Show B k le e IL W id BY BEATRICE illustrations by irwin irvin myers copyright by bir nughia massie aco co service I 1 THE STORY on a pleasure trip tin in eastern waters philip amory english world war veteran now ft a trader on the liland island lila nd of papua new guinea plunges overboard to save the th ufa jofs or musical comedy actress known down as gln gin sling amory amor y becomes it interested te rested in pla ilia laurier Laur ler member of a wealthy now new south wates water family tie ile tells tellis her of his knowledge of a wonderful gold field on the laland though thou erti he does not disclose the name of tha place gin sling tells him pla Is engaged to sir richard Fa fanshaw Fana haw antory Ani ory however Is confident that the girl Is not indifferent to him lite his holiday oliday ti ended he arrives baclit bach at daru ile he meets meeta an englishman spicer there on development business for or a syndicate of which r fanshaw i t anshaw in 1 head fan chaws n name a me recalls to amory a long ions forgotten incident CHAPTER ill III continued 7 the tide was down and the cutter aground I 1 cannot tell with what anxiety I 1 examined her I 1 would almost havo have set sail on a tree trunk if 1 nothing e else ise could be had to get a way away beyond al all belief I 1 found the hull sound enough to float with a bit of bailing the mast was smashed but I 1 thought wo we could rig one up with the boom setting betting the tha jib behind it I 1 went to look tor for found him sleeping peacefully in hla his hole and dragged him out by one leg hurry Tri viti 11 I 1 urged the tides on the turn and well never get the boat down unless we catch it it eliell float come on arika he objected me old me hun ln lerr gerry rr want to go look for some house I 1 get kal kal food there was nothing for it but a lie I 1 had already decided that should know nothing what ho he did not know he could not spread ft abroad broad this la Is a bosert adebert island I 1 told him coolly full of gli ghosts up to the brim and spilling over lets get away sharp and you can pick a few coconuts to take along if youre yaure as hungry as all that not the coconuts on the ground I 1 those are ghost coconuts get them off the tree we loaded the boat with nuts and started work on the broken most mast I 1 was waa mad to got get away it was not yet dawn dann but the moon seethed paling and I 1 heard among the palm tree tops inland the firt first faint notes of waking parra Leets keets lf it they were to hear bear us if they hey came out my secret ws wes lost and r y had some idea by this time as to how the power that owned omega regarded people who poked inquisitive noses into secrets how they might be likely to treat me if I 1 was caught taviel and I 1 got the large fair fairweathe er jib set iret with the gaff for boom and got under way in the new yellow dawn a rolle mile distant I 1 saw the island clearly small low pricked with palms palm one like a thousand others and I 1 judged that would never know lie he had not landed on turl after nil ail back again in omega I 1 got charts which I 1 should undoubtedly have had before and the sailing directions I 1 looked ip ap the island on which I 1 had at su unwillingly landed this was what our own admiralty volume said about lt it iota this island Is the leper quarantine station for tile the omego group serious penalties are attached to landing yes I 1 said closing the book and I 1 can add to that getting a leper away from it to valparaiso or elsewhere la is five years on the breakwater at at this I 1 remembered point by point as I 1 walked beneath the man goes of dam three thousand miles away from omega to in distance years in point of time I 1 remembered it clearly without omission as aa if it had happened yesterday and most clearly 0 of f all did I 1 remember now the face of the man who wore the yellow dress with the black spots big as plates undoubtedly it was the face of sir Ill It chard Ichard farnshaw Fa everything came back to me the height of the man his thinness his chestnut h hair a ir and i yellow brown eyes ees the slim arched 1 nose and neat chin the lips unusually red for a mans the voice peculiarly a resounding and deegin deep in tone even the injured and deformed nall nail that I 1 now remembered I 1 bad seen as sir richard caina up the ships ac commo h dation ladder sliding one hand along 1 the guard rope 1 I was as sure as I 1 iwas of my own existence that pl ia ii ralance wils was the leper who had that d night escaped from iota island is I 1 not while I 1 stayed in omega 1 which was no longer than the call of I 1 i the next boat did anyone discover whitt what had happened down in aal airland I 1 came upon a paper that related the daring escape from iota of a foreign speculator lator named fellows who had been buying up certain co in in ay caal interests for or his M antry and who not in the course of these afrA affairs irs deemed it hect esy to take out pa pers transferring hla his nationality to the flag that waved over Omega A luckless tran transfer sterl I 1 it placed him beneath the Or laws and when a dramatic accident acel dent the discovery blat overy of a seemingly harmless mark upon tile his body when bathing obliged him to go lip p to the local doctor tor for examination lie he was sent without me mercy rey to the quarantine island there were those who hinted that fellows recently acquired commercial interests had something to do with the case that a big company was behind the doctor be that how it fellows was sea sentenced to iota and but for the daring rescue would probably have spent the rest of his days there fellows had been nine weeks on iota nine weeks on an islet inhabited by the terrible things I 1 had seen awin you a dry thread on you he observed better shift an islet reeking with contagion and innocent of any modern modem sanitary precaution whatever lie ile might or might not have had the germ with him when lie ho went there but nothing was more probable