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Show FORLORN ISLAND By EDISON MARSHALL WNV Service Copyright by Kill ion IftrshaU SYNOPSIS With his yacht, the Intrepid, practically prac-tically abandoned by Its crow, Kelts Horton, millionaire, sailing with his mother, his daughter Nan, and Roy Stuart, puts into Sciuaw Harbor, Alaska, Alas-ka, to recruit. Failing to secure sa.ll-ors, sa.ll-ors, Horton engages a bunch of nondescripts non-descripts stranded there. A gigantic Pole called Sandomar, deaf but not dumb, is their leader. At the request of Captain Waymlre, the Intrepld'a skipper, an old friend, Eric Erlcasen. unemployed, but holding master's pa- pers, engages to sail aa chief officer. CHAPTER II 2 Eris had feared that relations between be-tween himself and the yacht owner would be strained, but he was wrong. Homoq had won his point to him Eric was simply another tool that had resisted him at first, but now had bent to his use. For convenience sake, he Introduced the new first officer to the yachting party. The young man was Roy Stuart, himself the son of wealth, an amateur of considerable standing In certain fields of biology and ethnology, the choice of Horton for his daughter's hand and apparently of the girl herself, her-self, and certainly the most complex and perfect intellectual machine that had ever crossed Eric's trail. Roy was the only guest: accompanying the party was Marie Chamhond. Nan's maid from old Lorraine, and a bespectacled, be-spectacled, grave, little man named Wilcox, of Eric's own age, who appeared ap-peared to be Horton's secretary. "And this," said the yacht owner Introducing his mother, "is Madam Horton." "Madam Fiddlesticks." the old lady snorted. "Young man, that's simply some more of Felix's nonsense. My enemies call me the Old Witch, strangers stran-gers call me Mrs. Horton. and to my friends and I hope you'll soon be among the number I'm Mother Horton. Hor-ton. Felix thinks that's plebeian, but I like it." Horton had chosen one of the loneliest lone-liest and least known cruising grounds in the seven seas, the north side of the Aleutian island chain. "North of Ignak island, far to the west, there's a great shoal, sixty miles in diameter," Horton said. "I propose to penetrate it, and find some uncharted unchart-ed islands." Eric looked unbelief. "But you can't get in !" "We'll see ! I've never failed yet on an undertaking. Where any ship of our draft has gone, the Intrepid can follow. That's final." "It's the reefs and tides and weather that are final, np in these seas." Eric said. "What makes you think a ship has ever been in there?" "Roy Stuart has record of it, in an old Russian diary. An early erplorer named Kirilof found a pass throngh the shoals into deep water, and came to some inhabited islands. If the people are still there you know how the Aleuts migrate from Island to Island they are of course visited by occasional occa-sional traders, out from Kamchatka, perhaps every year." "I've never heard of it." "My theory is that the shoals are a hollow circle, the submerged tops of mountains, but the center is deep water. wa-ter. Anyway we'll soon see." Through Cnimak pass and westward west-ward the Intrepid ventured. Already she was far off the sea-lanes, and the only craft she glimpsed was a gray speck half across the world that was the masts of one of America's far-flung coast guard. Eric was alone on the boat deck when a misty figure appeared In the moonlight. It was Nan Horton. seeking seek-ing the reality of the strange dreams of adventure that the enchanted night wakened in her young heart. Wholly without embarrassment, with a frankness and self-assurance that put him on guard, she came and stood beside him, her arm almost touching his. For a long time she gazed in silence into the spangled sky. Eric's heart give a curious fling. Instantly he knew, without knowing how or why, that Nan and himself could never Ignore each other; that they could not even pretend to be strangers; that they reacted upon each other like wind on water. As a sailor he was not without superstition and he believed that their fates were In-terbound. In-terbound. Yet she was her father's daughter. Although she was fine where Horton was coarse, generous where he was mean, gentle where he was hard, yet his arrogance had come to her straight. Possibly she obeyed no laws but her own desires. She would take, but not give self-centeredness rather than selfishness and she was Imperious to the last curly hair of her beautiful head. Like her father, she made tools of those who came into her circle not meanly, to exalt her own place, not as a shoddy schemer but as queen - to live to the full and en rich