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Show DY Cyrus Townsend y Brady y JLLlJSTMTmJ PY tiVMtnwir y fayrs MCHJMAif corrtKHTm Waj ojvjaih SYNOPSIS. A young woman cast ashore on a lonely Island, finds a solitary inhabitant, a young w liite man, dressed like a savage and unable to speak in any known language. She decides to educaft; lnni and mold his mind to her own ideals. She finds evidence that leads her to believe that the man is John Revell Charnock of Virginia, and tiiat he was cast ashore when a child. Katharine Brenton was a highly specialized product of a leading Her writings on the sex probuniversity. lem attracted wide attention. The son of St becomes infatuated With her and they decide to put her theories into practice. A few days on his yacht reveals to her that he only processed lofty ideals to possess her. While drunk he attempts to kiss her. She knocks him down and leaves him uncon-aciou- s and escapes in the darkness in a gasoline launch. During a storm she is cast ashore on an island. Three years' teaching gives the man a splendid education. Their love for each other is revealed When he rescues her from a cave where he had been imprisoned by an earthquake. A ship is sighted and they light a beacon to summon it. Langford on his yacht, sights the beacon and orders his yacht put in. The woman recognizes the yacht and tells her companion that a man tn board had injured her in the greatest way. Langford recognizes Katharine. He tells the man that she had been his mistress and narrowly escapes being killed.' An American cruiser appears. Oflicers near the whole story and Langford asks Katharine to marry him. Katharine declares that she will marry no one but her Island companion. The latter says he still ioves her but that the revelations have made a change. Katharine declares her intention of remaining alone on the island, aylng Charnock had failed when the. test came. re CHAPTER XX. Continued. And then he discovered that he wanted her more than he had ever desired her before; that she was more necessary to him than ever he had ctrSamed she would be; that here was no question of honor or duty, indeed, tiut of love, overwhelming, obsessing. And then he admitted that she was purity, even holiness itself; that he had behaved to her like a cur; that he had been neither grateful, nor kind, nor tender, nor loving. He began to wonder fearfully if, after having failed so egregiously and terribly, there was any possible chance that she could ever care for him again. Fate had brought her into intimate contact, he realized, with two men. One had treated her outrageously in the beginning and had nobly made amends. He hated Langford, and yet his sense of justice forced him to admit that he had played "the man at last, while he, ths' islander, had treated her outrageously and in the end had played the fool. Was there a chance that she would forgive him? The desire to see her, to plead with her, to beg her forgiveness not a low desire or a base one, he was so great that thanked God he could no longer sustain it. He rose to his feet and looked out of the open port hole. The dawn was graying the east. Attired as he was in the loose shirt and trousers in which he had lain down, which were not unlike the tunic that he habitually wore, save that they were of soft, luxurious silk, he opened the door of the cabin stepped out through the silent ward room he had the natural savage art f treading without a sound ran lightly up the companion ladder and stepped upon the deck. The officer of the watch and his midshipman did not notice him. Their eyes were else where. . He ran swiftly across the deck and stopped at the gangway. A mar ine stood there and started forward as he approached. Thats my island, said the man. "Im going to swim off to it, and I dont wish to be followed. Its a long swim, sir, ventured the marine, scarcely knowing what to do He stepped fairly in the gangway as if to bar the exit. It is nothing to me, said the man. Stand aside. Mr. Hopkins! called the marine, turning toward the officer of the deck. the shore clearly to be seen. The captain stared over the side. He could make out the mans head swimming through the opening in the barrier. He could see the splash that he made in his rapid progress through the quiet seas. Mr. Hopkins, he said, after a moment's thought, tell Mr. Cady the midshipman of the watch to take the boat and follow after. If the man gets safely to the shore, they are not to disturb him but to come back and report to me. If, on the contrary, he needs help, they are to take him aboard and bring him back to the ship. So much time was lost in these various maneuvers, however, that when the order was carried out the boat had scarcely reached the entrance to the barrier when they saw the islander stepping through the shallow waters to the beach. There was, therefore, nothing for Mr. Cady to do but come back and report the matter to the captain. When he reached the deck of the cruiser he found the executive officer with the chaplain and the surgeon who had been summoned from their berths in consultation with the captain. By Mr. Whittakers advice, he and the chaplain were immediately sent ashore to see what had happened and what was to be done. There was considerable anxiety in the minds of the quartet