than that he had taken it away with him in any ease case leprosy I 1 knew could lie dormant tor for many years might when acquired develop so slowly that the victim could live an ordinary lite life without being suspected for it a very long time it if follows fellows was indeed fanshaw if he had gone to omega tocarra to carry out a daring speculation in domegan products prodoc ts conceiving con ceiling his name and altering his nationality a course that sounded very like what one had known of him in the war ivar then the most horrible horr ble peril that can be conceived hung over ria pla and there was no one but myself to get her out of it it myself with a hundred odd pounds of capital no position and no reputation save cave the unlucky one of being in love with her myself against a rich and famous man mail high placed in society ani and approved by plas family no doubt approved by the girl time against me place against me everything against me save one thing the fact act that fanshaw was coming to new guinea CHAPTER IV it was late before I 1 ended that restless tramp the night had turned to rain as it so often does in daru my torch when I 1 in ripped it on to see the t he way shone on a myrla or of crystal rods dancing all over the road the frogs frog had begun their nightly chant port ort port port starboard star board 1 in lithe the near distance among the mangroves man groves of the beuch beach an alligator belled as aa they do on these wet steamy nights I 1 sold old to myself with sudden resolve ill go 90 to bossett bassett tell lura him the affair and see what he be says they were not yet gone to bed in the residency I 1 could see them from the roadway bassetts bassetta Bas grave ministerial erial face nee lie he was waa the son of a well known parson and looked it Nort bangers narrow counte nutice that was waa like the face of a schoolmaster as ter until you caught something strangely hard at the back of the ille blue eyes purchase hair ruffled like the feathera feathe ra of a hen and features as always on an the verge of a laugh seeming to take the world and hla his share of it which was assuredly a hard bard one very merrily indeed spicer was wa s not to be seen aven I 1 was glad of it for island houses offer small email privacy and I 1 had that to say which would not pass with Fan fanshawe shaws friend the others looked in their fresh white shirts and pipe cloyed clayed shoes exceedingly clean comfortable for table and peaceful enjoying tor for a few days an oasis in the desert of hardships that made up their common lives into the midst of this I 1 comer wet and bedraggled and I 1 make no doubt looking like a last years i cars corpse I 1 could see the effect of my looks mirrored instantly in the tha faces about me but nobody jumped up or sald said my aly G d happened to you or the row or any other silly thing such as fellows elsewhere would certainly have thrown out at roe me these fellows were riot not given to taking any circumstance in life other than quietly wheres Wh cres spicer I 1 asked of bas sett it did not occur to me to offer any explanation of my return alien I 1 was supposed to bo be abed with fever nor did anybody ask for one sit down ile he went back to maid alaid stories stones hes staying there Norl banger got up 1 I must be going he said the will be ba sending a patrol after me R ready ea c I 1 purchase if there was a hint purchase took it they were gone in another minute and bassett and I 1 were left alone it the austere shiny parlor bassett in III hla his precise way became busy lie he brought out a suit of clothes neatem and better mended than anything I 1 possessed if somewhat cheaper in kind and handed it to me you a dry thread on you he observed better shift 11 ue ile weal wen off into the kitchen and I 1 heard him biro stirring up a sleeping boy heard tha th clink of a kettle lid the jingling ol of glasses bassett came back looked at roe me as aa I 1 sat fresh clad and marle made no remark the boy followed almost almo immediately with hot punch and a quinine bottle I 1 helped myself to a share of both 1 I wanted to ask you something I 1 I 1 said yes answered bassett it was III brief reply but it carried a good deal the tone the took look of bassetts bassetta Bas brown baw n eyes beneath his high ministerial erial looking forehead the settled attitude hands crossed on knees all suggested calm reliability and what he mus known I 1 desired above all things as aa sick men consulting doctors sinful men consulting priests d desire e ie it the professional attitude I 1 knew he would do anything that could be done I 1 told him the whole thing it was not easy to tell because I 1 had to bring pla into it find I 1 found to my intense disgust that my voice got un steady when I 1 spoke of her bassett listened quite to the endl end making no comment when he thought I 1 had quite done he came outs out surprisingly with you are very much in love with this girl it was not a question it il was a statement made much as ones physician might offer a comment or on the condition of ones lungs or liver am IV II I 1 said stupidly something had hold of me I 1 hardly knew what it was waa but tt it shook me what wal the matter had I 1 not agreed agre e d myself that the wind which was 1110 laurier had blown through my life and passed away to save her croul marriage with one incredibly vile that was a duty but a d duty uty that de evolved on en rue roe merely as a man not as the man who loved her I 1 had b been e en so cert certain a in that I 1 should not therefore did not love ove the girl with tho the black shingle and blue eyes the girl who even if she were ten times free was not for me wanderer rolling stone black sheep things cleared in my brain the thought that had come to me was wag nothing brilliant gothing new it was only this if 1 I am hurt I 1 am hurt well then ive got to stick it I 1 found it steadying comforting even TO DO BB 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