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Show Blade fM t3 Beatrice GrimshawlSliySf aboat me at III, but only as th aftermath after-math of an opium carouse may clln about a man who has left behind him, days and miles away, the place where he drank, and dreamed. I reached the Daro roadstead, anchored, an-chored, alung my dinghy out (for 1 had made the hundred unil twenty-mile run across from Australia, alone) got pratique from the thin, young govern-men govern-men official who rowed out to meet me, and changed with biro the news of the Islands. By end by I slung my gear together, looked to the cable of the cutter, rowed myself ashore and pulled the dinghy upon the stones. 1 walked up the endless stretch of Dnro Jetty. The tide, now, was running fast away to sea, and the coming sunset was reflected re-flected In sheets of muddy flame upon the flats left bare. I had slipped through the magic door, got myself Into the fourth Dimensional world thut lies beyond the world that most men know. . If the thought of IMa La Drier came back to me. In my trading store, behind be-hind the beach of Paru, I think It came as a chime of bells comes, front some distant clock tower, sounding often, scarcely heard; part of one's life, yet scarcely remembered, unless, for any reason. Its music Is withdrawn. with-drawn. Possibly 1 would have told anyone who asked, that I did not think of her. She bad gone through my life It seemed as a sudden gust of wind goes through a house, scattering the common things of hourly use, breaking the mirrors, slamming windows and doors, and making the place look as If nothing would ever be the same again. But winds pass by, and household goods are gathered and set up once more. The wind that was Ha bad blown, and passed 1 thought One trace It had left. I could not keep from thinking of Sir Richard Fanshaw. Be troubled me. Not so much because he was rfolng to marry F i I THE 8TORY On a pleasure trip In eastern water Philip Amory, English at, World war veteran, now a trader v- on I ha Island of Papua, New Guinea, plungee overboard to aav tha Ufa ot a musical comedy actreaa, known aa "Uln-Sllng.'' Amory becomea Intcraated In Pia Laurler, member of a wealthy New South Walea family. Ha tells her of hie knowledge of a wonderful Bold field on tha la-land, la-land, though ha doea not dlacloae the name of tha place. "Gin-Sllng" "Gin-Sllng" telle him Pla la engaged to Sir Klchard Fanshaw. CHAPTER II Continued Three times, then by my poverty, by tier position, and by the significance of that ring Pla was not for me. I believed what Jinny had said; I was very sure she was no liar. It was merely a determination to leave no stone unturned, that made me decide I would see Pla once more only once before I left the ship, and ask ber to her face If what 1 heard was true Once, across the saloon that night, I saw the clear profile, the beautifully shaped black head. Once, on deck, the rose-geranium perfume that Pla Unrter used, came Boating across a The .ense moment passed. Sir Klchard had let go Plas hand; was busying himself wltb the traveler's eternal preoccupation of baggage. I had seen whut I had seen, and I knew, as well as if I had bad an hour to thluk It all out. Instead of a couple of seconds, that what was for Pla was best I could wreck her en-' gagement If I chose of this I was sure but I was equally sure that if I could, I would not I would drop out of her world as 1 bad dropped In. The male Cinderella's pumpkin coach was ready; his hour had struck; back to the ashes I and let the fairy princess stay In her palace, ur.dlsturbed. If I was sick at heart, as I went down that endless stair, I was doubtless doubt-less no worse than many millions elsewhere who were sick at heart that day, and of the same disease So I tried to tell myself, when the tender was reached, and I had found a seat on the roof of the cabin, and the engine en-gine was beginning to turn over with loud spatting and drumming noises. So I tried to believe, when 1 saw the face of Pla looking down at me from the rail, a long, long way above, and felt her eyes fall on me like the light of a star, strange, sad, remotely fair. I, who was merry enough by nature, had no laughter left In me that day, else I think I must have been amused Pia, though that was a spot of raw pain, never unnecessarily to be touched but because of a certain, odd, floating float-ing resemblance In bis face to something, some-thing, some one undetermined, that had struck me. In those few moments upon the ladder of the ship. It worried wor-ried me ss a name, half forgotten, worries ; and that Is like a loose tooth In the mouth. It troubled me at the oddest momenta. mo-menta. My store I think I have not told you was almost on the beach. It stood perched upon high plies, with a flight of rough steps leading up and In. The Interior was one large dusky cave, with light that fell from doors set at each end. At first, you didn't see much; In a minute or two, the shining clusters of tin blllycans snd pannikins in the roof, and the piled strata of cottons, red, yellow, pink and green, and the loin cloths and the yard-long knives, and the strings of beads, like strange little fruits, and the plates and the lanterns and the sacks of rice and the towers of tinned meats and fish, became dimly visible, each In Its place. There was always a wind blowing through, from door to door, and there was a mossy and fishy smell from the reef, not unpleasant and a warm whiff of franglpannl flowers; for Daru is 'full of these. . . . Darn, Daru by the western boundary of Papua; where little space of dark, and I saw a pale dress pats hesitate go oo again. I did not move; I said no word. If I am angry, I am angry. That