The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-04-09
THE OTHER WOMAN'S HAND

wretchedneSS, do instead. deneSIy
did not answer; only turned on his
heel and led the way to the landing
steps.
He was there to help her out when
she came back. When she asked if she
might use the boat next morning he
told her yes. He explained it to him
self as being proper pride, and that
she should not fancy him afraid. After
a day or two he altered the explana-
ton to that it coifIdn't matter any
way, and often that he did not try to
explain. He let things go. AT this
point she fingered. sitting upon the
keel of a yawl up for repairs, and
talked about herself in hopeless vein.
The ensuing steps were talk about |;
himself. He responded fairly easily, |
and showed his drawings, his tools
and the new gasoline engine band saw
which was his especial pride. He |
taught her how to start the engine up, |
and to cut along traced lines through |
the hardest wood with the toothed !
band of steel.
It was inevitable, thereafter, that
they should-having had herself and
himself-come to themselves. And
the tenth day of her normal and
healthy" life-much more did as well.
So that when she started to go at last.
and stood. beautiful. in the midst of
all the roughness around, his head
went completely, and he caught her
hand against his lips and held 1t there.
1t was delight and bliss and temporary
| oblivion to him. II was the success of
| an experiment with her, and the point
| beyond which she did not mean to go.
| for her wisdom was of this world.
! But to Maria, Henesly's Portuguese
wife-who was under the boathouse.
peering up through a knothole-it was
rage and jealousy of a very savage
kind. She had had her suspicious of
| the woman who came so often and for
so long at break of day, and now she
was verifying them AS for what they
said, the two, she could neither hear
nor understand all of that. Her Eng
Hsh was limited But she saw Henesly
kissing the shapely hand, and there
was nothing incomprehenslble about
that.
If Henesly had had the slightest idea
of what Maria had seen, he would have
been justified in being uneasy and IN
reca ling the warning of one of those
poets of his better days, anent mute
natures which punish you in deeds
For Maria made no sign at all. She
ONLY waited her time. 1t came very
soon. That same night Henesly was
! called upon to repair the hull OF a
launch. and he had to be up until long
past midnight, working with lanterns,
to take advantage of the tide. The
consequence was that he oversight
;. himself the next day. Maria. however,
did not She arose early and went out
When Mrs. Kent came, humming a
snatch of song that she knew woulo
he calculated to awaken memories II
Henesly. Maria was hidden behind a
nile of lumber in the dark corner
where the gasoline engine was, lying
in wait, with a big knife up her sleeve
Mrs. Kent had no suspicion of that
She wandered around the boathouse
: PLAYING with various things, and final
T lv. as the time grew long, she wen
j over to the corner and amused her
self by starting the band-saw up, a
Henesly had shown her how to do
;. The gasoline engine began to spit ant
hiss. and the shiny contrivances
whose names she did not know, to clat
q ter and turn. The saw-edged BAN
u itself began to whir so very fast tina
it seemed TO be quite still She he'll
e a scrap of wood against it and watche
l. it cut smoothly in two without jar.
"a When she looked up she could sc
u Honesty hurry over along the pat
through the dunes from his shacl
II She stopped playing with the saw, an
lie stood waiting for him, beginning tn
9 strain of song again. Her hand wa
~ living close to the moving band. Mari
lie raised herself up in the shadow an
ie looked at it. 1t was so white, so small
"a so near the turning saw. 1t was ii
e same hand that Henesly had kisse
the day before.
NV The whir of the machinery was
Mrs. Kent's ears. The light of the 10
rays falling through the open doc
u. was in her eyes. She did not hear II
NJ boards behind her creak. She did nj
re see that some one was coming nears
ne and nearer, with hot eyes watchin
W. that white and careless hand.
y, The engine was splitting and clatte
OF ing unconcernedly when Henes
AZ stepped into the place, and in II
ip- gloomy corner near it, somethir
- white and huddled was on the floor.
io' was a woman's figure fallen on II
face and with arms thrown out. {
NJ the end of one arm there was han
Gu On that of the other-there was non
ay Mrs. Kent's tale, to Honesty and
an her husband, was never quite clea
Up perhaps she had moved; perhaps s.
me had swayed; perhaps some one hi
lrs nushed her arm against the saw. 5
OF had thought that some one had go
an past her. just as she reeled and fell
at and. besides, the hand. cut clean at t
io' wrist. was gone.
lly ~. too was gone. Hepe,
'.e never saw her again. But that mig
III as he sat alone in his cabin, his ne
ing dropped on his folded arms a vol
er oome in at the window above his he
IN lame in with the croaHng song
one tho frogs in the swamp outside
lat, - of the thick. X