, 1909-03-04

I'm"
You're coming down sick!" he
said.
NO. mo-! ! have no fever"
Then it's the sur lei 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 vas gone
again: out instead of a note, beside
the fire stood the smaller antelope
skin CONVEX ed into a great bamboo
ribbed sunsl,ade.
She spent the day as usual OF The
headland. There was no wind, n the
sun was %scorching hot. But with her
big sunshade 10 protect her from the
direct rays, the heat was at least en-
durable. She even found energy to work
at a basket which she was attempting
to YEA 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 a 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 ruffled the dead surfaces Of the
watery hillocks. By sunset they were
rolling high over both lines of reefs
and racing shoreward to break upon
the beach and the cliff foo in furious
surf. The still air reverberated with
the booming of the breakers. Yet he
girl, inland bred and IMMERSED in
weather lore, sat needless and indif-
%ferent, her eyes fixed upon the hori-
zon 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 iced 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; 1t did not obtrude upon h field
of her conscious thought. She sighed
and rose to return to he cleft, idly
wondering thai 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 1t with
an attempt at a sunset painted by a n
artist friend of the impressionist
school.
Neither Winthrope nor Blake was in
sight when she reached the baobab,
and neither appeared. though she de
layed supper until lark. 1t was quite
possible that they had eaten before her
return and had gone of again, the
Englishman to doZe and Blake on an
evening hunt.
At last, tired of waiting, she covered
the fire and retired into her t~ree-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.
A. -,u n,.al A. 1N,,, 1ttl1
ness lay upon the cleft. Even the
cicadas had hushed their shrill note
The only sound was a muffied re
verberating echo OF the surf roaring
upon the seashore. Beneath the giant
spread of the baobab all was black
ness.
Something moved in a bush q little
way down the cleft. A crouching
figure appeared, dimly outlined in the
starlight. The figure crept stealthily
across into the denser night of the bao
bah The darkness closed about It like
a shroud.
A binding flash Of light pierced the
b~lackness. The figure halted and
crouched lower, though the fash had
gone again in a fraction of a second
A dull rumbling mingled with the
ceaseless boom of the surf.
A second fash lighted the cleft with
it's dazzling coruscation. This time the
creeping figure did not halt.
Again and again the forked light
ming streaked across the sky, every
stroke more vivid thar the one before
The rumble of the distant thunde,
deepened to a heavy rolling which