The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-18

I ard Gaunt had suddenly changed from blackguard to saint. Even those terrible 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 almost miraculously from the web he had woven about her, his cry | for life, his VOW tc serve God if only he might live, his prayer for forgfv- ness--all these had gripped him, and
 wrenched him out of the sordid groove in which he had hitherto crawled and crept like an insect He was ready to receive fresh impressions; and here, in this little settlement, he received the stamp of new life. a rough. stern life, where man had to fight for his food, and asked nothing in return but rest after his labor
 l In this mould the plastic mind of an impressionable man was rapidly shaped Into form entirely different from that
 which 1t had worn in the whirl and 1 gaiety of civilization. Not only were his companions men of different type. ] but the whole atmosphere of the place
 was an exact antithesis to the foetid air London. On the one side the blue, empty sea. on the other the great | void desert of yellow sand. formed q
 scene in which the mind of a man might well turn from the frivolities of | tAct 0nA AaCC tnC fhydhCtACb OA tlAC known.
 | And so month after month Sir Rich- I ard Gaunt lived his simple life, and purified his mind and body of sin. And, by degrees. he learned to value the calm of the desert and despise the pleasures and vanities which had once been the only thing that really natter ed to him. The change was gradual, but sincere. After the first great shock of that moment in which he had seen himself as he really was, and as he might be, there was nothing niracu- lous in the change Removed from all temptation, and surrounded by men whose primitive passions and faults had nothing in common with the re- fined vice of modern civilization, his mind was naturally moulded into diff- l erent views of life. The ground had been torn and furowed by suffering and was ready to receive the seeds of new ideas and methods of thought 1 At first, indeed. he had chafed under the new condItio~s of existence. and only his dawning desire to atone for his past life prevented him from re- turning to civilization. He Ionged for the lighted pavenents of London, for the love of weIl-dressed women, for
 wine. and laughter and song More | over. he remembered the oath that he
 had sworn.
 But neither his desire for pleasure nor his oath to George Crawshay pre-
 vailed against the vow he had made
 to God. He had prayed for life, and his prayer had been answered. Here at | last was a chance of breaking away
 from all the old associations and temp l tations, and he was wise enough to see | that it was a chance that might never
 be given to him again. If he return
 ed at once into the midst of tempta- l tiOn htQ olA
 nature was still unregenerate. But I here, in the desert he could purge him.
 self 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 a sane mind 1t seemed wicked and incapable of fufilment
 The brain of healthy man views mat ters in different way to the brain of | a sot and a drunkard. He saw that his
 resolution to wreck his life and kill
 himself was the resolution of an un-
 sound mind. He would make repara-
 tion When he returned to England, he would pay back the thirty thous-
 and pounds. and make a clean breast
 of everything. He would let the world know that George Crawshay was inno-
 cent The oath itself no longer lay up-
 on his conscience.
 Several months passed, and the young
 man began to rise from the slough in-
 to which his past actions had dragged
 both his body and mind. Physically, he changed from a white-faced. weak | limbed roue to a swarthy muscular f seaman. The pure air. the simple food,
 and the hard, strenuous life had worked
 wonders on the frame that was nat
 urally capable of development, but which suffered from the ravages of
 vice. His eyes grew clear and keen,