The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-03


lips. His open eyes ana protruding
tongue would have told any one the
story. And Honoria got up slowly,
drearily, and walked away. PHeott
met her and tried to say something.
She shook her head Why did YOU
deceive MET / didn t know, | heard
her say. Why didn t you tell me that
they had no wateri' She stared at him
long moment, and then said. we are
guilty, Harry. We can never get away
from it.
She went into the covert of the
thicket and came out with cup in
her hand. This she carried to Susan
and held TO her lips, with little muir
murs of comfort. The girl, suddenly
waking, so to speak, gulped the water
down, looked wildly over the scene, and
fell to sobbing bitterly. Honoria put
her arms about her.
"'IW never see Tom,' I heard
Susan whisper. He s waiting for me
IN Connecticut
Yes, you IL see him yet, Honoria
returned, while Plicott and l stood by
dumbly.
No, and We waited for him all
my hfe-till he made money enough.
And now | won t see him ever! Oh,
Mrs. Mclean, you We been married and
had your life and the man you love-!
You We had your husband And I'll
never have Toni
''Imagine that slender, plangent
voice talking to the brassy sky, through
pale lips. over dead body. It shook
me. | seemed to see before me all the
misery of the world suddenly drawn
down into the heart of a young girl.
To Honoria it carried a different mes
sage; she rose, with infinite gentleness,
and caught Plicott' S eye.
90 81 understand why you did this,
Harry she said to him, shading her
eyes with her hands you didn It tell
me the rest were dying for drink of
water. But you and 1 have come to the
end of things, Harry. [ ought never
to have loved you. | IN a wicked wo-
man. But now that it is all done, and
you and I have nothing else, we II keep
our love. Well deserve it, Harry.
We II earn the right to carry it to God
and tell him it WASH t all false, it was
n t all unworthy and mean and dis
honorable. :. Bring her in and
put her in the shade.
"Plicott stopped over dizzily, took
Susan in his arms, and carried her into
the thicket. Honoria went in then, and
we stood outside. painting and thirsty
and desperate. When Honoria came out
she walked to Plieott and put her fin
gers in his. NOW wei die together, ,
she said calmly, and sat down.
sEThat night we buried the old man,
and Gridley drew me aside to say, Il
know that Plicott and that woman
stole our cask of water. Look at their
wet Hpsl Let IS kill thern!' He made
this proposal with earnestness; and
when he had made it he lay down,
struggled little with phantoms, and
later died in burning pain.
Without any help I dragged his
body into the shadow of the rock, and
went and told Honoria and Henry.
She looked at me quietly. 'I'm guilty
of his death, too she said. But I
didn t know. You wouldn Il stay with
us; you looked at us as if we were too
wicked, and we stayed by ourselves. I
didn It know You were not having wa
ter to drink. Harry showed me how
to get the water at night, and there was
only enough for the two of u.s. Why
shouldn t we have it9'
" But Plicott owed it to the rest
of us, [ said brutally. HE had no
business to snatch you into our boat
and get your husband to shoot at US
and spoil our cask of water
THAT is so. she replied. but I'm
glad Harry loved me that much. Now
we II let Susan have the water, so that
she can meet that fellow in Connec-
ticut, She crept into Plicott's arms,
and we sat together through the night.
At dawn, gently disengaging himself,
Plicott drew me aside to say through
cracked lips, It didn't drink any of
the water. She thought there was
plenty
But what became of it9' I de-
manded
There was only a cupful,' he an
swered, walking on beyond the thicket.
'tBut something caught my eye.
Pinned against the hot face of the
rock, L saw a pair of long stockings
spread out to dry.
TO my exclamation he eroaked:
She washed them. She thought there
was plenty Of water. You couldn t ex-
peet her not to a delicate
woman. The sea water. she
said, made them sticky she
wanted to be beautiful for nv sake.
She said she would have
made me tidy wife men
ike tidiness she washed
hem. I lied to her she went
thirsty herself, so S she could have her
stockings clean she Il
He suddenly fell forward,
slutched his fingers into the sand, and
sighed, blowing the coral dust out of
MS parched nostrils in a final puff. /!
And, as he relaxed, a gentle draught of
air picked one of the lace stockings
from the rock and let it fall across his |
ifeless hand.
1T was week later, or two or three |
weeks later (time passed by us with |
tremendous irregularity). that I dream |
ID that it rained. I started to my feet, |
md in my wild eagerness stumbled over
something and fell, being at the end of |
ny powers. There I lay. sucking at the |
very air for moisture till slept again
was reused at daylight to see Susan
standing over me, sobbing. fShe s
lead! she s dead.' she cried again and |
again.
81 remember that I looked up into |
he blue sky and felt my dry clothes |
, f,AT7 I