Show I 1 lack k sh ee gold id by BEATRICE GRIMSHAW GRU illustrations by irwin myers yr aright ight by flights ft A CA co W M amlet T WENT BEFORE trip on a cintr 11 in to wad possible pol bl by bi turn of fortune fortum ajl tor philip amory imp but wellborn well born young cm ens W world war veteran Tt leran now an r i at OB on th the island land 0 of now w guinea plunge IT the tb life tir of a young comedy actress known on 1 gin sling flailed 1 as l br by his hi follow how pao senters 1 li is chiefly conscious conic loul of the th acard gird of a kirl in n the th asa aso whom oi 01 the Inita tit ya h tel 1418 li 16 the th tirl irl ile II 11 feirn she tr li Is pla pia r member of a w wealthy I 1 bithy uth waif wait family II 11 tells 0 notting not bing of big life 1 in 10 mid rid 0 abts knowledge of a ful bold old field on the th is allor tells 11 him pla ria feed to sir richard fan iran 11 in the ifland lA catlon on ended amory te re 9 daru sr 1 PTER ill continued 4 aber b er w wondering on derIng sit I 1 went the 1 garden and into the tet kiik lk at a dog trot if spicer 4 na perchance had picked rumor of the hit secret that palal and my bope hope I 1 retelling myself myse f that it did er r if they had bid nothing except what I 1 find with d horror unspeakable re nineteen nineteen the year alev bewly de mobilized spend kt abar money in a harried the south sea islands t akin common with thou thousand sandl duliere lu liere rs bad had always wished to 10 41 somebody who eald said toe yov 4 ave seen the islands yean years before the war ten year yea not what who tb tbt atoo idoy dashed tourists you can handle bandle boats t with a lit cf of a cabin n and back where from any almost oct OGI of deac reach h of and cook tickets patter tier hired a native or apger ged as crew weeks then priness I 1 bad had cone cc ne fir to through the leoung 12 bad had cone gone like the child ID n ortal ta leand magically changed with I 1 learned what life can con be b ht t tyrant time Is toppled krone ronel i bow how in the year that band and the day that Is a year chops aloy lose his way i clefts aliat lead through led maze called life and timeless aimless till the ft cave hare been abou t tte sixth f my journeying when with running low and mind al led fed with tropic trople beauties and so thai that I 1 began to think soon D without shout regret re le C civilization v I 1 came come upon a 1 adf f islands that I 1 shall call affif Is a towa in the omega i town that for reasons I 1 ive ire here offers more con com J 1 interests and possibilities 7 st island alices pi ices this I 1 li it I 1 and should be kemem t his to do with what bat I 1 an arc all tell own to me bet but i I 1 was the outer aart of the ago thai that drew me thin lands barren and very islets with here and there at t palm hrc rc usi mere melancholy elan choly leasing anui ef out waters voters that were lost ivil it phare pearl and cel celadon adOll ahad had bought the cutter bj by o 0 I 1 e with a small windfall nind Ind fall of that came my ray way and I 1 enough money left to run I 1 a few more weeks tar anything of a crew how ti ive one old silly fellow who rv wing to come without waged essed to know the group 91 14 d to end and though I 1 wai was of his knowledge I 1 all t afford to quarrel with it lik h r after all I 1 thought tho we vt sonie a here aln come 11 R some ow and shots that s all one out grants A 51 ants 41 d known I 1 on a it windy wicked after 0 ith high clouds 1131 li ing rig that I 1 I 1 one blown away from our course W alq it was oblige J to abandon t to get i to 0 the group greup of 0 94 velch I 1 had been aiming welthe jr m I 1 ite tiller into the hand sf atte e crew slun na my two boards acres the seat seata down with a rice ace eack sack nn un rK head was to call which I 1 judged to lit ten cc lock brnt sleep for a while the 40 etched ached violently in the broso led by tide ide and wind haul ham rith her bows on the water ra might have thought she the tae 2 e lie herself in it looked r weather I 1 though tand and bidlen I 1 slept awakened by the smother of salt fanter ater over mj my d a blow from the cutter fut teri 5 that got roe me in the ribs as x S being siept overboard bg g about me was white kd d stealing sti aling water I 1 felt ath my toes but could coul d not cause the short breaking ill d me at their will and king e me about as a child efm toy I 1 fought fou glit and 1 goi got angat at last the cutter v we ber her side smashing ber her wit wilid rigging as elie site swayed ith the seas wai was 1119 oat out onto a 3 stone like uk a rat leaped escaped from ron the drowning pall dail where here are we I 1 shouted to him a ali I 1 crawled out beside flint there was DO no use scolding him film for hie his careless handling of the best boat now low tido strand the cutter ull till then one could do little or notting not nothing bing 1 I d know arlel chief mourn fully answered the old man then with vich a bunt burst of animation 1 I think we well wherever we are I 1 nid the first thing to do Is 1 to get the cable of the boat fast to some thing and that with consider able difficulty difficult io we did securing whai what wa was left of her ber to one of the black tones that she he might not inot be carried atsy by outgoing tide fide after this found a little