Show 77 J wg M T V BEN aki ES WILLIAMS 1 AMO W z artices SYNOPSIS george mcausland was 38 years old wien i hen he be sailed irom from america to undertake his post as a missionary in tho the fiji islands A crime he be had bad committed in a fit of excitement had shattered all till his confidence in ln himself he felt forced arced to avoid pretty mar mary doncaster who boarded liono the ship at honolulu lulu she was en route loute to visit her parents who were missionaries on gilead island mary avas i attracted a acted bigl by georges orges attempts to he her r one day george accidentally win 11 overboard mary unhesitatingly dove into the sea to rescue george who falls alls to in love with her when the boat approached her home on gilad island they learned that marys p parents rents had both died george volunteered to take charge of the mission faced with the necessity of 0 losing mary it he left h her r now george forced hil himself elf to ask her to be his wife mary a accepted c his clumsy proposal i and they I 1 left eft the ship ogeal lal to live in h her og ormer former home on the island an T the scanty dress of the natives shocked george at first but he soon became reconciled ed to 0 their customs mary discovered that corkran a sailor friend of georges had deserted ship to live on the island he had ad come there to help george and me mary ry U they needed him their peaceful iff life was interrupted interrupt edone one day when a ship stopped in the harbor in search of pearls they see nee the pearl divers attacked and their schooner sunk suck by a grate pirate ship the pirates head their boat toward ware the ine bay baynejr near their village geor george g e sends mary inland tor for safety and walks walk 9 down to the beach alone and defenseless fen seless to meet the unwelcome visitors natives carry him back to mary hours later shot through the shoulder ir CHAPTER VI Continued 7 mary asked one ot of the young men for carambo Ja rambo but he be shook his head not looking at her if george had not filled her thoughts excluding all else she must have seen a tautness in these young men as though they were waiting listening but she thought though ti only of her husband and when in he opened his eyes and looked at her she spoke in p a quick tenderness close beside him quiet my dear she said youre all right were safe quiet rest my dear he stared past her stared up at the thatch above them she thought he did not know he be spoke poke he said they were angry because no canoes met them they smashed their boat against the rocks getting ashore and that made them more angry one was a redheaded red headed man with a red beard and red hair all over his chest they all had guns I 1 told them we want them here and the redheaded red headed man put ahls band against me and pushed me chet er backward one of the others shot me before I 1 could get up he looked at her with a deep shame at his own weakness 1 I fainted mary like a woman you do anything against their guns george now rest I 1 dear his eyes closed like a woman he muttered again and sighed and slept in the morning george Georg ewas was stronger able ab I 1 e to sit up with mary to sup port him her arms around him his shoulders leaning against her breast bred s t the young men were gone when she woke but later they returned and mary saw a red gleam in their eyes and their eyes would not meet hers she wondered and her heart began to beat hard with witha a tort sort ot of premonition but she was not afraid of what would happen she thought atiat in some so me strange way she was berri terrified d by something already past but she decided this was merely the reaction from her alarm of yesterday now n A eased and put the fear aside what has happened she asked his eyes flickered with something curiously like dismay and he be looked at his companion co in then at 4 mary again without replying rep she insisted Is thie the ship still there she realized that he was confused by some I 1 strange seatse sense of guilt and her pulse pounded in her wrist she looked back at giorge george he was asleep so for the moment mor rient he no longer need needed 1 her she said firmly to the young men take me to Ja rambo or bring carambo to me after a moment one af pf of them turned and darted off through the forest the other spoke bidding fe i r come presently ahead of her vh abe e beard a call go down the mountain summoning carambo Ja rambo soon carambo spoke at her elbow and she turned the old man met her eyes and waited she had never been afraid of him but she sh e was wa S afraid of ja rambo now there ther was as that in his eyes she had biever never seen there a blaze like a leaping fire a drunk fury a reckless intoxication but this kasnot ais not the drunkenness ot of rum aeve nevertheless ruthless he was drunk with something so me thing she looked cat f him intently and suddenly hir her head bead rose she said carambo ja rambo ra abo tell me he said under his b breath long