night, I had liefer taken the velvet neck of Pla In ny hands, and twisted It back till It ' gave way, cracking, In my bands, (as I have twisted the neck of s Oennon, rolling together in trench mud) than held her Slid kissed ber as I had not yet done; as, I knew now, 1 never should. It was very early when the engines came to rest next morning, and the r ship, her way stopped, lay still upon the celadon-blue waters that surround Roode Island. Here the tender from Thursday was to meet us, and here my false splendors splen-dors were to end Phil Amory, bit of war wastage, trader from the back end of nowhere, was "to be taken to the place from whence he came." And If, once arrived there, be chose to .Jf hang himself by the neck till he was f dend, It would be nobody's business but his own. My suitcases were on deck, my steward tipped, the lender rising end falling below the ladder, on which I was Just about to set foot, when the sound of my name, clearly and almost al-most precisely spoken, made me look a round. Pla was there, at the head of the accommodation ladder, holding out her hand, the hand that did not bear the emerald ring. I could not refuse to take it I felt ber cool fingers In mine, for one everlasting ever-lasting moment ; and It was as if they cume. In that moment, home, where they iad always belonged. I don't know which of us first let go. I know that In one moment with the tender duncing below and the luggage gone, and the passengers wbo were to join coming up the ladder, I realized that I had been an incredible fool, and that It was too late to do anything at all about It If she was engaged If she wasn't she liked me Ma She had not been flirting. Her eyes were s dark wltb sleeplessness, and the shadow that comes of love denied. She looked at me, and made the little movement with ber lips that means . . . yon know. And I would have given five years of my life for the chance Impossible now of taking her My Store I Think I Have Not Told You Was Almost on the Beach. at the sudden sight of Mrs. Laurler, arrived too Inte, shooting ber celebrated cele-brated death-ray at me "with Intent," as she stood, kimono-clad, In the alleyway alley-way door. Or at the other, fairer vision on the ship's sacred bridge I knew at once than only Jinny could thus profane the hlgb altar holding an Imaginary glass to its Hps, waving an arm at me, and shouting what 1 guessed at, but could not hear "Drink hearty, well soon be dead 1" Then the tender champed and fussed away, and the ship receded faster and faster, and that chapter of my life was done. civilization stops, ships come seldom, and time Is marked by rise and set of sun Daru, an Island, filled with the spirit of the Islands, holds In Its heart, though it is Western Pacific, the secret of the true South Seas. All very well, and I felt It as 1 moved about among my cottons and tins, bargaining with wild fellows from the Fly for a canoe load of coconuts, coco-nuts, selling tinned meat for turtle-shell, turtle-shell, rice for a catch of trocas. I felt it, and liked It for I had tasted the honey of the South Sea world, and Its flavor was pleasant to recall, though In truth the strong liquor of the Western Islands suited me best. But why why was the store, and the blaze of green bush and dazzle of sea-water, sea-water, seen through Its open doorway, and the smells of reef and shell and franglpannl flower ay, and the very winds that blew unendingly from door to door why was all this connected In my mind wltb Richard Kanshaw, airman, company promoter, wealthy man and future custodian of Pla Lourier's life? - (TO BB CONTINUED) CHAPTER III I came back to Dam, off western Papun, on a brimming tide, that masked the mud-flats with acres of reflected re-flected Island, miles of bright mirrored mir-rored sky. The dream that I bad dreamed oo the great , liner clung In. my arms and kissing' her very breatb away. All round us there were deckhands scrubbing, stewards carrying things, the fourth officer was posted at the bead of the ladder, a stewardess, armored in white starch God knows what she wanted there was gaping In the nearest doorway. Passengers, new arrivals, began to shove past Pla and myself, coming between us. "Sir," said some cursed person, "if you want to go nshore, you'd better not keep fQ- the tender; captain's anxious to get away." 1 don't know what I'd have done-missed done-missed my passage, maybe, and trusted to luck to see me back from the East when I had spent every coin 1 owned, getting there If, at that minute, a very tall, thin man had not come up the ladder, - pushed determinedly deter-minedly between Pla and myself, and taken' ber by both hands. He kept pumping her wrists up and down, and staring at her as If be could never hove enough of it Be was extremely handsome sharp regular features, somewhat marred by a brief George V beard, chestnut hair clipped close to keep It from waving, large, brown, hard eyes, figure of an athlete. J could have cheerfully split his skull with an ax. I knew who he was without with-out asking; but 1 confirmation was needed, I had It when an obsequious steward rushed forward, treading on my toes as be went, and bleated "What cabin. Sir Richard? Shall I take your luggage. Sir Richard?" Instantly the whole weight of the social system by and In which the dun of Laurlers lived, seemed to press down upon me like a giant hand, pushing, relentlessly, Pla and myself apart I saw in one thousand-facetted vision, the world my people bad owned nnd lost; Its myriad reserves, defences, de-fences, shibboleths. Its fierce prides and pitiless scorns; Its solid pedestal of property, lifting all who belonged jr ju It 'or, very far above the mud and Ajt In which we others must go. |