Show FORLORN ISLAND ID by edison marshall copyright by edison adlaon service SYNOPSIS with his big yachts yacht the intrepid pra practically c abandoned bando ned by its lt crew fell felix morton horton millionaire with his mother his laughter daughter nan and roy stuart puts into squaw aqua w harbor alaska to recruit falling failing t to 0 secure sailors horton en cn gages a bunch ot of stranded there A gigantic pole called san domar deat deaf tut but not dumb la is their leader captain the intres d is skipper Is 18 an old friend of eric erics erica ten sen unemployed but holding masters asters ro papers and lie ht engages to sall ball as chief officer horton Is seeking uncharted islands of 0 which he h has heard nan and eric indulge in a moonlight flirtation which brings them both to the threshold of 0 interest in each other it not ot of love the intrepid Is deliberately y wrecked by one of 0 San domars crowd eric takes command of 0 a small boat in wh which ich are horton his mother and daughter nans nan maid marle and roy hoy stuart unable to help they watch San domar k hill III captain and leave the ship with his crowd way mire alre has thrown eric a revolver rev olier aleut indians indiana help the party ashore from one of 0 them speaking a little english eric learns there Is no communication with the outside world CHAPTER IV continued 5 name she aleut word moan mean alace where everything gone away che chanuo no baym forlorn island eric spoke quietly fits it pretty well I 1 should say roy said Chech how do nearly sixty people manage to live here we catch salmon sea lion hon sometimes roots berries birds in sea we catch seals halibut codfish but we no dare go out very far from harbor bad currents take into rocks so fish halibut codfish coash mighty scarce sixty people get along more than S sixty t ee embody body go hungry so we no have AT L a more than sixty ile he spoke calmly casually and eric watched him with steely narrowed eyes how do you manage it not to have more than sixty we keep count when one baby more thans than sixty lity born he die mother she cry sometime but she know do no good other women they put baby out on beach wind she blow baby no live long rather nat lier like an exclusive club roy sall said grimly someone has to die off before soother another can get in but dont look so shocked ericssen plenty of primitive people practice infanticide sonne of the eskimos tor for instance but its usually haphazard this Is very new dew and interesting keeping an exact count its horrible 1 when the population pets gets too large why cant some of the men defy the danger and strike out for new lands the way real men do and get themselves drowned romanticism in contrast with good borse sense the only thing that Is troubling me Is that now the population Is seventy six presently Chech led them to the church of the light that some far sailing russian zealot had brought to forlorn island nearly two centuries before only a dim glimmer remained in the front half of a two room turf house was a crude stone altar a silver akon in the rep ousse work of old moscow and one gold candlestick here the aleuts aleuns came to chant the prayers they did not understand to the white mans god on whom they had grafted their own animal gods and their devils of sea and storm in the rear room lived direct descendant of the priest and custodian of the magic lie he passed down she came out at once a slender girl with slanted black eyes her tawny skin scarcely darker than nans golden tan an only a drop of white blood flowed in her veins but it had refined her features and quickened lier her mind she gazed at the two white men half in awe halt in exultation Fir ebeart make prayer for you to come she told them in soft throaty tones prayer him answered god he be big strong god give Fir eheart what the want but why roy hoy asked what did you want of white people she hear stories pass down from priest she think brenni wonder monder about white mans country pray maybe sometime white people come here so she make che chanuo talk nolte mans talk so she ready when they come she heap lonely tired of little island think maybe white man come take her away turning fron roy noy she caressed erics bare am think our skin heap pretty heap smooth too like otter fur what might be a jealous gleam came into her slanted black eyes rineheart rire heart see bee two white girls come in boat with old woman mabbe maibe one your wife roy broke in illicitly neither Is Ms big but the IN girl with the curly dark hair will bo b my wife soon Fir ebeart no iare abre about you i no do iee ee you come in dream I 1 see tall man with eyes like sea ea with wn like snow she reached a brown hand and stroked erics cheek you tou no marry other girl bunby maybe you marry me fl delit relit art priestess of lost people and we cave bave baby with skin like snow too rire hearts black eyes were brimming and eric must ansbe theli straight A walte man dian does riot not narry marry until he Is in love he told her kindly love comes colnes to him when it comes he be has no power to seize it or to make it go then you no see gee Firc heart to in dream like I 1 see you but you see her now maybe you catch love