tier days. W illi his quick perception, schooled by wide travel, Krlc saw through her jiaine. Moreover, ho did not propone that she should play It on III id. lie continued to Mure out to Hen. lln made no play of Ignoring her; ho Him-ply Him-ply waited for her to ml so her foil At last she turned and spoke In deep, throbbing, 'cello tones. "You're Mr. Krlcsson, aren't you?" He met her glance coolly. "You know who I tun." "Of course I do. 1 remembered your name the second I heard It. Hut It's much too lone. I shan't call you by It, except In company. What does It matter anyway?" In the hnlMlglit she saw his dim smile. "1 suppose you're hinting you'd like to call me Eric." The long pause showed that this shot had gone home. "As the mistress of the ship," she said at last, "I don't think I must hint for permission to cnll one of my officers by his first name." "As mistress of the ship, please call me Mr. Krlcsson." lie spoke calmly and simply. "As an officer, I can't answer to any other address." He paused, and she suspected that ho was smiling. "Hut up here In the moonlight moon-light you may call me anything you please, and I'll call you Nan." Secretly she conceded that he had won the first brush, hut It only made her more reckless. "Why should we call each other anything?" she asked dreamily. "Why should we talk at all? I want to forget who you are, who I am, everything except the magic of this unbelievable night." lie saw her profile In the nebulous light, and saw that she was not wholly Insincere. She was trying to make use of him to enrich the hour, to fill her own cup, to sharpen her sense of being, but her need was real and strong, not Just cheap vanity. She was no milk-and-water girl, but tempered tem-pered steel and fire. Intelligence, spirit, exquisite sensibilities, a devouring de-vouring thirst for life, these were the spurs that never let her rest. Now her eyes were starry, her cheeks blazing, her hands trembling. Happily he took the challenge. When she turned to him, her face lifted, his hands slipped under her fur cloak to her silky shoulders and slowly drew her close. She made no attempt to avoid his kiss, but met It with eager lips. Rut when she tried to draw away, he would not let her go. She had only meant to taste of this cup, a mere moonlight whim, but she felt his arms like hands of steel, and Happily He Took the Challenge. his lips still pressed hers. He let her breathe at last but he still held her close and smiled into her eyes. And for all her pride, a low cry broke from her tense throat. It was hardly more than a deep gasp, but it betrayed two secrets she would have given much to conceal. One of them was that the kiss was not the empty gesture she had expected. His lips had been gentle, but there was flame on them, high voliage from the most dynamic being she had ever met. She did not want him to know that she had felt the charge in every cell of her body, but she feared that the deep catch of her breath spoke all too plainly. Her other secret, hinging on the first, was that for one of the few times in her life she was afraid. She was afraid of him, of herself, of life. And this fear deepened when. Instead In-stead of freeing her, his arms drew her gently closer, crushing her breast against his. "Again?" he whispered. , "No. Once is enough." "For you, perhaps, not for me." Half-smiling, his lips sought hers and mastered them a long time. He felt her slight body grow rigid. When he freed her red mouth, low ominous tones crackled forth. "Don't you dare do that again !" But his grasp only tightened. "If you dance you must pay the piper," he told her gravely. Then, oblivious to her struggles he took the dare. She was fighting him now, but he did not even seem to know It Her round little arms were strong, but it was like tugging at iron bars. "If you dcui't let me go, I'm going to scream for help." "No one would hear you, in the first place. In the second, It would be hardly playing the game. I'm only raising your bet." For a few seconds more her every muscle was flexed, then she relaxed in his arms. "You win this time," she told him simply. "Now let me go." Instantly she was free. He watched her quietly as she moved a few feet down the deck and stood In the sea-breeze. sea-breeze. She Eeemed cool and well In hand : ha did not know that her heart was hammering her ld. At I "it nhf turned slowly, and lie av the ukioii-llght ukioii-llght In the deep frlngml pools of he.-eyeM. he.