hol eyou coad hardly call it cave among the acks eks and dragged himself into it 14 covering his lean wet body bod so far for as he coald jtb a ns irs of seaweed I 1 left him bita there while I 1 started to explore the place and find end out if it I 1 could where a road mad sea manship backed by tny my oarn carelessness had landed me it was rrt ret much past full moon lime time and nowhere on earths does the moon shine with moe effect than on a coral island I 1 could vee u everything ery cry thing about mi almost ns as plainly to 08 in the day and I 1 did not like what I 1 saw there are such things as warn ings lop and if ever everi I felt a warning it was then I 1 felt how bow shall I 1 put it that this place mas as not good to be in there was a personality about it every one has felt such things though few care lo 10 say so and it was distinctly hostile of course that did not stop me from exploring I 1 hid bid to find and out where we were further I 1 was wet through without a change it was as a tropic trople night but tropic nights with high wind blowing can be unpleasantly cool and I 1 shivered a bit as I 1 tramped the rough blown grasses I 1 should hare bare been glad of a house wherein I 1 might take shelter and find clothes to borrow I 1 rather thought the island was inhabited in the moonlight I 1 had seea traces of footsteps or what looked like foot steps in the grass I 1 I 1 had seen a pile of coconuts heaped up at t the foot of a palm it could would hare have been bd about twenty minutes after landing loading when hen I 1 wis letting telling well ft armed up with exer else that I 1 ran across the houses they were two or three oily wily mere hovels thrown together of brush wood and palm they seemed to me to be alave crouching as if afraid aid of my approach it may bae haie been this fancy that urged me to lake take care walk delicately as I 1 neared them most were unlighted from one ho however weier came come a faint red deim through the plaited walls save sone so ne body within was walking while the rest of the hand wand I 1 slept the wind had risen was still ris in ing it made an intolerable clamor 3 masked by he lie noise I 1 walked right up to the house wall and peered through a chink I 1 do not know what I 1 expected to 10 see rom something ething astonishing but whatever it imy hive hire been it was less am amiling izing than the reality I 1 paw saw a it white pan linn like a well nell bred looking man with a heard brown eve and wavy brown air liar he lie was nag dressed in a most fex ex rig loin loincloth clot ai and lumper jumper such as the in allies use but cf of a pattern never neer worn hy by any native of the pacific world yellow with spots of black as big as dinn r plates ugly conspicuous in the last degree and so coarse in texture that its folds were stiff as canvas ought to last a lifetime that ri rig I 1 thought lit bild sort of thin thing to go shooting or fishing la in any thins thing alive allie would spot you a hun bun frad red birds off buhy hy in tophel X joes he wear vicar fill ahe I 1 he question was no sonner asked than answered lie ile wasn gasn t going to wear it any longer than he could help he ile had been buy buty packing it e small hag bag when I 1 looked in now snapping ing the lock he began pulling oil oft his hl deus shirt and loosening the loincloth up on a beside him I 1 saw a european aTuro suit crump crumpled ld and earth stal stained ned ll 11 looked almost ai as if it it had been burled buried and dug lp again the crack was vins narrow I 1 stretched forward to look through and mamed bome somehow how to 0 stagger against the flimm v hut but wall it creaked and bem bent in as its if it had been made of paper the roan man must have seen it move with bis his arm am half out of his shirt he made a snatch at a revolver that was ayn beside the bag and swung around eyes glaring like a cats s when it sees prey to face the spot where I 1 was standing I 1 did not stand loar covered by the noise of the adrid I 1 belied bolted as hard as I 1 could go for a kesock of hibiscus husli bush and Irei ped inlo it it by the tins tirre the man had got out of the hut I 1 was lying low safe among the interlaced terns and peering through if it I 1 dard for it I 1 was will going to know what all thit was about there wre dozens of tussocks benj the house he lie must have been the futility of trying to search them he lie stool in the dew doo way outlined by the smoky tiame flame of his hurricane laap staring wildly about tie irie spoiled spotted leopard clothes were basma d again spin they looked very odd with A ith the socks and boum be he was sea earing rint and the bat he held in one hand it was a it band tome some well bred hand but bol the little finger I 1 noticed had a defective and broken nall vall diack black be he called in i a cautious voice thai that scarcely carried through the wind markwas black mac kwas wal that youl I 1 thought he ile rather hoped it was mock block vial as arguing with himself flint it couldn I 1 have been anyous else A freakish humor seized roe me I 1 dipped out at the file back of the ock sock and showed my head Us I 1 answered ware aware ilat i no do man could another in th that a t light under trees at aft yard lards dit dig tance ahat bat the dell are you jou playing about then