Nebraska advertiser., 1882-06-08

oar anu now sat Ike Witu creature
waiting for the moment to spring.
"Hushr' 1t was Lal who held up
her finger
There was sound of distant voices.
The place was not. then, uninhabited,
The boat neared the shore. When il
was but two feet or so from the shelving
bank the Malay leaped out of the bows,
alighting on hands and knees. and ran,
waving his arms, toward the wood.
1t was now three months since the
offer of freedom was brought to Rex
and refused on conditions so hard. SO
far the prediction of Captain Wattles
was fulflled no sail had crossed the
sea within sight of the lonely island; no
ship had touched there. II was likely,
indeed, that the castaway would live
and die there abandoned and forgotten.
Rex kept the probability before his
mind; he remembered Robinson Cru
soc's famous list of things for which he
might be grateful; he was WE'LL the
place was healthy; there was food in
sufliciency, though rough; and he was
not alone, though perhaps that fact
was not altogether a subject for graft
tude.
The sun was yet in the forenoon, and
Rex, Encouragement of the island
while perfecting II method of improving
the fishing by means of nets made of
the pandang fiber, was startled by the
rush of twenty or thirty of the people,
seizing clubs and spears, and shouting
to each other.
The rush and the shout could mean
but one thing-a ship in sight.
He sprang to his feet, hesitated, and
then went with them.
He saw, at first, nothing but boat
close to land, and n figure running
swiftly across the sandy beach.
What they saw, from the boat, was a
group of very ferocous natives, yelling
to one another and bran dishing weap-
Ons, intent, no doubt, TO slay and de-
stroy every mothers son. They were
darker of hue than most Polyncsians;
they were tattooed all over; their noses
and ears were pierced and stuck with
bits of tortoise-shell for ornament;
their abundant and raven-black hair
was twisted in knots on the top of their
heads.
And among them stood one with n
long brown beard; he wore Il hat made
out of palm-leaf; his feet were bare;
his clothes were shreds and rags; his
bare arms were tattooed like the island
ers' arms his hair was long and mat
ted; his cheeks, his hands, arms and
! feet were bronzed; he might have
passed for native but for his face and
hair.
1t was exactly what Captain Wattles
had seen, only the men were fierccr.
When they saw from the boat the
white man, they grasped each other 5
hands.
Courage, Lal," said Captain Hol-
stius. Courage and caution"
When Rex, among the natives, saw
and recognized Dick, his faithful SER
want running to greet him and kissing
his hand; when he saw the people sud
denly stop their shouts, and gather curl
ously about their old friend, who had
been kidnapped long before with their
own brother, he stared about him as if
in dream.
Then Dick seized his masters hand
and pointed.
A ship was standing off the mouth of
the lagoon; II boat was on the beach;
and in the boat But just then Cap
tain Holstius leapcd ashore, and girl
after him And then-thcn the girl
followed the Malay and ran toward him
with arms outstretched, crying:
Rex! Rexr'
This must be dream. Yet no dream
would throw upon his breast the girl of
whom he had thought day and night,
his love, his promised wife.
REX! Rex! Do you not know meP
Have you forgotten"
For while, indeed, he could not
| speak. The thing stunned him.
In single moment he remembered
all the past; the long despair of the
weary time, especially of the last three
months; the dreadful prospect before
him; the thought OF the long years
creeping slowly ON, unmarked even by
spring or autumn; the loneliness of his
life; the gradual sinking, deeper and
deeper, unto the level OF the poor fel-
lows around him; living or dead no one
would know about him; perhaps the girl
he loved being deceived into marrying
the liar and villain who sat in the boat
and offered him conditions of freedom
he remembered all these things. He
remembered, too, how of late he had
thought that there might come time
when it would be well to end every
thing by a plunge in the transparent
waters of the lagoon. Two minutes of
struggle and all would be over. Death
seemed a long and conscious sleep. To
sleep unconscious, and without a wax
ing, is nothing. To sleep conscious OF
repose, knowing that there will be no
more trouble, is the imaginary haven OF
the suicide.
Then he reused himself and claspcd
her to his heart:
My darlingl You have come to find
met