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Show By Cyrus Totnscnd y Brady y iLLUSmATmS3Y XonmvrKfsr wcchapmv conumm SYNOPSIS. wat bjutaih oast ashore on a lonely island, finds a solitary inhabitant, a young white man, dressed like a savage and unable to speak in any known lanA young woman guage. She decides to educate him and She mold his mind to her own ideals. finds a human skeleton, the skeleton of a dog, a Bible and a silver box, which lead her to the conclusion that her companion was cast ashore on the island when a child, and that his name is John Kevell Charnoek of Virginia. Near the skeleton she finds two womans rings, one of which bears an inscription J. Jt. C. to M. P. T. Sept. 10, Katharine Brenton was a highly specialized product of a leading university. Her writings on the sex problem had attracted wide atThe son of a tention. becomes infatuated with her, and they decide to put her theories into practice. With no other ceremony than a handclasp they go away together. A few days on liis yacht shows her that the man only professed lofty ideals to possess her. CHAPTER VI Continued. She began to realize how helpless she was. Under the inspiration of a belief, which was as honest as it was mistaken, she had put herself in the power of this man. Even if she were ashore, there would be no one to whom she could appeal, and here on the ship she was helpless. Lingering remains of better things had kept him from the last resort of the tyrant force! but how long these would be operative in restraint she could not tell. She fancied not for long. What Bhould she do then? She saw the end coming when in his anger he resorted to drink, to drink which exploded the last vestige of his philosophy, however he had professed it. She was frightened beyond measure when she realized the depths to which he had sunk and to which, in spite of herself, he had dragged her. What further descent was before her? She did not even yet abandon that philosophy which had served her so 111. more She clung to that with tenacious pride because of its very weakness, but she loathed mankind. On that yacht he summed up for her the whole human race, and she hated him and it. To what sorry pass had a few weeks practical experience reduced her! She had begged and pleaded with him to alter the yachts course, but he had sworn he would go farther south into those unknown seas and keep her there until she crawled to his feet. So the long hours dragged on. The inevitable rupture drew nearer. At last it came. In its details it was horrible, but there was in it a great relief after all. te given. To contempt and pity for him was added hatred. The combination transformed her. Instead of avoiding, she would seek. him. He was still in the cabin. She could hear him muttering thickly to himself. Impulsively she stepped to the door, turned the key in the lock, threw it open and entered the brilliantly lighted luxurious cabin. He had dismissed the attendants some time since with orders not to reappear unless he summoned them, and they were alone. There was no likelihood of any interruption - whatsoever. The man, who was leaning back in his chair, bent forward when she opened the door. He laughed viciously. If she had reflected, she would have marveled at the change that a few weeks had wrought in one whom she had hitherto deemed worthy of her affection, but she had eyes and thought for nothing except the business In hand. So youve come out, have you? he Come of stammered triumphantly. your own free will! You've found out, have you, that I am master and you are coming to heel? He whistled to her derisively, whistled as if to a dog! Who is this? asked the woman in a voice carefully suppressed, yet which shook with wrath. She held the photograph in its heavy silver frame up before him. Thats my wife, he said equally, with no surprise or consternation. We haven't lived together for some years, he went on with drunken good nature, or I'd take you back to San Francisco and introduce you to her. Your wife! exclaimed the woman in that same low, tense voice. Then what am I? said the man, bluntMy mistress, ly, throwing the last shred of conceal ment and decency to the winds, and a damned obstreperous one at that, he went on. Now, the woman believed in no Providence, but a trick got from her ancestry wrung the words from her lips. My God! My God! she whispered. You haven't .any, sneered the He You told me so yourself. man. And I believed you. I laughed. would have believed anything to get you. Well, there was no God the woman realized, but she would be her own god. Her body shrank together a little, her hands clenched. The feline was uppermost. She could have sprung upon him, but she waited, waited for she knew not what. Whom the gods destroy, ran the ancient phrase, they first make mad. He rushed to his doom with blind folly. You neednt be jealous of her, my I used to dear, he mumbled on. think I loved her and we were marCHAPTER VII. ried, damned foolishness, as you might say. She can't hold a candle to you, The Joy of Freedom. One night at dinner she had fled if you are a little touched, he tapped in the upfrom him. He had