who had been dealing with the affair heretofore as to what conditions might be. They did not know the man. They did not know what, he might be doing, or to what danger the woman, whom they all pitied most profoundly, might be exposed. Of all with whom he had come in contact, the lieutenant commander and the chaplain were those who would have the most influence over the man of the island, hence they were dispatched to the island. Another boat crew was therefore called away and the two gentlemen were rowed ashore. It was not yet sunrise but still sufficiently light to enable them to proceed. They were at a loss at first what to do, for they had not yet had opportunity for exploring the island. They had learned that the cave in which the woman dwelt was upon the other side and that hills rose between the landing place and her abode. They knew, of course, that- they could get to it by following the shores of the island, but they had a reasonably accurate idea of Its size and they knew that that would take a great deal of time. Time was precious. They were becoming more and more fearful with every moment. They decided, therefore, to chance a direct march over the hill and across the island. By great good fortune they stumbled into the path which was now sufficiently defined In the growing light to enable them to follow it. They climbed the hill as rapidly as was consistent with the strength of the chaplain, who was a rather old man, and then having reached the top went down the other side almost at a run. As they broke out from under the palm trees, they saw a dark object In the gray dawn lying upon the sands at the waters edge. It was a human As they ran tobeing undoubtedly. ward It with quickening heart beats they recognized it as the man. He was lying motionless as If he had been struck dead. In a brief space they The lieutenant-commande- r reached him. knelt down by his side and turned him over upon his back. He was as senseless as if he had been smitten with a thunder bolt. Is he alive? asked the chaplain, bending over him. Mr. Whittakers hand searched his heart. It beats feebly, he said. He seems to have fainted, collapsed in some strange way. I wish we had brought the surgeon. I wonder what can b'e the cause of it? Look! said the chaplain. He pointed to a little heap of something dark on the sands a foot or two Aye, aye, came from Mr. Hopkins ns he turned and started forward to the gangway. The next moment the man had seized the marine in a grip which left him helpless, lifted him gently out of the gangway, dropped him carelessly upon the deck and had flashed through the air into the water. By the time Mr. Hopkins reached the gangway the marine had risen to his feet. What is it? Why, its the castaway, sir, the wild man that we brought ashore today. Well. He said he wanted to swim to the shore and did not want to be followed. Why didnt you stop him? I did try, sir, but he picked me up as if I had been a baby and threw me aside and went overboard. The officer was in a quandary. He had received no orders to prevent the man from going out of the ship. He was not quite sure what his duty was At any rate, he turned to the boat swain's mate and bade him call away a crew for the cutter swinging astern He directed the coxswain to bring the boat to the gangway and then sent the midshipman of the watch below to report the matter to the captain and ask his orders. Capt. Ashby, as it happened, was pwake. He came on deck immediately Jn his pajamas and received confirmation of the midshipman's extraordinary 6tory from the watch officer. It was light enough now for the waters and half-daze- d away. What is it? asked the officer. The chaplain stepped over to it. It is the clothes of the woman, he k said in an voice, and that Bible we were to take away with us with the other things but which she said she would give us in the morn awe-struc- ing. 3 Lying Upon Well, we must fight for his life Do you stay here. I will anyway. be back in a short time. The lieutenant-commande- r rose to his feet and started back across the island without another word. The chaplain composed the members of the stricken man, putting him in a comfortable position on the warm sand, then knelt down and began to pray. It seemed a long time to the waiting priest before his shipmate returned, and yet but a short time hd He came qp panting from elapsed. the violence of his exertions. 'I have sent the cutter back for the I told the men to row for surgeon. their lives. I gave the midshipman in charge an account of what we had found and begged the captain to send parties ashore to search the island. What of the man? He breathes still," uaid the chaplain. I should think he was in some His heart evidently kind of syncope. was affected. He has had no preparation for such violent strains. The things which are usual and ordinary with us and which, I take it, indurate us to the greater things of life have been conspicuous by their absence in his case and he has not been able to bear up under the sudden shock. Those clothes, have you examined them? No, said the chaplain, it has been too dark in the first place, and I will look at them. said Mr. Whittaker. Perhaps we may find some new clew in them. The lieutenant-commande- r stooped over the pathetic little heap of worn garments. There