Show ble blade k cheeps S gold men iran have rone iron down to the south bas aas d a L f few w man months t ho or a year V or r two and ha have vo cum come back and w written ritt en novels 0 at varylee degrees ot of ac ad curacy mostly romantic and colorful tales which have captured public e In Inter teroL cut not on of them has the a authenticity of the novels novela of beat rice grimshaw all of the other south seas bean writers can combined bin ed have not equaled her output t 0 of f stories neither hv have they attained to anything like her huge audience d bonce in europe america Arner lc and oth er par parts to of the world during nearly a quarter of a century sho she ha has lived in that romantic district and has written ltd its novel for or bout about the th same length of time she hu ban sailed ailed the sapphire and turquoise tinted waters and visited the spice scented tropic luden laden coral built atolls and islands Is landt from papua to the ill tita limits of polynesia and groups farther east am ward she knows not only the various barlou a types of natives but als dIs othe polyglot specimens specimen of humanity that have bern been attracted from other parts parta or of the world and delhas he has firpi hand knowl edge of th the p physical attributes a and nd the flora and fauna of that leat fas fascinato cinat ing se section of the th globe beatrice Grima grimshaw haw Is an authority on the south seas she draws with a sure hand whether she h be depicting world vagabonds and beach combers natives traders sailors gold hunters explorers explorer government officials or ad of type above P all 11 she draws draw the tha country with its waters its mountains its verdure and its de ached cached mystical el characteristics and with I 1 it t all she has the gift of romanticism the ability to construct plots plot and weave the faseli finx elements Ie ments of the region raglon into novela novel on one has haa never read a 0 real south seas scan story until he he haa read the fiction action of beatrice grim sha haw CHAPTER I 1 the cigar was unwontedly good it had made me peaceful and dreamy that or the reaction after the fuss ot of getting aboard and away at all events I 1 leaned back tn in cushioned the smoke room chair and gave myself up to enjoyment let the sounds founds and sights and the smells of the great liner flow pleasantly over me they were all there the things that I 1 had known and forgotten and the bent beats beat of the great steamer hearth heart that was to carry on day and night until hongtong Hong kong and the barely heard long wash of the coral sea as we Q ran north from cairns in queensland up towards torres straits through all the sapphire tand and topaz glory of a tropic winter day I 1 hail had the sum of one hundred and seventy two solid pounds mina since yesterday in the care of the ships majestic purser theres nothing makes a man feel sf s innocently drunk as a hatful of cash when he has hag been a long time short this cash of mine was the result of a lucky win in a sweep on the english derby nothing more respectable than that but the strictest purist could hardly have found fault with my way of spending it it I 1 was down in cairns upon business ivery very small business and cheap when the windfall camo came and wisely wt ely I 1 decided to go home hoine at once instead of waiting for the monthly B P boat one treat I 1 must have I 1 decided and the call of the Catt acura su suggested its kind I 1 would spend eight of my pre cloua pounds on a two day run to thursday island and get back thence to new guinea by cutter for two days I 1 would dream that I 1 was back in the spacious days of home and riches the years when my father owned a fine country house and a smallish town house and I 1 had been going to be an english squire some borne time or other and life and society and the right people and what one was going to do with oneself after harrow and the varsity had all been changeless solid as fixed stars nothing than thal tha house bouse the long avenue with the firs and the crackling gravel the ahe cottages and farms that were ours oars the garden and its strange old fashioned roses rice roses scotch yellow moss roses cabbage nothing more sure than the passing tor for ever and ever the same ot of those slow summers and winters in the no north T th ot of england climate pale suns and pretty passionless flowers rain and short days and snow everything set unalterable in one half hour it was swept away my ily father fell dead of unsuspected heart trouble the solid house the firs and the avenue the cottages and farms harrow cambridge the right people the set unalterable way of living all went down the winds of the world together swept by the same great hurricane he had speculated anyone can fill in the rest that was in 14 you know what followed I 1 was eighteen denra of age hearty and husky of build there re was only one thing to do I 1 did it in 19 de mobilized aged twenty ahr three ee I 1 faced the world with some gome scars and medals to my credit also two crosses nothing much more I 1 had bad been in egypt I 