been drinking more his forehead impudently , per story. in an was usual and than heavily ugly And this man, this degraded thing, mood. Ilis handsome face was flushed, a savage frown overspread his brow. regarded her as a mad woman. There He had risen during the meal and with might be no God, but there was a devil a coarse endearment had attempted and he stood before her. There might to lsy hands upon her at last! She be no heaven, but there was a hell had broken away and darted into the and she was in it. On second thoughts, he rambled hearest cabin, which happened to be his own. She had closed the door and on, I couldn't introduce you to her. turned the key against him before he You arent respectable and she is. He stopped and poured himself anrealized what she was about. She Stood within the little room, panting, other drink. Respectable! he laughed. To hell enraged, fearful, yet ready to defend her all and almost glad the crisis had with respectability. We know a better Soul to soul, heart arrived. She could hear his drunken thing that that! to heart, the union of equals without laugh outside the door. the trammels of conventional bonds Why, you little fool! he cried, do for weaker beings. Yes, that's what you think I can't break that lock down in a moment? The ships mine, every you said. And she recognized with horror that man on its mine. I pay em. They do my bidding. I have you where I he was quoting her own words. But it doesnt go, you see. It's want you and i can have you when I all very well in theory, but It doesnt please, now or later." Was it true? Could she appeal to the work out in practice. The world's men? But what could she say? Al- got some ideas of its own. It's been em for a good many thouthough the world knew there was no holding binding tie between them, to the off- sands of years and you cant change Y'ou belong to me now. To hell icers and men of the yacht she was his 'em. wife. They would not interfere. And with your equality! You are nothing if she declared the truth, she would more nor less than my property, and mark you, he reached out a tremput herself beyond the pale of their it at sympathies. Being merely stupid men, bling finger and shook If I her, your cast you off, with conventional ideas about pro- salvation is with me. into the you go gutter. be event they would priety, in that She wondered vaguely how much less apt to interfere than ever. It was true she could do nothing. She sank more of this she could stand and live. But dont he afraid, lie went on down on a hassock, clenching her with a drunken atempt at reassurbands. As she sat, her eyes fell on a chest ance, you are too fine and too handof drawers screwed against the hulk some, even if you are cracked, for head.' The top contained various toilet that yet. I tn gad tc see you've come articles of silver. Among them was a to your s n e lie lose hravily as he spoke ami picture, the picture of a woman. It was not her picture. Moved by what ff It bis way around the table hand impulse she did not stop to analyze, ocr band. He approached her. She she rose and picked it up. The face let him do it. She shrank a little she looked at was ineffably vulgar and eloper together, every muscle tense for common. Across the bottom was writ- action. She was no longer a woman; ten in a scrawly unformed hand. Your she was a human tigress and her phildevoted wife. There was a date sev- osophy was gone. He was too drunk eral years before that hour. Your de- to see it, too incapacitated to take voted wife! She had been in that warning. That's right, he continued as he stateroom before; she had never seen Stay right that picture. He had only brought it lurched nearer to her. there. I'm coming to you as fast as out since the rupture between them. And so while entering into this re- I can and when I get close to you, lationship with her, in compliance well kiss, and He was by her side now. He with principles and ideas which she at least regarded as sacred and holy, straightened himself up with a spashe had not been a free man! There modic effort, released his hold on the was another woman to whom he had table and stretched out his arms tobeen bound. Oh, not by the marriage ward her. And then she sprang at tie that she disdained, but by the him. How she did it, she could never honor which was supposed to exist tell, but in some way her outstretched among thieves and which certainly arms, grasping for his throat, struck bhould xist among philosophers. And him in the breast. Unsteady on his A cold fury filled her feet, he went down as if he had been simh a wr'"-n- ! looked at the picture. shot. Such was the violence of his fall ri-etipg ouch had been that Hie momentum carried her with - In His Anger He Resorted to Drink. him. She fell upon him with all her force. His head went back and struck the deck with a frightful crash. She herself was almost stunned by the violence of her own fall, although his body broke it. She arose and stood over him for a minute and then she lifted her foot and brought it down upon him. He had said she was a mad woman and it was true. She was crazed by what she had heard, by the horror of