soon boon her arnis arms they strong they hold you tight she young and she white girl like you and she no say this to an any man before when eric and roy were out of hearing bearing each got the first real glimpse of the others soul they respected each other deeply they could work together toward certain ends end yet they were as remote as pine and pa palm I 1 in eric had inherited the idealism of I 1 the he north the basis of his strength was character but roys boys guiding gulalo light was logic ne he was ruled ana and guided by ills his brain never his heart hearl ills superior intellect ran cold as aa an electric dynamo lie he could be kindly brave where bravery was something more than a tradition but he took life as he found it made the best of it and never gazed beyond which of these two types have ca contributed n tri buted most to civilization the intellectual tel or the emot emotional ionni the realist or the dreamer which Is most important in the ultimate destiny of mankind which would triumph in this island adventure a enactment reenactment re on a small scale of mans long war with savagery and the raw powers of nature only time could tell Eri driessen essen this girl is our one hope roy said it if play your part we e can be free in two months ashes fallen in love with you at first sight whatever that means find and ns as priest priestess ess she controls the island it if the young men of the tribe would go with us we could reach civilization you know that as well as 1 I they could feel their way in a dozen covered kayaks kajaks a good many would be lost but some would be sure to find the strait throw their lives away to save our own skins skills what it amounts to what of it an inbred bo hopeless handful of savages eric we must look after ourselves first and our women the first law of life but id have to play square with Fir eheart ashes no common squaw to these people ashes a semi sacred being whose clr virginity julty Is closely guarded and the only way I 1 could induce her to raise the taboo would bo be to marry her in her own church and take her with me to the outside world oh have to pretend it was the real thing but for you the ceremony would be an empty form when we reached the first settled island we could buy her a lot of new dresses a phonograph it if she wanted it and leave her happy and really ashes not a bad looking girl shed make your stay here very ery pleasant erics blue eyes had bad a cold shine you can drop that stuart I 1 break trust with Fir eheart ebeart even if we dont doat leave here for the rest of our natural lives if I 1 married her here in her church id stand by it but im not going to cross my blood with aleuts aleuns to save you or anyone else A cynical gleam came into roys cold eyes its plain that and I 1 will have to take matters into our own hands we cant rely on you youre too d d gallant and I 1 warn you that our methods may be a lot tougher on your aleut friends than a little romance with a squaw they returned to the barabara to find their comrades rolled in blankets asleep San domars gang were roaming about the island fraternizing with the natives saving their strength for trials certain to come eric and roy flung themselves down on the fur robes and rested too it was mid mio afternoon before they had all wakened rubbed their eyes and definitely crossed the border between lifelike life like dreams and fan fantastic reality nan now dow demanded that she know the worst im grown up and able to stand it it are we going to spend a week at this charming winter resort roy hesitated but mother horton thrust her lean elbows into his ribs tell herl the clear old voice urged if shed use her head shed figure it out for herself A week from now our salmon falmon fishing should be well under way eric said gravely in three months the summer will be gone and the fur seal herd berd heading beading south A little more bad luck carelessness or dence and well be gone too not rescued but dead the most we can hope for this winter Is just to live to hang bang on then it if we can keep up our strength and our numbers to plan some way to freedom the girl looked at him straight and it if we survive at all we may be here three years Is that it 1 I should guess that well either cither win or definitely lose within one year she gazed a long time into the hissing fire 1 I suppose wed all be lucky to have gone down with the ship you might suppose so I 1 dont erics tone was deep and rough 11 1 I thank god im here still able to fight im going to make the best of it and as soon as you get your bearings I 1 know you will too and theres a way out it if we can just find 10 it and well get along mother horton chirped thank heaven ive still got two good teeth to chew those thos tough little birds 0 marie put two leather handbags saved from the wreck in the middle of the floor here are our earthly possessions nan sold said gravely 1 I think wed getter better see what we have hav now and divide up she dumped the contents of thi the bags on the floor on top more pre clous cious than rubles lay half a dozen calces cakes of soap which the old house keeper had bad put in with her own skinny hands when gone in about two weeks well have to