Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1909-10-30
CHAPTER XIx.-Continued.

"Mr.-Mr. Blake, pray do not get
excited II mean, please excuse me.
I'm"
You're coming down sick!" he
said.
mo, no! have no fever"
Then it's the sun. Yet you ought
TO keep up there where the air is
freshest. I'll make you a shade"
She protested, and withdrew, some
what hurriedly, to her tree.
In the morning Blake was gone
again: but instead of note, beside
the fire stood the smaller antelope
skin converted into a great bamboo
ribbed sunshade.
She spent the day as usual on the
). headland. There was no wind and the
sun was scorching hot But with her
big sunshade to protect her from the
direct rays, the heat was at least en-
durable. She even found energy to work
at basket which she was attempting
to weave out of long, coarse grass; yet
there were frequent intervals when
her hands sank idle in her lap, and she
gazed away over the shimmering
CLASSY eXpanse Of the ocean,.
In the afternoon the heat became
oppressively sultry, and a long slow
swell began to roll shoreward from
beyond the distant horizon, showing
no trace of white along its oily crests
until they broke over the coral reefs.
There was not a breath of air stirring,
and for time the reefs so checked
the rollers that they lacked force to
drive on in and break upon the beach.
Steadily, however, the swell grew
heavier though not so much as a cats
paw rufIled the dead surfaces of the
watery hillocks. By sunset they were
L rolling high over both lines of reefs
and racing shoreward to break upon
the beach and the cliff foot in furious
surf. The still air reverberated with
the booming of the breakers. Yet the
girl, inland bred and IMMERSED in
weather lore, sat needless and indif-
ferent, her eyes fixed upon the hori-
ION in a vacant stare.
Her reverie was at last disturbed by
the peculiar behavior of the seafowl.
Those in the air circled around in a
manner strange to her, while their
mates on the lodges waddled restlessly
about over and between their nests.
There was a shriller note than usual
in their discordant clamor
Yet even when she gave heed to the
birds, the girl failed to realize their
alarm or to sense the impending dan
ger. it was only that a feeling of dis
quiet had broken the spell of her rev.
erie; it did not obtrude upon the field
of her conscious thought. She sighed
and rose 80 return~to the cleft, idly
wondering that the air should seem
more sultry than at midday. The
peculiar appearance of the sun and the
western sky meant nothing more to
her than an odd effect of color and
light She smilingly compared it with
an attempt at a sunset painted by an
artist friend of the impressionist
school.
Neither WINTHROP nor Blake was in
sight when she reached the baobab
and neither appeared, though she de.
layed supper until dark. 1t was quite
possible that they had eaten before her
return and had gone off again, the
Englishman to doze and Blake on an
evening hunt.
AT last, tired of waiting, she covered
the fire and retired into her tree-cave
The air in the cleft was still more
sitting than on the headland. She
/. paused, with her hand appraised to
close the swinging door. She had
propped it open when she came out in
the morning. After a moments hest
tation, she went on across the hollow
leaving the door wide open.
81 will rest a little, and close II
later" she sighed. She was feeling
weary and depressed.
An hour passed. An ominous still
ness lay upon the cleft. Even the
cicadas had hushed their shrill note
The only sound was a muffled re
uarharaffnQ ocho Of tho orrF roarsv a