-fittin- ping about her feet held ber back, drove her back, retarded her In her advance. Could she do it? Should she do Itt At least she would not give up th Idea for want of trying. She resolutely set herself to wade into the deep er sea. That she waded was evidence of her Indecision. Under other circumstances, or had she been clear in her mind as to her course, a quick run, a spring, a splash, and she would have been in the midst of the lagoon. She went slowly, and as the water grew deeper, she went more slowly. It was warm and pleasant In the laof temgoon. The slight dlfferenc perature between the water and th air ordinarily was only stimulating. And yet tbe sea had never Beemed so cold to ber as it was in that hour. Hy and by she stopped, tbe wa ters now up to her breast The. wind blew gently toward the land, am) the waves struck her softly and beat her back. She stopped dead still and K)wer." "I don't w ish to learn it, and that is thought and thought wrestling with why I will not leave this island " per- her problem, full of passionate disapsists! the mnn. pointment vain regret despair, conIt was the woman who Intervened. scious that life, held nothing for her, She stepped close to the man and and yet clinging to it, unknowing what would be the outcome of the Tltanlo laid her hand upon his arm. "You said that In some fashion you struggle raging in her breast between loved me," she urged. primal passions, love of life and lova of man! "In some fashion I do," he replied. "It grows late. Captain, can your CHAPTER XX. ship lie by the Island until morning?" "if you wish, certainly," returned ' The Repentance That Cams Too Late the captain. For the first time In his life tbe man "Very well. Man, will, you then go aboard the ship with these gentlemen of the island played the coward. Ha and leave me alone here for the was afraid to be alone. The others, the officers of the ship, that is, not , night?" "Alone, madam!" excalmed the- cap- Langford he bad gone back to his tain. own yacht, declining the captain's in "Certainly, sir," returned the wom- vitatlon to dinner would have re- an. "There is not a harmful thing spected tbe Islander's mood and have upon the Island. You can come back left him to himself, but it was erl In the morning and we will discuss dent that he craved their society. then what Is best to be done. Really, Whittaker and the old chaplain susgentlemen," she went on, with a pite- pected bow it would be with him, but ous tremble of her Up, for one mo- they knew that sooner or later he ment losing her control, "I have been would have to retire to rest and sootitried beyond the strength of woman er or later he would be alone. If I can have a quiet rest If ' And then his grief was so obvious, in the morning" that in accordance with a natural and "That is reasonable," said the sur commendable tendency tbey strove to geon. "The lady Is In no state for cheer him up. They encouraged him this discussion, nor, Indeed, are you. to ask questions. They told him Fir," he continued, looking bard at many things in reply that the woman the man. could not have told him; that he had "Very well," said the captain. "Come, half dimly suspected, but bad not Mr. Charnock, you cannot refuse that known. They cleared up to him many Madam, good things which had seemed mysterious, request; gentlemen. and strange to hlra. night." He turned away, followed by the And 01) their part they marveled at others. Charnock for the moment hes tbe things he did know, at the thoritated. oughness with which he had been "I give you one more chance," whls taught, and at the wonderful acute-nes- s pered the woman in his .ear. "I think of perception which he displayed; " myself fit for the wife of any man, do The woman bad marveled at It too, you think so? Do you love me? Do but she had become used to It in threa you care for me as you did last night? years of Intimacy. They saw it imCan you think of me as all that is mediately with greater surprise. sweet and lovely and noble and pure, A spare cabin in the wardroom had and worthy of any mans affection?" been arranged for the Islander, and She bent closer toward him in tbe there provided with the unwonted luxIntensity of her feelings. The words ury of night wear after a hearty rushed from her. Tbe man passed his "Good-nightfrom the lieutenant comhand over his forehead. mander and a fervent "God bless you" "I can only say what I said before, from the old chaplain, he was left that I love you still, that I will marry to his own devices. The strangeness you, and that you ought to of his situation, the soft bed, tha "That Is enough," Interrupted the snowy linen, the silk pajamas, the conwoman. "Goodby." fining area of the cabin, the sudden She drew Instantly apart from him. touch with luxuries of civilization "Mr. Charnock," rang the captain's would In itself have kept him awake had be been as heart whole and as voice, Imperatively. Slowly the Islander turned and made care free as when the woman had his way to the sea after the others. landed upon the Island. Hut, indeed, The woman, thus left alone upon the strangeness of these things the Island, was face to face with a aroused no emotions In his mind at crisis which could only be met in two all, for the moment he was alone his ways. Either she must go away with thoughts, which he had been fighting the man, or they must both remain on desperately to keep upon other things, the Island. It was possible that the reverted to her. What was she doing captain might be induced to use force for the first time alone upon that ls to take tbe man away, but that was land? What was she thinking? lis not likely, and if It were attempted, realized that no more than he could she believed, with much foundation she be sleeping. ' for her belief, that the man who had he reviewed with Unflinchingly never been coerced by a human being what calmness he could muster the except her would fight until he died. scenes of the morning and the day. She could not go away with him; she He forced himself to consider In all could not live with him on the Island. Its lights and bearings the informaA future opened before hlra. She tion that had been given to him. Ha had learned that afternoon on the sand tortured himself by the deliberate, thnt If bis Identity could be estab- slow recalling of every detail, and lished be would be a man of great then, quivering as if under the stimuwealth, a power, a factor In the lus of some blow upon a raw wound. world's affairs. She had had her ex- he reviewed his own conduct Enllghtt perience