the situation. She had not changed her dress for dinner that afternoon. was wearing a pair of light boatlnjy shoes. It was lucky for him. If she had worn evening slippers with high, rigid heels, she would have mashed his face beyond recognition. As It was, she left horrible marks upon it. He lay absolutely She motionless. could see that he was still breathing and was not dead. If she had had a weapon she might have killed him in the fury and transport of her rage. This wretched philosopher! As no resistance came from him, she presently stopped, the feminine in her slowly rising to the fore. She realized now that the irrevocable had happened; that there was no longer room for two of them on that ship. As the mists of passion cleared away, although the fire of rage still burned in her heart, her mind cleared also. She thought with such rapiditj as she had never thought before. First she picked up a cloak, threw it about her and went on deck. A cabin attendant was standing at the conipan-ionway- , as was always the case, waiting a possible summons. She told him that his master was ill and did not desire to be disturbed. He did not even want the dinner tilings cleared He wanted to be left entirely away alone until 'morning. The servant smiled slightly, she thought, in the light front the cabin skj light. She noticed that it was a moonless night, cloudy, overcast, for she could see no stars. She knew what that smile meant; that the man realized what sort of sickness his owner and master was liable to. She hade him tell the officer ol the deck her message and then dismissed him. Then she returned to the cabin and carefully locked the door. She glanced at the man as she did so. lie lay just as he had lain before She bent over him. He was still breathing, she noted with was it regret? But she wasted no time over him. Time was the most, precious of all things to her at that moment. She had a clear and definite plan of action. She knew exactly what she intended to do and how she intended to do it. Fortunately the means of escape were at hand. They had passed one or two tiny islands during the day, mere treeless spots of sand or coral in the vast of the ocean, but prospects that others more inviting might be raised had caused the man to order the power tender to be got overboard. This was a good, substantial boat, 15 feet in length, botd-beameand built for heavy seas, yet and capable of powerfully engined good speed. By his direction the tanks had been filled and everything overhauled so that it would be In readiness for use. The sea was very calm and the gentle air scarcely raised a ripple on its surface. To save the trouble of hoisting it aboard again, the tender had been left trailing astern at the end of a long line. It would be ready for Instant use. She would escape in that. She knew how to run the motor and how to steer the boat. She had done it many a time. Carrying her heavy boat cloak she entered her cabin, hastily packed her I d help. She was fearful that the noise of her fall might have attracted the attention of some one on the deck, but the poop of the yacht was usually deserted at night and it was unlikely that any one would be up there. Scrambling to her feet, she drew her knife and severed the taut rope that held the launch to the yacht. It She was whirled parted instantly. backwards and sideways with a suddenness that again almost threw her out of the boat. For one agonizing moment the launch lay full in the broad beam of light that proceeded from the bright cabin window she had left. For one agonizing moment of suspense she hung there and then the swirl of the wave carried her into the darkness. She lay directly in the wake of the yacht, and the launch was pitched up and down by the waves made by the rapidly moving ship with a violence of motion that was sickening. There were a pair 'of oars in the boat, but she did not break them out. She just drew herself down in the stern sheets and lay there waiting. She knew that the clatter of the motor could be heard a long distance in so still a night and over so still a sea, and therefore, although her impulse was to start it at once, ' she restrained herself and waited, watching the yacht rapidly disShe could mark her course appear. easily by the light from that cabin window. Her ear w'as keen and she listened until she could no longer detect, the beat and throb of the steamers engines. Then she rose and started the motor. The boat was provided with a compass, and although she could see no star, she was able to set a course which was directly at right angles to the course of the yacht. She realized, or at least she thought so, that she would be pursued. She believed that the yacht would retrace its course. She decided that those aboard her would reason that she would endeavor to put as much distance as possible between herself and the yacht, and therefore she would sail straight away from it. Consequently, she went broad off to starboard at right angles to the other course. The gasoline tanks were both full. Inasmuch as the boat had been designed for extended cruising in shallow waters, there wras enough fuel to keep the motor