| Show y CYRU CUs Y Y B BRADY wy rt SYNOPSIS A young woman cast ashore on a lonely island finds it a solitary inhabitant a young w white litto man dressed like a savage and unable to speak in any known language she decides to educate him and mold his mind to her own ideals she finds evidence that leads tier her to believe that t the he man la Is john revell kevell Cliar nock of virginia arid and that lie was wag cast ashore was hore when a child katharine drenton brenton was a highly specialized product of a leading university her Iler writings on an the sex problem attracted wide attention tho the son of a multimillionaire multi nill millionaire ilona re becomes infatuate w with I 1 t h her and they decide to put her theories into practice with mill no other ceremony than a handshake they go aw away ay together A tew few days on ills his yacht reveals 3 to her that tie he only professed lofty ideals to possess assess her while N drunk h he e attempts 0 to O idas esq her she knocks him do down wa and leaves him unconscious esca escaping in tl the 1 e darkness in a gasoline launch during a storm she la is cast ashore on an island three years teaching gives the man it a splendid education their love for each other Is revealed when lie he rescues tier her from a cave where she had been imprisoned by an earthquake A ship la Is sighted and they light it a beacon to summon it langford on ills his yacht sights the beacon and orders his yacht put in the woman recognizes the yacht and tells h her er companion banion that a man inan on board I 1 had ad injured her er in the greatest way langford Lang tord recognizes izes katharine he ae tells the man that she had been his ahli mistress and narrowly escapes being killed CHAPTER XVI continued 1 I appeal to you said the woman turning to langford Lang tord send back the men A moment since I 1 saved your life at a word from me he would have thrown you from him and broken your back be generous you must and this man shall give me a hearing bearing you are safe from him I 1 promise you what might have been the result ot at this appeal can never be determined for at that moment a new factor entered upon the scene a factor whose presence was as surprising and unexpected as it was determinative from out to sea yet near at hand came a muffled detonation the roar of a heavy gun around one of the headlands that rose on that side of the island there swept the white sides of another great ship beside which the yacht imposing though she was was a toy it was the woman who saw it first look she cried A ship of war a cruiser see from her staff the hag flag ot of the united states this land Is american I 1 claim it by right ot of ill discovery a lay but a hand upon this man aud and I 1 will have you hanged tor for murder langford they see us there their glasses have searched the shore they have seen this encounter that gun was a warning A boat puts off thank god we art saved from you things had transpired even as she said what the cruiser was doing in those seas how happened she to be there were things as yet unknown but that she was there was apparent she had approached the island front from the ot herde and had sailed around it her I 1 men e flad aad observed the encounter on the shore which seemed to be between natives and persons from the yacht which was in plain view a little farther out to sea and the gun had bad been llred fired to call attention to the power of the united states this put an entirely new face on the whole affair matters were taken out of the hands of the parties to the quarrel the law had come to the island the islander did not could not know it but his hia baffled antagonist realized it immediately so did the woman at Lang langfords fords command his men much bewildered at the scene they had witnessed went back to their boat ile he himself presently followed after and stood upon the strand awaiting the approach of the heavy man of war cutter which had been put away from the white cruisers side man alan she said softly this Is what I 1 had to tell you ile he nodded A hollow groan burst from his lips ills mistress he muttered brokenly 1 I would not have had you learn in this way and now that you have heard so BO much you must hear more she went on oil not sparing herself though she might have justly resented me word she was dealing with more serious things than words now bitter though they might be that ship which is the ship of our country coubry stands for law as his hia for foi license I 1 was more sinned against than sinning when you have heard allther all then you shall judge this Is the test would god that it had never been laid upon me said the man hoarsely would god oil that the beacon had not been lighted on the hill nay returned the woman gently past praying tor for decision rests lesta with you but you must not pass it until you have heard the whole story the world holds me stained polluted it may be said but I 1 am not the sinner that it thinks me or he be portrays you said it was true doggedly cried the man yes but not all true and I 1 had him in my hands and still he lives wont you hear bear me pleaded the woman the man shook tier her oft and turned away the very innocence which had relented l his understanding at first the charge made it the more hideous when comprehension came