Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-02

dHU IL was nOl unIll ne QaQ ACQUIRED
son:ething Of the language spoken by his
captocs that he was able to satisfy them
that he had no wish to escape.
The news was not altogether received
with favor. The men had made up their
minds that he would pay handsomely for
his release and. although they did not
suggest ransom, they limited at a re-
ward. When they learnt that he did not
wish to return to his own country they
scowled at him and discussed the matter
vehemently among themselves.
Then two of them gripped him by the
arms and led him to the edge of a big
rock. which rose sheer out of the sea.
There is the water, one of them said;
what came out of the water shall re-
turn to it.
Gaunt did not understand all that was
said. but the meaning Of their actions was
plain enough. He neither struggled nor
the edge of the cliff and he looked at the
ledge of rocks below. Beyond them the
dim shadow of great fish moved
through the translucent water.
Then they grunted and ran him inland
till they had passed through the green
oasis and stood on the border of the
great desert
"There is the DESERT" said one Of them;
'that which goes into the desert does not
return"
Again he understood. though the words
were not clear to him. He looked out
across the waste of burning sand and
smiled
''Take me to your father he said. and
then, as they did not understand, he re-
peated the word father and looked
back toward 4e big hut.
And they tobk him back to the cool
shade of the trees, and brought him into
the presence of the bent and bowed Old
man. for he was the patriarch, the father
of eight Of them. and the father-in-law of
the remaining three. In that little settle
ment 'twixt the desert and the sea he
ruled supreme in spite of his feeble limbs
and his falling intellect. All the children
that played under the trees and tumbled
on the beach were his descendants.
II want to stay here" said Gaunt.
quietly. IT do not wish to leave you.
Make me one of your family"
The old man stared f1xedly at him
from under his shaggy. white eyebrows
Gaunt's words were not clear, but the
patriarch seemed to grasp their meaning.
He was apparently considering whether
be welcome addition to his little settle
ment. Fortunately for Gaunt his conduct
had already earned the approval of this
stern old chieftain. And the manner OF
his coming had not been without its Eff
feet on a superstitious mind.
Let him stay" said the patriarch, after
a long silence. God has sent him to us.
When the time comes he will 60"
And from that hour Richard Gaunt was
made free of the community and lived as
one of the others, and no man followed
him about to see If he would escape with
out payment for the services rendered to
him. And as he grew more perfect IN the
language, and was able to understand
and make himself understood. he learnt
to like the rough. hard-hearted men, who
were his associates from dawn to sunset.
They were stern and callous. like most
orientals but they knew the dignity OF
labor, and there was nothing common
or unclean In their midst.
After the life that Sir Richard Gaunt
had lived in London this life was won
derful in it's simplicity and its purity. In
the old days he would have laughed at
the idea of toiling for his daily bread and
firing himself out with long hours OF
physical exertion. But now he looked
upon it as the essential part OF a mans
existence, and the rest after labor was
the sweetest thing that he had yet known
in life.
1t must not be supposed that Sir Rich
ard Gaunt had suddenly changed from
blackguard to a saint. Even those Ter
rible hours of agony on the raft had been
unable to accomplish so gigantic task
But they had left their mark upon his
life. The death of the girl. snatched al
most miraculously from the web ne nao
woven about her; his cry for hfe; MS
VOW to serve God If only he might live;
his prayer for forgiveness-an these had
gripped him and wrenched him out or
the sordid groove in which he had NTH
erto crawled and crept like an insect he
and here, in this little settlement. he re-
ceived the stamp of new life, rough.
stern life. where man had to fight Tor
his food. and asked nothing In return
but rest after his labor.
In this mold the plastic mind or an I'M
questionable man was rapidly shaped
into a form entirely different from that
which 1t had worn in the whlrl ana galety
of civilization. Not only were his COM
panions men Of different type, but the
,ba1a otr of the place was an
exact antithesis to the fOetid air OF Lon
don. On the one side the blue, empty
sea. on the other the great, void desert OF
yellow sand, formed scene IN " enn:an t the
mind of a man might well turn from the
friyolities of life and face the mysteries
Of the unknown.
And so month after month Sir Richard
Gaunt lived his simple life, and puriled
his mind and body of sin. And. by de-
grees, he learnt to value the calm of the
desert and despise the pleasures and
yanities which had once been the only
things that really mattered to him. me
change was gradual, but sincere. AFTER
the first great shock or that moment IN
was, and as he might be. there was moth
ing miraculous in the change. Removed
from all temptation, and surrounded by
men whose primitive passions ana 1aultS
had nothing in common with the rehned
vice of modern civilization, his mind was
naturally nodded into different views OF
life. The ground had been torn and fur
rowed by suffering, and was ready to re-
ceiye the seeds of new ideas and methods
of thought
At first, indeed, he had chafed under
the new conditions of existence, and only
his dawning desire to atone for his past
life prevented him from returning to civil
lization. He longed for the lighted pave
ments of London, for the love of we'll
dressed women, for wine, and laughter
and song Moreover. he remembered the
oath that he had sworn.
But neither his desire for pleasure nor
his oath to George Crawshay prevailed
against the vow he had made to God. He
had prayed for life and his prayer had
been answered Here at last was
chance of breaking away from all the
old associations and temptations, and he
was wise enough to see that 1t was
chance that might never be given to him
again. If he returned at once into the
midst Of temptation his purpose would
falter. His old nature was still unre-
generate. But here, In the desert. he
could purge himself of sin. and when he
was strong enough to fight against the
world he would return and marry Lady
Betty Drake.
AS for his oath, in the light Of clear
reason and sane mind 1t seemed wicked
and incapable of fulflment. The oraln
of q healthy man views matters In diff
drunkard. He saw that his resolution to
wreck his life and kill himself was the
resolution of an unsound mind. He would
make reparation. When he returned to
England he would pay back the thirty
tho,.ond mounds and make a clean breast