The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-10-23

J
fectly round basin of water about ten
yards in diameter, SO circular that do
not think the most accurate mathema-
tician could have discovered flaw in
it-not only circular at the outlet, but
concavely circular in all its measure
ments. On the morning succeeding the
night just recorded, / was walking
round and round this bath OF mine,
and trying in vain to realize some
thing of last night, but the whole
thing was like dream. "Miss Milne
here-Miss Milne here!' 1 was saying
over and over, as though the reitera-
ton of the fact would help me to APP
preciate it. "And l owe my lie to
her!"
"My God!" I thought, "this wo-
man, this novelty on earth, is doomed
to haunt me, sent for the purpose OF
becoming my Nemesis"
So raved on, unseen by mortal eye,
unheard by mortal ear; go 1 kicked
against the pricks of fate, and cursed
the day l was born, when suddenly
along the top of the cliff saw some-
thing moving. IT'S some ones head,
that of woman, stepping down "by
zigzag paths and juts of pointed rock. !"
I have not been seen as yet, and 30
hide; there is little cave at the end
of the table-rock, from the shadow of
which l can safely watch her move
ments. Seemingly on the edge of an
overhanging prominence, she stops,
and produces from under her dress
basket and rope. She ties the basket
on and lets it cautiously down.; then,
when it had descended something like
thirty feet, stick appears from cave
opposite and gives the basket a push;
this is repeated again and again until,
while the woman holds patiently on to
the end of the rope, the basket comes
near enough to be caught by an out
stretched hand. lis the hand of
Warren, can see, and the woman
above is his wife.
l certainly mark the spot where the
man is hidden, and l see also where
the woman hides the rope; then hur-
ry home and pack up some clothing,
some whiskey, methylated spirit, and
small spirit lamp; to this l add tea,
potted meat, and few other neces-
saries. and with my parcel make for
the top of the cliff. / tie on the rope
and let it down; presently jerk tells
me he las seen it; for moment it
swings violently, and then another jerk
and the weight is gone. Then l go
back to home and to work.
"This is terrible thing about War
ren," said the sergeant of police to me
that night, as together we made the
evening round. "Do you think, doc
tor, his death was painful one??"
"Painful? No; why should it be?
No death is so painful as men imagine,
nor, for the matter of that, SO pleasant
either. The girl who faints, dies as
far as she is concerned; the man who
is stunned has gone through all the
agonies of DEATH opium poisoning.
bleeding to death, and death from ex-
haustion are simply sleeping without
awakening. If Warren was drowned,
his sufferings were nothing compared
to what he had gone through; if eaten
by sharks, then indeed he must have
had very bad quarter of an hour"
When the sergeant had gone, l start
ed again for the place where Warren
was hidden. This time l carried to-
bacco, a kerosene lamp and bottle of
water. had previously made up my
mind that tie only safe road to the
cave was somewhere on the opposite
side to that from which l had watched
him in the morning. But for an hour
l wandered about, without finding any
traces of path leading in the right di-
rection, stood still and listened, and
there directly below me, caught now
and then che sound of voices. Not
withstanding the danger, l resolved
upon descending. For few steps all
went we'll, but suddenly l came upon a
little precipice, down which l. parcel
and al /, slid with violence that, but
for bush that stuck out from between
some rocks, would have carried me
straight over to my table rock below.
To this bush | hung on desperately,
and soon discovered that there was no
possibility of my continuing my descent
with anything like safety; nor could l
retrace my steps. There was, there
fore, only one thing left for me to do,
and that was to attract Warren's atten-
ton and secure his help.
l whistled the long low whistle of
the London burglar, and the converse
ton stopped, repeated it, and then
heard movement some eight or ten
yards below.
SIS that you, Warren?" l whispered.
"Yes. Who are your"
"The doctor. 1 have brought you
| Soma thinus and lost nv way ~