lie he had bad loved this woman with a love that passed the love of man for there had not entered into his mind the faintest possibility that she could ever be or ever have been other than what she seemed a daughter of the gods in truth in sweetness and in purity and this strange man had como come from out the world and proclaimed her his mistress his castoff cast off oft abandoned mistress once the clow was given he found more hideous depths of infamy in that word than would have appeared had his been a wiser and more experienced vision indeed so clear and pure was waa the soul of this woman that a man of the world would have known instantly that there was an explanation which the child of nature could not see forthcoming he wanted to be away from her and alone and he turned as if to plunge into the depths of the forest but with gentle force she restrained him you are a man with a mans power and a mans soul and a mans heart you cannot fly now you must stay and face the problem the question must be pursued to the bitter end my aly life and your life depends upon what we do now perhaps his life too 0 god cried the man recurring again to that bitter thought 1 I had him in my hands and spared him but you spared him for my sake said the woman think of that for your sake declared the man pointedly 1 I would and should have killed him thou not kill said the woman softly an eye tor for an eye and a tooth for a tooth returned the man he and you between you slew my heart his death would be no murder but retribution dut but it was in part my fault re turned turn edthe the woman bravely making her confession 1 I will never believe it it cannot be and yet it was but you shall have the whole wretched story today to day and you shall judge this much I 1 will say that though all that he said was true tru eyet yet I 1 hold myself blameless and innocent the world judges me ine harshly and it may be that you will find its judgment just yet I 1 do not hold myself as on trial at this moment but you 1 I do not understand there are many things that you do not understand my friend 1 I would that I 1 had bad been left in ignorance nay that Is not a mans wish but a childs i of one thing I 1 am certain and what Is that that I 1 should have killed him nay said the woman again that is not a childs wish but a brutes you said yourself he flashed at her that there were some things a woman could not forgive and this his Is one that a man puts in the same class tile the woman sighed there occurred to her at the moment no answer which was adequate to the stark realism of this fact the conversation had reached an impasse beyond which it could not progress without the full and complete explanation which now there was neither time nor opportunity to give for the boat from the man of war was approaching the shore the woman noman stepped resolutely down the strand to meet it and the man after a slight hesitation followed her so soon as the boats keel grated on I 1 the bottom in the shallow water a middle aged officer rose from the stern sheets and stepped ashore followed by a younger companion in the uniform of a sergeant of marines A little squad of privates in the bows landed and tell fell in line with martial celerity and precision the officer in charge who wore the white tropic uniform of f a lieutenant commander now faced the people on the island who had instinctively divided into two groups one on either cither side of him to the right stood the man and te le hind him the woman to the left langford back of him his crew it was to the latter that the officer first addressed himself sir he began 1 I am the executive officer of the united states cruiser cheyenne detached on special service we va raised this island this morning ran it down circled it saw the yacht yonder ile he paused it Is my yacht sir air the southern cross answered the other my name Is langford glad to meet you mr air langford mine allne is whittaker the lieutenant commander touched ills his cap as he spoke langford lifted its his and the two shook hands we saw continued the lieutenant commander what appeared to be some sort of a fracas with the natives and fired a gun to attract attention and capt ashby sent this boat party ashore under my charge to do whatever was necessary perhaps you can explain how you came to be embroiled with tile the natives sir said bald the woman and the fact that she addressed him in his hia own language and with the cultured accents of the well bred and the well educated caused the officer to start violently the island Is mine mr whittaker turned and looked deliberately at her his surprise only equaled by his admiration the tunic that she wore was a rough garment and shapeless but few vestments were better calculated to set oft off her exquisite proportions the grace and beauty ot of her figure the nobility and intelligence of her face took added luster from the contrast of the utterly wy oppa sa simple natural and primitive whit takers glance fell upon a well nigh perfect woman the constraining influences of civilization hail had been so BO long absent that nature had time and opportunity port unity to reassert its claim she was tall exquisitely modeled her bare arms might have supplied those missing from the venus ot of mile her limbs which the short tunic to her knees left