1 mesopotamia the sun lands bad got me I 1 took look up land in australia failed mt int north and north landed at last at papua 1 weft had a trading store at the wild west end of hj ha connary con I 1 was some years older a little wiser a little tougher than eyen the war had left me the wild lands had marked me for their i own and on that jeweled day of equa winter I 1 was on board toe the P eastern liner caracara Cat acara having my treat with no thought of anything but a couple of days dayal enjoyment under circumstances cum stances that had been mine aln e and were not with no of anything fateful fato ful anything in the brief journey I 1 aus was roe rely going back to daru by IT P I 1 so I 1 thought i labit I 1 did 0 not 0 know you tou r remember e ejem you did not inlow was that I 1 bit catrice grimshaw Illustrations glans I 1 by copyright by ruches mamales habal A co was ros on that day running right into the double doable fate ate that was to change changa my life it began in the oddest con I 1 had finished my cigar looked at myself in tha long mirror as I 1 strolled out on eleck deck and decided that I 1 was at least not I 1 wail n AS to in a peaceful mood I 1 found a chair and dropped into it wishing 1 knew how to purr like a eat cat for I 1 felt that way I 1 was ir simply lifted out of the chair before I 1 had time to settle down don hy by shrieks proc proceeding ding from forward where there was a wide ade unoccupied space of deck girls shri elig at least three were in it and they were screaming at the top of their voices of course I 1 made fur for the space of foredeck extremely to come to the aid of beauty in distress I 1 dont know what I 1 expected certainly it was not what I 1 saw three ships officers attired in all their tropic glory of white drill and gold were cantering bantering cant ering down the deck like horses bories on tho the shoulders of each sat astride an extremely pretty girl dressed in a bathing suit of the kind known as one piece the girls had jockey caps on their heads and they I 1 9 one of them a I 1 tall rail white limbed lass lais with red bobbed hal calr r waa wa appa apparently re nily winning were flogging their mounts along with silk handkerchiefs and screaming en it at the top of their rather high voices I 1 saw ail all this in a moment and guessed without much difficulty that the he riders abre were three musical comedy actresses going to join a revue corn coin pany ahny louring the ei east si of wham I 1 had bea beard d rd when jhb n 1 in taking kin g by X passage j bosage one of them a tall tali white limbed lass with red d bobbed ba hair lir was apparently winning her mount the chief officer was yards ahead of the rest I 1 saw that mat I 1 saw too the face of a girl on thi opposite ode ilde of the deck staring hard at the racers she had a profile like an italian coin dark hair close shingled and exceedingly blue eyes that tha I 1 face held me for an instant it was as it if the owner had bad suddenly called i then I 1 saw what made we me leap across the deck tear off my jacket and ving fling myself over the rail of the caracara Cat acara down thirty feet into anti 0 the sea in the excitement of winning the red haired girl had let go her hold of the chief of officers ficera forehead waved her arms and lost balance nillance completely they were near the rail she began to topple and I 1 saw she was bound to go I 1 wait for her to fall I 1 I 1 sprang first I 1 think we e went through the air almost together she struck the water about as soon as 1 I and we both went down in a smother of foam and boiling blue bide we came up well in the rear when I 1 had grabbed the girl and go the water and my own hair out of my eyes I 1 could see the steamers lm densely tall stem already hundreds of yards away and leaving leang us as it if no bady had seen us go overboard of course they had they were getting a boat out and taking the way off the ship as ly as might bl be but if ever eer you have been left in the midst of the inhospitable ocean by a liner running at full speed apt ed you will realize that I 1 had plenty of time to grasp the altun situation tion plenty of time too to wonder if we both like ly to be drowned before help could reach us because the red hillred haired girl in spite of her stage since bathing costume swim sulin at all sie me was plucky no one could have i been pluckier she gasped a good bl bit t but did not cling she did as I 1 told 1 bet be p put ut he her r hands on mr shoulders and let her legs oui out to support her 1 I I 1 can thoat a bit she said chokingly 1 I im pot not a scrap krap afraid never neer say die th thata my motto if she was not afraid I 1 was abom so because I 1 had seen some thing she ehe with tier her face toward my back had not seen something I 1 did bof not want tier her to see A black sharp finger the finger of death and ugly death that beckoned to us both I 1 need to look at the caracara Cat Cata acara cars now motionless a long way oft off to know that the tha boat she had lowered stood no chance in that thai life anti anil leath race I 1 knew what a shark