were the blouse, the skirt, the stockings, and the worn and torn white shoes. The Bible lay upon them as if to weigh them down, and they had been placed well above the reach of the highest tide. The tide was then just coming in to the island. The Bible had been opened and laid Mr. face downward on the clothes. Whittaker lifted it up reverently. He observed as he did so that his own pencil, which he had left, he now remembered, with the woman, lay beneath the open book. On the blank leaves between the Old and New testaments something was written. No mention of any writing had been made in the affidavit of the night before. He lifted it, turned his back toward the east where the sun was just on the verge of rising, and studied it out. Do you find anything? asked the chaplain. There is writing on this page, said the younger man. I can just make it exclaimed Great heaven, Mr, Whittaker, you dont think At the same instant the same thought had come to both men. It looks like it, said the chaplain Poor woman with bated breath. may God help her! That Is what is the matter with out." he read slowly, studying Man, returned the lieutenant-commandehim, He has sought her in her each word in thrdim light, I loved cave and has not found her. He has you. In one sene, in your sense, I was unworthy of you, perhaps, hut discovered these things - The and he knows not in mine. You alone had my heart. alis shock has gone.that she The past was a frightful mistake for most killed him. which I should not be blamed, but for What is to he done now? Here the man of action interposed which I must suffer. I tried you with Do you watch by him, chaplain,1 the world by your side. The world said the lieutenant-commanderising, was kind, but you were not. You I will go back to the landing upon broke my soul and killed something the other side and send for the doc within me which I had thought dead, tor. Then we will bring a party but which you had revived. No power ashore and search every foot of the could revive it again. I cannot marry island. It is a had business. To think Langford, for I do not love him. I will of that woman offering herself to this not marry you, for you do not love roe. man in vain. The fool! I will not go back to the world now. He is I have no desire to do so and I cannot Don't, said the chaplain. not much more than a child in spite live alone with you upon the island.I of all that he has learned. We must You will not go without me, and so make allowances for him. He did love will go first by myself alone. You will her, evidently. Look .to what her loss think of me, I know, in the great has brought him. Perhaps stricken by world. Perhaps you will judge yourthe hand of God his soul has gone out self harshly, but I do not judge you at all. You did not know, you did not to meet hers. r. r, abandoned. Two days past it had resounded with the cries of men scaling its heights, crashing through its coppices, calling a name, beseeching an answer. Two days before great ships had drifted idly under its lee. It had been the center and focus of great events. Now it lay desolate, alone. On that morning the tide which had mere drawn away from it through the long look bodily presence of the man, the of him, the sound of his voice, was and coming night had turned the of his lips, the clasp of pressure back. The force of the water spent 'Within the his arms, she began to realize that as itself upon the barrier. ho grew older, unless she was so ablagoon it lay placid, rising gently inch mistaken in him as to make by inch in mighty overflow. A watcher, solutely had there been one, would have seen all estimate of him mockery, he would at sunrise the still water of the la- realize the falsity of his view, the littleness of his action, and if he were in goon broken by a ripple, a keen eye truth tiie man whom she could rightly the of base at noticed the have might his years would be one long relove, the into cliff where it ran sheer down that he had failed. What would blue, a dark object moving beneath the gret surface. The eye could scarcely have happen when he realized that, when become aware of Its presence before he came to the knowledge that she was indeed all that she had seemed the waters parted. A little splash and a head rose dark crowned, white faced. and that he had been nothing that he There was a sidewise wave and shake should? She knew, as she had writof the head and a pair of eyes opened. ten, that the man would never, could The blue of the water was lightened never, forget her; that wherever he went and whatever he did, she would by flashes of white arms. 