In life, her taste of power. It enment came to him in that dark and did not matter about her. It mattered silent hour. He discovered first of all that he loved her; that the check and greatly about him. She had given him a Hnal chance. oounter-checand variation and alterHe did not love her as she would be ation in bis emotions had been swept loved. He could not love her. It was away in a great development of a evident to her that he never would. more transcending feeling. If she She had nothing to live for, nothing should ask him that question on the to hope for, nothing to dream about. morrow as to whether he loved her There was one way of cutting the as he had on that Gordlan knot; she could die. And yet, night, he would still answer no, somehow, the Instinct of life was because he loved her more. (TO BE CONTINUED.) strong in her heart She crossed the island to ner side, Oh, That There Were Others. where Bhe was hidden from the ship, They knew that she lived and went down to the edge of the wa- for a of years, ther said. vh ter. She even slipped off the garments did shecouple never speak of it? of civilization and stood forth a primi"I used to once in awhile." Eh B tive Eve and waded out a little way swered, "but not any morn nrta t into tho lngoon. The night had fallen met the two Brooklyn girls who had nnd she wbb cnlm In the Rcreen of the traveler! an over the world. They dnrknesa. She could easily swim out cured me. It was 'When I was in. to the barrier reef, clamber upon it, or 'When I was in Japan,' or nnd then plupge into the blue Pacific China,' 'When I went through the Hlnek fornnd swim on and on, and fight and est.' or 'When I took a Ball down tho fight until the last vestige of her Red sen.' until Just ubout bored wns gone, and then sink1 mo. to death. they strength I said to mvsif ti,.,i. down, leaving him free nnd settling that I would ever after spare iu tho question. And yet the waters lap. menas, anu l nave aept my word." - 1 A you; I would not take an angel from heaven unless he thought me In every particular all that a woman 'should be to a nmn, unless he loved me with his whole heart and soul absolutely, unfelgnedly, completely. You don't. I don't even think that I lovo you now. You have been tried and tested, and you have failed. Gentlemen, will you take him away?" "I stay here," said the man, bluntly, drawing apart from the others, "and I will kill with my own hands the man who lays a finger upon me." "Sir." said the captain, "this land. I take It Is the United States. As the ranking officer present, 1 represent its law. It Is under my rule. As to your choice, I have nothing to say, but as far as regards other things, you will have to obey me here as any other citizen of our wiuntry." "And I know nothing of the United States or its laws," answered the man, proudly. "I am a law unto myself." "The first lesson that the world will tench you, sir," returned the captain, pointedly, "Is that that position cannot be maintained; that the whole fabric of civilization depends upon concession by Individuals of natural rights and upon the enforcement of these concessions by other Individuals to whom has been delegated that "Is the Present Charnock mander, stepping forward, notebook in hand. "Captain, will you conduct the necessary inquiry?" "Certainly," said the captain. "Mr. Langford, do you Identify this lndy?" "I do, sir," answered Langford. "She Is Miss (Catherine Hrenton of San Francisco." "You say this of your own personal knowledge?" "Yes, sir." "You will make affidavit to that ract?" "With pleasure." "I wondered," said the womnn, bitterly, "why you came back." "It Mas at my wish, madam," re turned Capt Ashby, formally. He was not greatly prepossessed with the Imperative manner and de meanor of this young woman, but be did not see exactly how he could resent it, or force any improvement in it. "Will you proceed now with your story," he continued. "Will you speak slowly go that Mr. Whittaker, who does, not write shorthand, can take it down?" Thereupon the tion of her tale evidence which piece of the boat ship upon it, the woman told that por which related to the she exhibited, tho with tho name of the dog collar, the silver box, the Hiblo, the two rings. These were marked, set down and sworn to. The affidavit to which she subscribed her name, nnd to which she took oath on tho very Dible of the island, was brief, though comprehensive, and the little ceremony was soon over, Mr. Whittaker assumed charge of all the exhibits. The tale having been com pleted and all the little formalities got through with, tho llttlo party stood uround in awkward silence wondering what was next to come. "Miss Hrenton," said the captain at last, breaking the pause, "it seems a shame. For God's sake, reconsider your decision nnd come off to the ship!" Married?" to the little group who waited, all except Langford, who had walked away out of earshot and who resolutely kept his back toward the party, "but this thing has to be settled. Now," said the woman, "here is no question of honor, but of love. I ask you, Man, do you love me as you did last night?" he began, falterlngly. "You have never told me a He," she continued. "You have never known anything but the truth." "Until I learned from you," cried the "I" man, "what you had concealed." The woman smiled bitterly, waving aside this cruel stab. "Tell me the truth. Do you love me as you did Inst night?" "If you will have It, no," said the man, rushing to his doom. Men have taken a bullet In the breast, a shot in the heart, and for a moment have maintained their erect The woman knew In that position. moment how such things could be. "Hut I love you still," said the mnn. "And I still want you for my wife." "Last night," went on the woman, ns if in a dream, "I seemed to you the embodiment of every excellence that humnnity can possess short of the divine." "Yes," said the man, "I loved you as" "Do k n I still possess those qualities In your eyes?" ' He hesitated. He strove to speak. "The truth! The truth!" whispered the woman. "Nothing else, so help you God!" "No," said the man, "but I love you still, nnd you ought to marry mo, you must. Can't you understand?" "Listen," said tho woman, fiercely. "I did not go to that man yonder, he offered me everything that honor could dictate and that true affection could suggest, I do believe, e I did not love him, although I have since come to respect him, after I have thought It over. It Is not duty, but love, which Is the compelling motive In this matur. And I won't take f r :. i |