time we were men mei 11 she waited wat ted he spoke explicitly from the beginning inning W when en the schooner anchored bored georges george insistence kept the canoes ashore but presently a boat put off from the vessel with three white men in it those white men did not know the linding landing place and they went toward the beach but they saw that the surf serf there was impracticable so the they Y came along the shore and they shouted and some of the children went out of the jungle to the landing place and then some of the girls cherf the white men saw sa Othe the girls they tried to land and their boat was broken against the lt ledge dge burthey but they climbed ashore they were angry angri because of the loss of the boat and when george came down the path and spoke to them one of the men I 1 truck struck it him I 1 rn down and then shot him and he lay rea like a dead man man but one of the children i a little boy who loved george bit the hand I 1 of the man who had shot tha man caught mr th the boy and hel he broke the childs arm across hlf his knee the white men could not even catch the girls so they came came to marys fathers house and profaned eq it shouting and aid breaking things the c hild child with the broken arm WEIS was screaming and the people acre were angry CHAPTER VII 1 carambo sent young men to carry george away and that was done so when the white men returned to tb the landing he had been borne to safety when they were gone carambo and the other old men decided what to do to these white men who had hurt the child so by and by many of the strongest girls swam off to the schooner with flowers in their hair laughing and it was night carambo told mary mari squatting at her feet in the dark many canoes went quietly on the water and many young men the white men on the ship were busy with our girls and then we came aboard in the dark the girls held them lovingly while our war clubs cracked their skulls that was a bad thing Ja rambo mary said he in answered it is done he said slowly intoning an ancient tale the white men came in old times and killed my woman and my mother and my father and my two sons also they took my daughter before ore that I 1 was a man now I 1 am a when she could speak her senses c learing clearing she asked Ja rambo did the white man with the talking bird help you kill those men he answered with a shrewd glint in his eyes no one knows what a white man will do about killing white men that white man with the bird which talks was given sleep to drink and he sleeps now he did not see the ship come he will not see it go soon it was never here his eyes as he spoke looked down a at t the schooner in the roads and mary saw that some sort of sail was set on her and that she now moved slowly toward the sea when the schooner was now outside the bay a little skein of blue smoke moke had begun torise to rise from her hatch it became a black and growing cloud she whispered burning herl berl carambo brushed his hand flat fiat the palm down across a rock he said again as he had said before that ship was never here beret the pillar of 0 smoke rose slowly above the schooner mary watched it rise higher and higher between her and the blue saucer of the sea her ey eyes es following the tip of that black cloud till like a pointing finger jt it reached the saucers rim the horizon there where the smoke finger pointed the square topgallant sails of a full rigged ship the rest of her still below the horizon the canvas of those sails was dark blackened by the soot boot of many fires she was a the so long expected was coming at last to gilead somewhere along the mountain tar far away a voice sounded in a long cry and nearer another and then others the sound spread like ripples in a pond flowing down the mountainside reaching them and going on carambo at her feet looked up and spoke your man wakes he said and watched her warily he calls you YOM she turned to go to george but she paused again and said after a moment in careful explanation carambo Ja rambo the ship that comes there is my fathers she could not remember the word tor for uncle if there w was as one my man and I 1 will go away in her she looked down at him and r saw a w his eyes w waver aver better we go she said gently my man will die pere here he muttered ship sees smoke she understood that he was sullen with fear that the ship now approaching pro aching would punish the islanders for the killing done last night and she told him reassuringly pointing to the burning schooner Us using g his own words that ship was never biever here mary told Ja rambo my man must be carried to the house we go to him now cow when they came to the lodge deep in the forest where they had hidden george she found that he had waked fretful and hot with fever she spoke quickly to old itaki we shall t take a ke him home mary went ahead to make his bed ready in the house she saw that rough hands had been here rummaging saw her own garments pulled I 1 out and