'As the be present with him; that she had of under the rose impetus body higher herself too indelibly upon his stamped it yet graceful, strokes, vigorous could be seen that it was that of a heart for any attrition with humanity, however close and persistent, to erase woman. With ease and grace the figure the image. He would come back perswam along the base of the cliff until haps. O God! she knell down and it was joined by a Jutting spit of sand out stretched her arms, "bring him a into which widened and widened back, she prayed a few short, brokaround ran beach that of great strip en words, lacking the eloquence of the island. Upon this sand presently and studied petition, the appeal the shallowing of the water gave the long of of which is swimmer a foothold. Progress ceased. a the heart every throb to me! him back prayer bring With eyes haggard, yet keenly alert, She thought that Bhe would have the sea, the shore, the beach, the had him back on any terms. She said cliffs, the trees were eagerly searched. The long glances revealed nothing. that she had been mad, a fool, not to Then the head was turned and the ear have taken him, not to have gone to listened for sounds and heard nothing. him, not to have married him in any The look of apprehension faded into way, with any conditions, under any circumstances. All her thoughts were one of dull relief. In the merged in one great passionate longWalking now, the woman to be with him. water made her way toward the sand. ing the first time in her life the For full in the she gleamed Very white warm light streaming from the risen pangs of Jealousy tore her breast. She the Sands. sun against the background of the thought of him in the world with othother women, young, black rock. The water dripping er men, with understand. It came too suddenly dark handsome, a perfect godlike form and limbs, from her graceful exquisitely upon you. You cannot forget me, but of the sea as face of man, rich, the wildest romance do not repine over me and remember she looked a very nymph with its charm and mystery to attract. to the very last that I loved you. she stepped out at last above the high His story could not be hid, neither if for as stood and tide line poised . Good-byMay God bless you, and could hers. The man would be court flight upon the hard and solid shore may he pity me! about her that quick ed, sought after, made much over, beUnderneath she had written the Im- Again she threw would be enough to turn the look. Again she paused loved. of Ita saint. How would he stand head personal name which he had loved to apprehensive heard in she that Reassured to listen. call her, Woman. Would the recollection of her it? and saw nothing but the bird's song, make him Would that God in So characteristic was the letter that winds the sigh, the wave's splash, she whom he strong? and she both had trusted that superscription was supererogatory ran swiftly toward a blacker opening Only a worn-hav- in the dark rock. She gleamed whiter until the crisis came, lead him in the flight Mr. Whittaker. written it. aacould She had still In the entrance for a moment straight path? Would purlty,hfu gone out of his life, because with her and then disappeared. She came forth sweetness stop! would he think her thus dowered and possessed? Noi in it there was no solution of it for presently still unclothed, a look of now, certainly, but every hour that him, because how pitiful it sounded on face. her took him farther from her would add there in the gray of that morning in disappointment She had many things to do, much to his knowledge and would tell him that lone island to those two men! to occupy her mind, but the first duty the truth and these would help him. because he did not love her. And she that lay to her hand and the first in-- , not had gone out of it with excuses for She him, happy pictured away was that which she followed him on her lips and love for him in stinct from her, overwhelmed by her death should be covered. nakedness her her heart. No wonder that, divining saddened beyond present comStill warily watchful, still keenly surely, this which he had not seen, realizing must it fort be, yet so occupied that still fearful apparently of interonly that she was gone, he had been alert, or observation, she ran across insensibly his grief would be lightruption stricken as he was. after all thal the beach, her movement as free, as ened by the only thing in certain conThe doctor arrjved presently. He life bearable makes as rapid as she had been ordered the man, still unconscious, to graceful, and disappeared un- tingencies, and that is work. Work! Atalanta herself, to do. be taken back to the ship where he der the trees. The whirr of birds dis- She, too, had work would do what he could toward revivto rose She her feet doggedly as she turbed might have marked her passing him and pulling him through this age. thought of that, and considered whai great and terrible crisis that had come After some time sne appeared on she could do. Her eyes fell upon the upon him. The chaplain went with the top of the high bare hill that ashes of the signal fire. She contemhim, conceiving his duty to be in at- crowned the island. She had impro- plated it as the specter of some Hindu tendance upon the living rather than vised for herself a covering out of woman whose body had been burned searching for the dead. three or four great fern leaves, soft upon such an affair might look upon who had lighted The captain, with the other officers, and pliable, which she fastened with her pyre. It was she brought 100 men to the shore. The palm fibers from shoulder to knee on the beacon. Her hand had called the island was systematically searched. It either how side, her bare shoulders rising world to her side. She tothought was all open. There was no place of from the rich greenness like white he had begged her not do bo, how concealment, but not a foot of it was corolla from its verdant calyx. She he had declared himself content and left unvisited. Again