The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-08
CHAPTER X.
REALITY VS.. ROMANCE-THE
CASE FOR THE .AINrrIrr,

Night after night the Pleiades swuns
nisher IN the armament; day after day
the sailor perfected his defenses and
aiXlously scanned the ocean for sign
OF friendly smoke or hostile sail. This
respite would not have been given to
him were it not for the Iuckv hulIet
winch removed two fingers and part of
tnlrd from the right hand of the
Dyak chief. Not even a healthy saw
age can afford to treat such a wound
hently, and ten days elapsed before the
manned robber was able TO move the
injured limb without a curse
Meanwhile, each night jerks silent
less soundly; each day his face be-
came more careworn. He began to
realize Why the island had not been
visited already by the vessel which
would certainly be deputed TO search
Tor them-she was examining the
great coast line Of China and Siam
1t was his habit 10 mark the prog
ress of time on the rudely made sun
dial which sufficiently served their re-
quirements as clock. Iris happened
10 watch him chipping the forty-fourth
notch on the edge of the horizontal
block of wood.
Have we really been forty-four days
here?" she inquired, after counting the
marks with growing establishment.
L believe the reckoning is accurate"
he said. THE Sirdar was lost on the
18th of March, and made this the LIST
OF May"
May Day!'
Yes. Shall we drive to Nottingham
this afternoon"
Looked at in that way it seems to
be tremendous time, though indeed,
IN some respects, 1t figures IN my mind
like many years. That is when I am
thinking. Otherwise, when busy, the
days fly like hours"
1t must be convenient to have such
an elastic scale"
Most useful. I strive to apply the
quick rate when you are grumpy"
Iris placed her arms akimbo, plant
ed her feet widely apart and surveyed
jerks with an expression that might
almost be termed impudent. They were
great friends, these two, now. The in
cipient stage of loVemaking had been
dropped entirely, as ludicrously insult
ed 10 their environment
When the urgent necessity for contin-
uous labor no longer spurred them to
eXertion during every moment of day
light, they tackled the box of books
and read, not volumes which appealed
10 them in common. but QuainC tones
IN the use of which jerks was tutor
and Iris the scholar.
It became a fixed principle with the
girl that she was very ignorant, and
she insisted that the sailor Should teach
her. For instance, among the books
he found a treatise on astronomy; it
yielded keen delight to both TO iden-
tify constellation and learn all sorts
of wonderful things concerning it. But
10 work even the simplest problem re-
quired a knowledge of algebra, and Iris
had never gone beyond decimals So
the stock of note books, instead of re-
cording their experiences, became COW
cred with symbols showing how plus
equaled X minus 30000 900.
AS a variant, jerks introduced a
study of Hindustani His method was
TO write "A short sentence and explain
in detail its component parts. With a
certain awe Iris surveyed the intrica-
cies of the Urdu compound verb, but,
about her fourth lesson, she broke out
into explanations Of extTavagant joy.
What on earth is the matter now?"
demanded her surprised mentor.
Don't you see?" she exclaimed, de-
hghtedly. "Of course you DON'T Peo-
pie who know lot about thing Oft
en- miss its obvious points. I have dis
covered how to write Kiplingese. All
you have to do is to tell your story
in Urdu, translate it literally into Eng
lish, and there you are!"
"Quite so. Just do it as Kipling
does. and the secret is laid bare. By
the same rule you can hit upon the
Miltonic adjective"
Iris tossed her head.
II don't know anything about the
MiltOnic adjective, but I am sure about
kipling."
This ended the argument. She knit
ted her brows I'm the effort to master
the ridiculous complexities of a Ian
guage which. instead of simply saying
Take" or Bring" conpels one to say
"Take-go" and "Take-come."
Ona ,,rohIar,, dafiad caIt,tfOy,- oPl
providing raiment for Iris. The unit
ed skill of the sailor and herself would |
not induce unraveled cordage TO sup
ply the need OF thread. It was either |
too weak or too knotty. and meanwhile |
the girls clothes were falling to pieces. |
jerks tried the fibers Of trees, the |
sinews of birds-eVery possible eXpedi- |
ent he could hit uDOn-and perhaps. |
after experiments covering some weeks,
he might have succeeded. But mod |
ern dress stuffs, weakened by aniline |
dyes and stiffened with Chinese clay, |
permit of no such exhaustive research. |
1t must be remembered that the lady /
passengers on board the Sirdar were |
dressed to suit the tropics, and the hard |
usage given by Iris to her Scanty stock |
was never contemplated by the Man /
chester or Bradford looms responsible |
for the durability of the material.
AS the days passed the position be- |
came irksome. 1t even threatened COM |
plete collapse during some critical mo-
ment. and the two often silently sur
veyed the large number of merely male
garments in their possession. OF course,
in the matter of coats and waistcoats
there was no difficulty whatever. Iris |
had long been wearing those portions
of the doctors uniform. But when 1t
came to the-rest--
At last, one memorable morning, she
-. Eot4h h.
ed as usual TO the Summit Rock. He
came back with the exciting news that
he thought-he could not be certain,
but there were indications in
spring hopefulness-that towards the
west of the far-off island he could
discern the smoke of a steamer.
Though he had eyes for faint cloud
of vapor at least fifty miles distant he
saw nothing of a remarkable ehange Ell
fecIed nearer home. Outwardly. Iris
was attired in her wonted manner, but
if her companions mind were not