strewn around saw all her possessions in disorder she had bad come swiftly down the trail and she had time to remove the more obvious traces of their invasion before george muttering in a half delirium was brought home on his owai own bed he sighed and seemed to sink and i grow small and weak and helpless and he slept mary covered b h n and carambo came to her side she thought the old man clung to her as though for or protection from the punishment of his bis sins but no one else came near mary knew that a man a afraid f raid is dangerous the people on the Is land were strung tight with terror terro at seeing the approach so soon after the massacre they ahey had drugged corkran to keep him jg ig nor antol antof what was to happen but now here come came many white men mary thought any small incitement might touch them into bloody mad ness again bring the war clubs out ot of hiding set them swinging it would be important when the came in to worn warn richard and the others against asking questions all the others had disappeared but carambo stayed with mary squatting on the platform waiting her commands she bade him watch and tell her when the anchored in the late afternoon carambo reported that a boat from the was rowing toward the mouth of the bay it would be night carambo said before the whaleboat came into the roads and she told him to build a fire on the shore for a beacon at the landing place and to help them at the landing when sudden dark descended mary brought one of the whale oil lamps and lighted the wick and set it here by georges bed carambo went to tend the beacon fire and she was alone she heard shod feet come up the path toward the house and she rose and went from her husbands side through the big central room to the door in darkness there she met a man and thought him her uncle and cried uncle and went into disarms his arms clinging to him but she knew as she kissed him and felt his lips that this was not her uncle and she pressed back peering up at him its all right mary dont you know me im peter corr before she could free herself he kissed her again his beard rough against her cheek and chin peter she cried oh im glad youve cornel comel then she saw someone behind him tall end and slender and she asked trying to see in the hall half light who is ii it then see ing more clearly why its lt tom her votes voice broke her eyes filled ailed with happy weeping why tommy how youve brownt she caught him and he clung clang to her young arms tight around her neck hugging her hard bard he did not speak and she smiled to herself thinking hes so glad to see me that hes crying dare try to talk f tor 0 r fear well know she asked hows uncle tom tommy but tommy without answering only held her harder and peter asked urgently mary wheres your fattier fathers dead peter he and mother died before we got here then in the doorway this is my husband george mcausland 11 peter stood by georges bed husband he muttered hes sick she said he sure looks lik likel eitl tl and hes been hurt she admitted looking back to see if carambo had come in with peter andton and tommy wondering how much just now to tell peter she asked again wheres reB uncle tom peter said slowly your uncles dead too mary she noticed that he did not look at tommy seemed careful not to she was curiously not moved by this intelligence as though she were immune just now to grief she only said dead peter wiped his brow with his hand looking down at george he said yes and my fathers sick aboard the mary I 1 think hes going to die dick said your father knew something about doctoring he asked in a curiously boyish perplexity what are we going to do she said we any medicines here weve had a lot of people sick and dying on the island ill go send the boat back send them word your fathers dead peter said she nodded and his footsteps d departed e toward the landing land tag she turned to the boy him at least she could help just by loving him my imly im glad to see you tommil R im so sorry about uncle tom she I 1 kissed him again tommy spoke carefully knuckling his eyes 1 I cried before mary till I 1 saw you 1 I know dear but it helps it feel better now she asked groping to find a need in him which she could fall fill do you want to talk about it 1 I saw it happen he said 1 I was in the crosstrees cros with a glass his tone puzzled her stiff and restrained peters boat was right there they beard peter returning and thi the boy stopped bit off the word watching the door where after a moment peter appeared mary wondered why she asked peter will you and tommy stay with george while I 1 change my clothes sure you look pretty tired go to bed why dont you ill keep an I 1 eye on him oh im n not 0 t slee sleepy she left them in georg georges e s room crossed to her own room in the other end of the house came back with a lamp to light it from the burning wick here tommy had disappeared she asked wheres tommy outside somewhere peter said briefly I 1 TO BE CONTINUED |