going for over 30 hours 'at full speed. The motor was capable of developing at least ten knots per hour. By the same time night she would be 240 miles away from the present spot. The yacht was going 12 knots an hour. Her escape would probably not be discovered for ten hours. By that time the yacht would be 120 miles away. They would be 150 miles apart by morning, measured on the hypotheuse, and by night, who could tell? At any rate, she had now done all that she could. Her condition was desperate; her prospects gloomy beyond expression. She Believed That the Yacht Would She was alone in a small power boat which would be helpless, the sport of Retrace Its Course, wind and waves, after perhaps 30 hours. That boat was alone in the bag with what things she fancied she great expanse of the Pacific ocean. would need, returned to the table, Somewhere about there were islands took from it every scrap that was probably. Indeed, on the charts those edible and portable; without much re- seas were dotted with points of land, gard for the niceties she made it up but they were small, inconsiderable, in a heavy parcel which she tied with uninhabited, unknown. In that little napkins. She remembered that the boat she might pass close by many water tank in the launch had been of them without seeing them. She had filled, so that for a time at least she provisions, such as they were, and would lack nothing. Carrying bag and water sufficient for a week perhaps bundle in her hands and with the boat or ten days. After that unless she cloak over her arm and a straw hat landed somewhere she would drift on tied on her head, after one long look until she starved and died. If a storm at the man, she turned and went aft came, the launch probably would not the starboard after survive it. Her chances and of escape, in stateroom, her own. any event, were worse than problemThe boat's painter had been affixed atical. The end was almost certain. to the starboard side of the yacht. She But she was happy. The first real opened the stern window and looked ray of happiness which had entered out. She leaned far out and by great her soul since the beginning of the good fortune in the darkness caught great awakening, which had culminthe painter. The boat of course, was ated in the frightful scene of the swinging to a long rope. She pulled night, illumined her being. As she sat at this line cautiously, although the in the stern sheets, her hand on the effort taxed her strength to the ut- steering wheel, listening to the steady most. Indeed, she seemed ' possessed drumming of the motor, seeing the of a fictitious strength for the time black water broken into foam by the being else she never could have ac- boat's bows flash by her, keeping the complished her hard task. But she launch steady on her course by the managed to get the boat practically aid of the compass needle, her eyes under the cabin at last. She fastened turned ever and anon to the fast dithe painter to her bed, which was of minishing point of light which marked brass and securely screwed to the the rapidly disappearing yacht, and floor. Then she cut off the line and she realized that she was free. She tied the bundle of provisions and her had hurled out of her path and how brg and cloak to the end of it. These she exulted in her own prowess; it she diopped down into the boat. wrns something of a salve to her soul Among the petty articles was a sharp for the wretched humiliations which sailors sheath knife fastened to a lan- had been heaped upon it she had yard. She slipped this lanyard into her hurled out of her path and stricken blouse. Then she climbed up on the down as any n'lier animal might have port sill and essayed the dangerous done hipi who had brought tier to this descent heivelf. She was glad that awful pass. She was away from him, she was a strong, athletic woman, tree from him. She was once more, used to trusting to her own skill and so far as wind and wave allowed, the powers, for it was no easy task to master of her fate, the mistress of her slide down that rope and get into a destiny. boat trailing along beneath the counin her heart, too, that She was ter of a yacht going peihaps 12 kno's there were glad to be no physical consean hour Fortunately the engine was quences from her brief alliance. She well aft and the bow of the launch did not realize that there were to be was high out of the water; else her other consequences which not even all weight would have pressed it down the water of the seas over which she and the back wash from the jacht floated could wash out. There was a would perhaps have swamped the strange elation in her soul. She felt launch. as if in some way she had vindicated At any rate, she succeeded, although her right to be. There was something after she got her foot in the bows she yet in her philosophy and did opporslipped and fell. But that she fell tunity serve, could she get free front straight aft upon the cloak and bun- the dangers that encompassed her, she dles she would have hurt herself se- vowed that she would prove it. All night long she stayed awake, verely. If she had not fallen that way, if she had pitched