, 1903-01-15

"Where Are the PeopIe7"
into the southwest, leaped from hum
mock to hummock under the stroke of
the keen breeze. "If the wind holds"
he said later, well make the Islands
in less than three days. We have no
food or water; l hope that it will
hold"
She said: Il pray God that it will"
So that Gay passed and the stars
came out in a clear sky. The South
ern Cross circled the heavens and
sank and the gray bars of day showed
in the east and found Held still at
the tiller, cramped, but un%wearying,
the had slept and awoke re
fieshed. with much Of the horror
swept from her. He noted how that
she was young and pretty, with n
clear skin and low, pleasant voice.
Even in her wrinkled, draggled gar
ments there was no installing her
modesty and refinement. Held was
a rough, young sailor of good i'm
pulses, who had spent ten years in
the South Seas. and it had been long
since he had been in contact VITA
a m of his WI race. On the
second day they suffered somewhat
from thirst; hunger did not trouble
them. In the afternoon a dead calm
fell, and a sun of fire shOne on a sea
of glass. They lost some time float
ing idly. He took an old envelope
from his pocket and threw it over to
note their drift. Five hours afterward
it was within fifty feet of the boat. He
was tender with her, and tried to keep
up her courage, reciting strange
stories of the ocean, adventures
amorg the islands, diving for coral,
~peaTl-fGhing, battles with the canni-
balls of the Solomon sandhills, and SO
ICrtl. She was patient, even cheer
jul, and bore up well.
A man and a woman SO placed learn
each ether thoroughly in a little
while; they establish an intimacy
which would require years under
other conditions. She told him of her
bus AMI. a copra merchant, an elder
ly man, wlo had married her three
years before in Hawaii; they had no
cGildren. She spoke of him with re-
spect, not affection. Held said moth.
irg of his Kanaka wife, welded rude
IL by Samoan usage. He felt that 1t
was something she would not care to
hear. At dark the breeze sprang up
again, still from the same quarter,
and they bowled along.
Tae morning of the third day found
the man weak and the woman almost
beyond speech. He made her a pillow
OF his jacket and drenched her cloth
ing with salt water. She lay for the
nest part with her eyes closed and
her golden hair unconfined and
streaming. She looked s%ingularly
small and childlike lying so, and the
sailor felt a great tenderness for her.
He had learned to love her in their
brief, but arduous companionship, but
as yet she thought of him only as a
strong, brave man. her protector and
friend, her fellow sufferer.
The sun was sinking fast and the
rays from it were almost level when
a blue cloud which had hung directly
in their front for an hour or more.
slowly took the shape of a bluff head
land running against the sea. He
reused her and pointed eagerly. He
said simply, I'VE shall make land in
an hour and slightly altered the
boats course. Some little time after
that they heard the booming of the
surf and rounding a small promon-
tory saw a quiet bay, with a quiet
village a hundred yards back from
the beach.
He called "Kauloa!" and stood
straight in. The PROV grated Upon
the sand, but still there was no sign
OF human habitation. He took her In
his arms and climbed out stifdy. Fur
ther on an old man with long. white
beard. met him, the missionary. Held
stared at him and asked wonderingly:
Where are the people?"
The old man waved his arm mourn.
fully and answered: "All dead and
underground; the plague"
What, ALL"
"Of this village only I and q girl Of
twelve are left. We buried the last
in the sand yesterday. We tried to
make them mounds, but the seawinds
levelled them"
Food was brought and the woman
revived. She did not learn her hus-
bands fate until the next day. A trad
Ing ship was due in a week and they
waited for it perforce, gaining
strength rapidly.
On the day before 1t came Held
stood with her where a long. white rib
bon OF surf splashed at their feet. and
locked out over the moving blue. NIL
lions of brilliant shells ran to right
and left. The calls of strange birds
sounded. Behind them rose the fronds
OF the palm, the dark leaves Of the
breadfruit tree, the massive stream.
srs Of the bGaapa- The air VA -