could do in the way of speed when once it scented food this shark was only cruising so go I 1 thought hut but it if it made up its mind to attack us ua twenty seconds would see ce the finish the shark was waa getting curious zag zagging about coming coining nearer with every tack look here I 1 said suddenly are you game to do just what I 1 tell you and ask no questions arent I 1 it try me then put your mouth down to the w water ater and blow as hard as you can she stared was about to opeo hut but something in my face 1 I think checked her awkwardly she ehe bent her lips to the swaying green that barely held us up but determinedly blew I 1 blew also bubbles went streaming from our lips under water a string of sliver silver bells a web of pearls years ago in mid pacific I 1 had heard about this way of keeping olt oft sharks had even seen the girls who swam in the prussian brusslan blue pools of alue blowing bubbles every now and then just as a measure of precaution hut but was there really anything in it had any human creature attacked or in danger of attack ever kept away these tigers of the deep by merely puffing bubbles at them I 1 know I 1 only knew that there was nothing else to do it was impossible to go on blowing forever we halted for a rest by this time the girl had certainly guessed what was happening but she said never a word her laughter hers ber silly llly bravado had vanished she held to my shoulder with a clutch oaf d iron and her breath came short as but she still kept her head still refrained from grabbing or hampering me I 1 looked at the fin again IG G d I 1 said and know I 1 spoke it ita coming tor for it had turned end on and I 1 saw it as a black spike sticking out of the water incredibly huge I 1 put my mouth down again and blew blew till my lungs were one hot pain all down my back the black fin aln poised I 1 felt the girls finger nails like claws in my neck heard her spluttering splutter ing uselessly into the water g game ame to the last swung her round I 1 dont know how so BO as to get my body between her and the sea tiger that tha was hungering for our blood saw it go off with a rush like a tor and thought the end was come what I 1 had bad forgotten about abou iwas was the boat I 1 dont think fora for a moment that our and bubb lIngs had any effect upon the shark other than to excite its curiosity it was waa the near approach roach oi of the ships whaleboat furl bously rowed that adv it pause pause I 1 say any because when the boat had dashed between us and the shark shar kand and four strong arms were busy hauling us up over the gunwale a thing that cant be done in seconds try how you may the shark suddenly seemed to realize that its dinner was leaving it and made such a determined charge that the sailors had io to fight figh tit it off with all the available oars they tibey got us u into the boat and the chief had a tt tot of whisky ready I 1 never saw a man look mare more as if he wanted d one himself but that was small wonder if he had not beta been playing the giddy gout goat nothing would have happened I 1 think I 1 told him its as much also that I 1 was not in the least cold and would have a dry shift in ten ml minutes did tit need a drink the lady I 1 sald said had fiad better have one she and he be shared it her face looked very white under her wet red hair and I 1 dare say he may have thought she would take cold anyhow he be put his uniform coat round her ber and was making all fast with his arm when she wriggled apart from him and lung flung herself down on the seat beside me im going to sit elt next the bravest man I 1 ever met she said her breast heaving up and down very fast under the white and gold coat I 1 saw sav she eha was nas almost in byster hysterics im so I 1 simply y answered ra rats ts we fell over together and nobody said anything more till the whaleboat nosed against side I 1 apen when they got us on board it was mavery th overy de devil vil for ove five minutes people ale kame came and shook my hand and told me I 1 was a brave man some of them thumped cyback my back several wanted me to come and haye have a drink we all know un gln sling Is game said somebody but youre gamer we have done without an ny cut in some one else no by jove V 1 tinny tor for evert ever glo gin slings preserver hooray I 1 ill they would have it I 1 was fairly mobbed I 1 could hardly get fo 0 my cabin for a change of clothes without being carried on the shoulders of the crowd but that I 1 I 1 was determined against I 1 slipped down a stewards companion and got away I 1 dropped on the lounge it was some time before I 1 even thought of dragging off my sodden shoes and shedding my ivet clothing I 1 bail bad pot qt touched the chief ahle f officers flask oy or accepted the champagne that others had been anxious to td i uncork for me but I 1 was drunk mid mind d and body on one look thata that I 1 had caught as I 1 cume slowly with weariness wen and wet up the elit i ladder la diler A lok took from blue eyes below black shingled hair A look that cast a 0 girls bair fuer morlat sod at my feet TO UE BE CONTINUED 1 |