make soft soap with fat and ashes mother hor ton explained and by crackle fifty years of luxury made me forget how 1 there were two identical safety razors two packages of blades find and a stropping device sharing these each cadi of the four men could make some sort of a decent toilet a considerable factor la in their morale there were three brushes plenty of combs a and nd scissors a pound of tobacco when it was gone cone the pipe smokers could use the little willow bark and again mother Hor holtons hortons tons contribution some needles and thread a carton of cigarettes and a bible there was simple jewelry the best had been left behind in a bank vault articles of apparel and for toilet use peculiarly feminine towels a carton of matches this was roys inspiration a wicked looking hunting knife that wilcox had bought in seattle roys ethnological notes some mens sleeping Ble and under garments and approximately a thousand dollars in currency the division of the spoil passed gally gaily what might have been a dark hour now they could understand the joy of fin an eskimo squaw at the gift of a yard of cloth or a butcher knife roy called horton aside to advise an immediate truce with San domars ga gang ng it would be hard to ignore and forget the shame in the dawn but policy demanded no less combined they made a formidable party of thirteen men they could dominate the timid aleuts aleuns possibly force them to break their taboo moreover it if the whites must make the journey alone granted an almost impossible feat the bloodstained hands would be needed to work the boat and it soon may be a question of life and death roy said tile the food supplies on this island are decidedly limited eric thinks hard work and more efficient methods will teed feed the whole population but I 1 doubt it we have no rifles and we cant do much more with native gear than they themselves you think we may have hae to ration the natives horton asked ros possibly sibly for a few months and we cant do it without San domars support I 1 admit its a bit raw to come to their island and then half starve them but the fittest must survive after all just a ban handful of inbred savages of not the slightest value to the world but could San domars human wolves be controlled it looked reasonable to roy their pack probably lacked cohesion three of them had no hand in the killings and would want peace As for women they could have their pick of the squaws squads this would keep them satisfied and Ran San domar hi himself could take Fir eheart now that eric had rejected her the grim faced crew still hung bung back when erics crowd sought the comfort of the beach fire only when the seal meat was boiled the birds sizzling and the root bread baked on the rocks did they push sullenly near norton horton spoke to them ca casually qually and made room in the circle but only garge barge the little cockney showed any kocl sociability nan would never forget this picture the low red fire in the fading light a fretful sea under blowing gray clouds and the island populace gathered here in the truce of the bread and meat it was hard to know whether she was sleeping in her own canopied cano pied bed in a glittering city and this was no more than a dream in the night or whether she had died and was born again on this hopeless isle and the distant lights beauty and warmth were no more than a vision in a white squaws squads soul lets come to an understanding all of us from the intrepid norton horton began with every show of confidence were in a bod bad predicament to say the least but it wont last long and I 1 think we should operate cooperate co just as though we were still on the ship and since ill III pay a all the bills in the end I 1 think I 1 may as well remain in charge ile he glanced toward San domar but the deaf mans eyes were on the winking fingers of his cockney interpreter and lie did not glance up the rest of the pack stood silent in odd fixed postures you must nil all stand and work together and ill lead you the best I 1 can norton horton went on now for tonight myself my daughter and her maid and mrs norton horton will occupy one room of our two room turf house roy eric wilcox and devalera the other room the aleut couple who own the house have kindly agreed to move in with their neighbors you other fellows seem to like one an others company so suppose you take the large meeting house at the end of the village row Chech tells me that he can furnish you with plenty of extra robes there was ft a tense silence then cargo stepped forward ills little weasel face was drawn in an odd grimace half anger half scorn who you speaking to us he asked la in his high rasping voice why yes im just suggesting 11 we dont need you to toll tell us where to sleep well sleep where we please and with 00 oo we please and we ke dont want no up lip from you you car me dont you horton changed color but kept his bead erie eric and his friends watched and waited in dead silence 1 I dont think thick you need deed take that tone horton replied theres no reason we should be enemies were all going out together one of these days and therell be plenty of reward for good work and decent be harlor beli arlor TO BE CON I 1 |