dont want went to be teen been I 1 an in truthfully this turned seemed to satisfy him m more fire or less Is be the launch therel there 1 be asked presently I 1 sold it was go and get everything ready to start tart I 1 II 11 be donn don n in two minutes 1 this was awkard I 1 could dot not be sure of lately safety once I 1 left the ho he made a snatch at a revolver that wa was lying beside the bag shelter of the bushes black night might ue e inches taller or pounds heavier or lighter tl an L I 1 hesitated uncertain unc ertsin jo wept to do it seemed that the man in the hut could not rot endure delay what are you messing and waiting about he demanded with an oath if im caught so are tire you and its five fire years on the bresina ter so im supposed to be ting a crime I 1 wonder what whiff I 1 thought thou ailt the freakish devil blit had possession of me prompted m to reply at a venture what about the money this lei let loose a surprising flood of profanity I 1 judged that sir mr black whoever he was bad had been exaL lInz in bis his demands money ahry i interial Inter terra TaL L 31 money oney what do you want elve hundred already and another me when you land me in valparaiso P crumbs I 1 valparaiso in A launch I 1 I 1 thought mio aho has he been murdering and nil all file lie cursed expenses into the bargain and ou wint more I 1 no so I 1 shouted across the wind 40 NO I 1 ira m going off oft to the launch laurich the I 1 thought was growing too exaction not much longer should I 1 be ale to keep up my end of it and hen then there that reoler reoh rr in the hinds of what teemed to be a desperate man tuan A cloud was coming over the inon I 1 waited till it touched then made a bolt hurry up I 1 shouted a I 1 ran awny deio devoutly ully hoping hit thit he would du do nothing of the kind tills this I 1 thought Is clearly an island inhabited by criminals or madmen ina dinen let et I 1 haci heird of any convict than new caledonia I 1 give it op tip I 1 was almost back on the lie sea sei beich by now it occurred to mr ino lint I 1 might as well shin up one of the palm trees and tee see whether there was really anything in this talk of a it ih the palm I 1 had cho chosen cn was tall but a little bent with a age e I 1 bad not much difficulty in wriggling wrig ieng roy my way up into the crown I 1 waited united for clear moonlight and made my our ey 1 I 1 exclaimer there was undoubtedly a launch numb if one may so designate a fine one thirty or forty tor for boat boal schooner rigged and i lt el with an en engine glide viell ft ell able to make lie the run to alpa ralso or anywhere else elbe in competent hands sue was lying ling come some way out at sea on the leeward side of the island beyond the inner lagoon I 1 icila see a dinghy like ille a little black water beetle creeping land artl her ier side that I 1 thought th be walk I 1 I 1 wonder what the lie ano of alien 1 will make of it when fliey gel get toge together and the thought so intrigued nit me that I 1 fell to lough laughing ln and aearl jearly lost tny hold rut but when I 1 got down safe to ground again I 1 was more ban than sobered by wo thought that thal came nl at most he said sold Is true if he bas given a roan rhan caled called black a thousand pounds and expenses crumb Crumbs what expenses betto bet be ito to run him out of this there must bare been dirty crork somewhere and rin mixed tip lo 10 it I 1 could not help remembering somewhat the remark about five fire years on the breakwater omega I 1 must tell jcu bul but I 1 will tell no more than then I 1 mud must be longs to a noo non british rower power which has a short way with offender offenders against its it rather Dra conle code of 0 I 1 dlan didn t know whit what jou you toulon be sent to the breakwater brenk waler for sut ut I 1 knew there was one la in an out of ellb ray rayO domegan megan port and I 1 guessed th that it I 1 I 1 labor abo r of the portland island kind conducted under a tropical sun un was likely to be the kind of a thing a wise man should avoid at any cost I 1 thought the mailer matter out ct length I 1 could arrive arrve it at only one conclusion 1 bhole bol e knowledge was better than half whatever the rieke risks might be of exploring yet further this odd unpleasant place tt it would be well for me to ond bad out ai as much ai as possible as soon as poi po sible ible and but that vent without saying get away as oon soon as pos tible bible afterwards once more I 1 climbed the palm swung out among the clashing stems among the file swaying butts of the leaves and looked for the launch she was off i a long way cut out lo 10 aps I 1 saw her sliding gliding black in the silver sliver path of the moon good I 1 thou thought glit and slid down again A few rapid wilk ing found me we once more among the little sinister houses with their horned r abes and their air of being huddled together for some evil deed the hut that had been lighted was dar dark know now I 1 lit a match from the small I 1 always kept in a bottle and looked in no one was there the place bore signs of hurried desertion a stretched bed overturned a cabin trunk gaping open and gutted piles plies of gray ash suggesting papers destroyed in the middle of the floor lay a loin iota cloth and a shirt of c coarse cotton bright yellow wilt with blade |