to the right or the keeping the launch in her course. left she would have gone overboard When morning broke she was absoand that would have been the enu, lutely alone upon the ocean. Standing for she knew that she would have died erec upon a seat, from her low van- rather than appeal to that ship for tage point she could see nothing but smoothly undulating sea. She breakfasted sparingly from her scanty store and resumed her post at the wheel. She was tired and sleepy, but while the little engine was alive she could not leave it to its own devices. She must hold on her chosen course as long as the motive power remained. She could not lose a moment while that motor" throbbed and beat. She must be alive with it. There would be time to sleep when it was exhausted. She must put as many leagues betw'een lipr and pursuit by holding the direct course as long as was possible. And so she sat there grimly, hands clutching the wheel through the long day and through the longer night and well into the following morning. It must have been half past ten on the morning of the second day before the motor stopped. The silence, after the ceaseless drumming of a night, a long day, a longer night and a still longer morning, struck her with the same strange sense of shock. She calculated that the motor had been running for 38 hours and that she had gone 380 miles at least on her course. She had seen nothing whatever of the yacht. The chances that it would pick her up, even if it came about and cruised for her, a lonely speck in the ocean, were millions to nothing. At any rate, she had done all she could. Her philosophy for once stood her in good stead. There was nothing more to be done. She was dead for want of sleep. The sky had been slightly overcast since she had left the yacht, but there had been no storm and weather conditions looked just as they had and seemed to be permanent. Taking the precaution to examine the gasoline tanks and finding that indeed they had been drained of the last drop, she carefully closed and locked them, thereby assuring her salvation, and spreading the boat cloak In the stern sheets with her bag for a pillow and her straw hat tied over her face to shield It from the sun, she instantly dropped to sleep. CHAPTER VIII. Cast Up by the Sea. Day was just breaking again when the woman awoke. Reference to her watch which she had taken the precaution to wind just before she retired disclosed the fact that it was four o'clock in the morning. She had slept unbrokenly since 11 oclock the morning before. Her sleep had been a stupor of utter and complete exhaus: tiqn. Added to the tremendous physical strain of keeping awake and attending to the duty to which she had enforced herself had been the further strain of the terrible events on the night in which she left the yacht, and the apprehension of pursuit which had been continually with her. Her first motion, indeed, was to rise to her feet and scan the horizon. With relief In- describable her scrutiny descovered nothing. She was still alone. Neither the yacht nor any other vessel nor any smallest speck of land was silhouetted against the circling sky line. She sat in, the boat musing a long time and then woke to the fact that she was hungry. Again she satisfied her netite sparingly from her scanty and rapidly diminishing store of food and drink, and then putting the past resolutely behind her, hoping and perhaps fancying by some exercise of her will power finally she could put it her forever, she gave serious thought to her condition. She realized at last that she in the hands another would have said of God! she said of chance. The fact that she was so helpless; that all her learning and all her training, and all her skill and all her power were of no avail, made the situation the more galling. Was there nothing that she could do? She reflected deeply and as she did so the breeze sprang up. She judged that the period during which she had slept hud been calm and still. Any violent rot king of the boat would have awakened her. Indeed, she felt bitterly (tamped and stiff from having lain so long on the hard floor, which only the boat cloak, thick and heavy, made a tolerable bed. The coming of the breeze stimulated her imagination. It was a gentle breeze. She noticed that it blew from the direction whence she had come by her compass course. If she only had a sail of some kind the boat would be driven along. Site must move somewhere. She had heard of ocean currents and drift but she doubted whether the boat was moving, at least sufficiently fast or in any p- - be-ha- definite direction to make any difference. Unless she got somewhere, she would slowly starve and die just where she was. She stepped forward in the boat and examined the oars. There was a sort of a deck forward over the gasoline tanks. She thought that she might make shift with the remains of the painter, of which she had a good length, to fasten one of the oars in an upright position against it. There were bolts and rings of various sorts on this little deck. She could step the handle of the oar between cleats or ribs at the bottom. At least she won (TO BE CONTINUED.) |