and again the went more assuredly, now, party be- happy to live with her alone the men traversed the island. They found cause of the fact that she was clothed world forgetting, by the world forgot! The and time she broke down nothing, absolutely nothing. partly because her first rapid sur- For the first She woman had vanished and left no trace. buried her face in completely. horizon revealed the fact vey of the In the search, and made quite fran- that the ships were gone. She was her hands, her body reeled and shook tic by the necessity of it, Iangford glad that this was so, and yet when with sobs, the tears trickled through joined. Indeed, he would not be per- (he realization came upon her, she her fingers. suaded that the woman he had treated flung herself down on the grassy crest She must make another beacon, she so badly, whom he had hunted so de- and gave way to voiceless agony. thought. And then it came to her that terminedly, whom he had loved so Sometimes there is nothing so ter- they had taken away the flint and truly, who had rejected him finally, rible, she realized, as prayer granted, steel. She had no means of lighting it was dead, but even he gave up at last. as desire accomplished, as undertak- That realization developed other Taking with them the evidence to ing brought to conclusion. The aw- thoughts. Her Bible was gone; her substantiate the womans affidavit and fulness of success was upon her in clothes were gone; her toilet articles to establish, if so be it were possible, that hour. Her ruse had worked. Her her scissors, her watch, her knife. the man's claim, and taking with them object had been attained, yet the They had taken everything. They had also the bones of his mother, not for- achievement gave her no pleasure. left her nothing, absolutely nothing. getting what remained of the faithHer own acts had parted her irrevful dog, which the captain caused to ocably forever from the world and CHAPTER XXII. be exhumed from the ruined boat, as the one man in it who was the world night fell the Cheyenne steamed away for her. He was gone. She who had Unavailing Appeal. to the northeast, followed not long made him had sent him forth among She slept late the next morning. In after by the Southern Cross. The two his fellows. She had sacrificed her- the first place being upon the western vessels went slowly, as if the souls self, buried herself alive for him. She side of the island, there was no floodthat animated them were reluctant to felt as a mother might who experi- ing burst of sunlight through the open leave the gemlike island where they ences birth pangs and knows that door to disturb her quiet slumber. In had chanced upon so much that was with every throb of tearing anguish the second place she was so worn out Idyllic, so much that was romantic; her own life ebbs away, passes into and exhausted, she had had so little and where they had seen so great a the new life which she ushers into the sleep in the past three days that imtragedy of misfortune and despair. perative nature forced her into rest world and gives to men. Below in the cabin, under the care She had long hours for thought in She might have slept longer indeed, of the surgeon and chaplain, lay the (hose two days in that cave whose but that she was awakened by a great islander in the frightful throes of a mouth the waters hid. She had cry, a human voice calling her name racking fever of the brain. He bab- schooled herself to face light and life She opened her eyes and saw within bled ' of the woman and knew not without him when she emerged from the dimness of the cave a human figwhere he was or whither he was being her cunning hiding place. She had ure, vaguely white in the darkness. borne. waited the long period in order to For one fleeting instant she imagined make absolutely certain that they that it might be he, but that hope CHAPTER XXI. would be gone. And yet, despite her- was dispelled as quickly as it had self, a little gleam of hope, a hare pos- been born. She recognized the voice. The Resurrection. sibility that he might be there still, It was Langfords. The little island lay quiet and still had lingered in her soul and leavened Kate, he said approaching her under the rising sun. No footfall the awfulness of her grief. Now it more nearly and bending over her, It had sunk beneath the are you alive then? pressed its bosky glades, beneath the was gone shadows of its spreading palms, no hu-- j horizon even as the ships had disap-ma- n He reached down and touched her being sought shelter from the j peared. She had been bitter against hand where it lay across the fern suns fierce rays, no words were him. Her soul had revolted because leaves on her breast. His touch sumechoed back from its jutting crags, no he had failed. She had told herself moned her bewildered faculties to ao figures flashed across its shining that he was not worthy of her. She tion. Brushing his hand aside, she sat sands. Soundless it lay save for the forgot these things in that profound up. It is I, she said. cry of the bird and the rustle of the and desolate moment. She knew only You are alive and well? gentle wind across its hills. For well-- that she loved him. When she could (TO BE CONTIMED) nigh 30 years it had not been so think of other things than he, the e' 1 |