The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-09-12
CHAPTER vi.


were standing upon the veranda that the
former stretched out her hand to help him
and the elder woman released a cutting
remark. Then a servant brought chair,
and pillows of nausea surged over him.
Just as his consciousness waned, and he
was launching, chair and all, into space,
Lara's voice reached him again. y.
Then he was in the hallway, through
some miracle, and insisting most uncom-
monty that he was not to be taken into
the library, but into the music room, be-
cause the windows there commanded the
mountain.
He awoke to the interesting discovery
that Miss Stansbury was tanning him.
Presently she re-chilled towel in the
iced basin and folded it upon his fore
head now deliciously cool.
Its mighty sweet of you to take care
of me this way" he muttered gratefully.
"How is Pelee? How long have l been
here? The last 1 remember, was lost
in the hall, and you found me-"
you've been here about three hours,
Mr. Constable Pelee is quiet again, but
the whole world is white outside-a per-
feet blizzard of ash has fallen! They
say terrible thing has happened at the
extreme northern end of the city. The
River Branch overfowed her banks, and
ran with boiling mud from the volcano.
Thirty people are reported killed and the
Usine Guerin destroyed"
She thought he was considering the
disaster in the silence which followed, but
in reality he was battling with the old
problem
"Miss Stansbury," he said finally, sis
there anything a man possessed of full
faculties could do say or bring about that
would induce your mother to spend the
night off-shore?"
She shook her head.
"You know that the Madame could be
brought in for the mails tomorrow morn
ing"
Il have taken the liberty to suggest
that to mother" Lara replied. ''She says
that tomorrow will be time enough"
Miss Stansbury, won't you put your
self in the care of Captain Negley to-
night? l hope I'm wrong, but the Guerin
disaster may be only preliminary dem
onstration- the operator experiment.
ing to find if it is dark enough to start
the main fireworks You know, l would
stay ashore, and Negey is a good old man
of the sea-
Don't you understand, Mr.. Consta-
ble!' she said, in real distress for deny
ing him so repeatedly. Don't you see
that such a thing would bring down a
miserable scene upon our heads? Besides,
I am not thinking of my own safety as
such a paramount thing. l don't want to
ho of
and Uncle joey and you must go-when
I do
The pale, searching face regarded her.
Again he was silent. His lips were shut,
his eyelids half-closed. A swift
intuition was borne to the woman. He
was about to renew the siege. She was
not ready, and shrank from being moved
to a decision which she had not formed
in the privacy of her own mind. The
last two days of suffering had rendered
her strangely responsive to his mental &C
tons. His quest had filled her brain with
wonders but they were not yet coalesced
impulses and inspirations without
unity, unbound as yet by judgment. She
wanted to yield with grace, if it came to
that, but not to be overthrown. His hand
veached for hers, but she drew away.
Miss Stansbury-"
"Please don't say it now!" she whis-
pered swiftly. her words startling herself
quite as much as the man. ''These are
such dreadful hours! We must think of
the crisis of that-putting behind
all that passed last night! -
"Until?" said Constable, sitting up.
"Oh, who can tell? One knows-Mr.
Constable, isn't it wicked of you to mud
die me this way?"
smile from him had given her the
saving turn. The tension was eased.
Now, as he held out his hand to her, she
was not slow to accept it, or to miss
the meaning of the compact
"Pelee will be beyond the sky line for
Us all pretty soon," he said cheerfully.
We'll be very good pals in the mean
time. Please 60 to the window and see
how our ogre is faring-the giant who
thinks he's going to eat us when we're
prime-'member the fairy story? BY the
way, Miss Stansbury, did you ever have
set of billiard balls cracking off caroms
on your brain PAM"
Yes, and ten-pins. Men don't know
headache matters. The north
is clearer, sir. A little while ago 1t was
ell seething mass of blacks and grays."
An exclamation broke from her lips,
and Constable joined her at the window.
A dozen birds had fallen to the lawn from
the caves. Most of them were dead from
the tainted air. The sight brought the
situation more forcibly than ever to her
mind.
Il should think the birds would Ay
away" she said pityingly.
Perhaps the mother birds are waiting
for mails to come in," suggested a voice
behind them. Mrs. Stansbury was stand
ing in the hall doorway.
A gracious rain cleared the air of early
evening, and Constable settled himself
for further nap at the north window
upstairs. He had not realized his ex-
haustion, and was astonished. to find that
1t was midnight when he awoke. He was
stronger, but cyclonic headache still
oppressed him. Glad though he was for
the hours passed, still he was by no means
unappreciative of the chances he had
taken. A forlorn hope of saving the lady.