exposed were perfect in their symmetry and strength her feet were such as those to which ancient greece had bowed her hands banda were shapely graceful 3 y t strong herdack her dark eyes looked at him fearlessly her dark hair rose like a somber cloudy crown above her brow the fierce sun the open air the wild wind had not materially altered the clear slightly slight ay olive pallor of her face the woman had been beautiful before now that nature had had free sway she was nobly lovely she ard ha d stood a little in the rear of the man at first and the lieutenant commander had not particularly observed her when she spoke she stepped into the open lie ile stared and stared amazed indeed the direct intensity of his glance added a sudden now new perception to the womans comans faculties and for the first time in years she realized that she was standing before tier her fellows lows half naked in one swift moment convention leaped across the missing years and caught her in its arm the red flashed into her cheek beneath tier her rude vest her bosom rose and fell her instinct for the moment was to fly she wished that she had put on those treasured trea suied garments which she had kept for a scene like this in that cave all those years it was too he would havo have been glad to hurt him until he killed him we went on my yacht yonder three years yeara ago 1 I in short 1 I behaved like a brute on it I 1 will admit 1 I discovered that lie he was it a married man said the aaman swiftly at athla this juncture she too would bo be wank frink this grave and middle aged of oti alcer should hear all ile he had pro teased his bellel belief in those views which it Y you a u hav have a read fate and destiny you y on realize that I 1 entertained the officer bowed and havo have you abandoned thorn them how now he asked absolutely was the firm an answer 1 1 I am a christian woman tj thank ia k god thank gott god say aay 1 I too continued longford langford yet I 1 was not altogether a sham or a lie it was true that I 1 was a married man the lieutenant commander hashed flashed a contemptuous look at him at which langford Lang tord winced but lie he went on lie ile was determined to make an absolutely clean breast of the whole affair it Is true I 1 was a married man but I 1 was under the spell of alias Dren tons eloquence and of tier her beauty 1 I can well understand that said the of licer gravely as a matter of course 1 I thought that marriage meant nothing and that tho the old tie might bo be disregarded I 1 hated the woman who bore my name and so as miss alias kron bren tons disciple as tier her devotee for I 1 loved her I 1 will admit she smiled drearily more than her philosophy I 1 proposed that we should trample upon the conventions she had taught me to M 1 P I 1 f alk 1 I know that I 1 love her now late now she summoned her cour age and realizing that dignity aftel all is not made or of clothes or conven eions once more addressed him sir she said my name Is katli hath arine drenton brenton I 1 am not as you amigh well think a savage but a castaway 1 I beg your pardon said the ofil cor car a man of wide reading and cut cul ture Is it possible that you are thi th katharine brenton who wrote fat and destiny I 1 1 am that unhappy woman unhappy yes returned the other 1 I 1 A madam ladam said the lieutenant corr coir mander mi inder lushing flushing deeply and bowing 11 1 his turn ile he had taken off his ua cat at her first word 1 I beg your pa rdo I 1 have heard something of your story ile he was very much embarrassed was langford who took up tho tale talc since you know so much mr air will taker you may as well hear tile tho res regj indeed I 1 am anxious that the wor worl should hear it miss brenton and f weer we er did not believe in marria marr lag and we went away together every word was agony to langdor Lang for who was waa a proud roan man it was wor than agony to katharine drenton brenton wn W was a proud woman and it was waa wort wor 11 agony of all to the roan man of the as q land hut but langford persisted ile he dl not care how he hurt himself he rather luxuriated in the cons clou ness of its ills own pain it was part I 1 his expiation ho he realized that ft would have to hurt katharine but p impi haps the very keenness of her pa pas would make her realize her and he wanted to win her now tat alij he had found her and seen her mj than ever nor was his passion base one again lie he was ashamed Mf A 1 what he had already said so he spot the more frankly ila ho save gave no thour 11 at all to the other man but if ita K 1 fo 1 believe she despised and go away together hut but you were not tree free said the woman to enter upon such an all undertaking no by heaven cried whittaker now this conversation had been carried can led on with three auditors or groups of auditors besides those participating langfords Lang fords yachtsmen the marines and seamen from the cheyenne for the boat was against the shore and the man of the island whittaker first awoke to the situation 1 I beg your pardon he said but would it not be better to continue this conversation privately 1 I think so returned langford no said bald the man 0 of the island addressing the lieutenant commander for the first time you and these men are the world I 1 want the story told where all the world |