-eyeM. "You were In your rights, of course," she said quietly. "Yes, hut I'm sorry about It now." "I'm not. l'erhapa It taught mo a lesson. Itcllcve me I can take care of myself from now on." Eric's heart leaped up. "Thnt'u the girl! I'm glad now." "Of course I won't get a chance to prove It, we'll probably never meet again In this way," she went on gravely. grave-ly. "It's too had our Uvea are ordered or-dered so far apart. It would be fun to light with you. And I care enough for your respect to want you to know why I did what I did tonight." "I think I do know. You were bored, and It was n magic night, anil your life seemed Insufficient. I've felt that way a few times. And It usually ended Willi a fight, down In some waterfront dive." Eric spoke slowly and gravely. "Every person 1b given Just bo much time to live. That's all he owns, really real-ly the rest Is Just circumstance. Yet your whole aim la to niako time pass as quickly as possible. And mine Is to make It last, to be Jealous of every minute, so to do, and see, nnd feel that much more." "And that's why 1 envy you. Why I even envy Marie. Most girls wouldn't, but I do." Nan drew her cloak about her shoulders, and turned toward the stairs. "You'll forget all this, won't you? I've been a fool but the moon's to blame. Tomorrow I'll be very aloof and call you Mr. Ericsson." She held out her hand and he shook It vigorously. "I think you're Just wonderful." he told her gravely. A small hut radiant Bmllo lighted her face. "That's generous, coming from the victor. Because you won, tonight." "You were overconfident. You wouldn't he, next time." "There won't be any next time, I'm afraid. Snips that pass In the night!" "But they meet again, you know. I once saw a ship In Hongkong nnd never expected to lay eyes on her again and then Just missed colliding with her In Boston harbor I The Journey's Just begun, and these are magic waters," CHAPTER III North of Ignak Island they came to the great, gray Davy Jones shoal. At quarter speed Captain Waymlre cruised round the reefs, his eye on the automatic sounder In the pilot house and one of his seamen heaving the lead. Even so. It was perilous sailing. The waters seemed mysteriously troubled. trou-bled. There were powerful currents, varying in direction from hour to hour, that would sweep a pulling dory out to sen; big eddies; formidable ground swells. "I don't like it," Eric said. "If we hang up and have to take to the boats, we'll he in a sweet fix 1" "We wouldn't last long." Captain ' Waym'.re shook his gray head. "Our only hope would be for these cussed currents to sweep us to sea before one of those big swells hit us. They'd make kindling wood of those skiffs of ours." "Why don't you tell Horton so? The crazy fool will lose his ship and drown the whole company. There's no way through these reefs." "Tell him yourself. If you want to. It's like talking to the wind. He thinks his checkbook will buy off a typhoon." As the Intrepid cruised on, the deep-toned deep-toned bay of the breakers became a gurgling roar, and the waves beating on the crags hurled np eerie clouds of spray. The first day's search was fruitless. When the shadows fell, Waymire hastened Into open sea and dropped anchor. Early the next morning morn-ing prospects brightened. Eric had taken accurate bearings. If Roy Stuart's old diary was correct, the pass through the reefs was less than a league away. Presently the long sweep of blue waves showed open water. Ten minutes min-utes later they were at the gateway through the shoals a strait half a mile wide, and guarded on each side by perilous reefs. The strait led Into what might be termed an Immense lagoon, surrounded surround-ed by shoals. Twenty fifty than a hundred fathoms were recorded on the automatic sounder. The puzzling enrrents remained but the waves had lost their short, violent chop, and the last breaker gleamed pallid far behind them. Horton was Jubilant, and granted bonuses to the whole company. Roy's Impassive face did not flush, nor his voice raise one note, but Nan knew that his cold soul was exalted. She and Eric shared a child's thrill in the adventure itself. Captain Waymlre alone remained downcast. He was an old man and did not like young waters. The wide lagoon seemed to him like a trap. Late In the murky afternoon a cry rang down from the watch aloft "Land ho!" "Where away?" "On our port bow. She may be another an-other fog-bank." But In a few minutes the glasses showed what was unmistakably an Island, low and gray and guarded by black crags. It was insignificant In size, not more than three miles from cape to cape, and if It were one of the scores of minor links in the Aleutian Aleu-tian chain fifty miles to the south, It might be hardly worth a name; but here It was a discovery of some little scientific importance. No chart In the Intrepid's pilot house recorded its existence, ex-istence, (TO BE CONTINUED.) |