The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-11-19

.oHAPTER III.-she finds a human
a., n,ie'oii ana the skeleton of dog. She
hnls Bible and n silver box bearing the
name OF John Revel Charnock. with n
ua'e % years before her landing.
solitude.
IL was a small, lecther-bouDd vel.
ume' Dust in the .orm of tiny mar.
ucles Of sand lay thick upon it, The
cave was sheltered from the prevailing
winds else it might have been buried
but under the circumstances it might
nave lain there for ages and in that
dry, pure air have suffered no deterio.
ration or decay.
Crusoe was petrified when he saw
the footprint In the sand. The woman
was not less startled or less amazed
when she saw the book on the rock.
With little cry of delight she stepped
toward it, bent down, lifted it up.
handling it carefully in spite of ner.
vous evr''ation, shook the dust from
1t, and opened it. She instantly let At
rail from her hands with a look of dis
appointment and disgust. One glance
was enough. The book was the Bible.
She had no interest in the Bible. a col
lection ~ 9Toient genealogies and
time-worn fables, myths for the credu-
lous and impossible lengends, mixed
VI with poetry whose inspiration was
trivial and history whose details were
1alse. FOR ttls woman, VINO had for
gotten now to pray and who had abol-
ished God, had little use for the Book
of Books. Rather any other printed
page, she had thought bitterly, than
that one
She had acted upon impulse, not in
her disdain for the Bible and that for
which it stood-that was grounded
upon reason and philosophy, she fond
ly believed-but in her action in cast
ing it from her. 1t had no more than
rolled upon the sand at her feet when,
with swift reconsideration she stopped
and lifted 1t again. 1t had occurred to
her that there might be writing there
In and that the writing might give her
clew to the mystery of the man. She
knew that births and deaths were fire.
quently entered upon the blank leaves
interposed between the Old and New
Testaments Unfamiliar though she
was with the contents of the book,
she easily found the place and eagerly
looked at the leaves. Alas, they were
blank. She turned to the fly leaves
at the beginning of the book. There
was a name written there and in a
woman's hand.
. John Revell Charnock," she read.
Below was a date 25 years before
the moment of her landing.
John Revell Charnock. 1t was q
strange name, English in part, with a
of France in the middle
name. 1t meant nothing to her. Was
this John Revell Charnock who stood
looking at her? If so. who was
John Rsvsll Charnoek! The prOblsn,
was rot greatly elueidated. There was
No evidence that the book belonged to
the nan or the man to the book, o.
even that the one. remote
ly to the other. There was . certain
however, that they had
come to the island together.
She had been sure that the man was
\ white man. She had thought that
he looked like an American, an Eng
ishman, an AngloSaxon, and the
longer she looked at him with the
Bible in her hand the more sure she
became.
She had been disappointed that the
book had turned out to be the Bible
but at least it would serve one usefu
BY it, without the laborious
effort involved in making letters
upon the sand, she might teach the
man before her to read. She wished
she had worthier volume from hel
point of view through which to intro
duce him to the worlds literature
but she would do the best she coult
with that. 1t was pitiful, as she saw
it, that with a nascent soul to worl
with. she should be compelled to en-
tighten it through the medium of time
worn superstition.
Below the shelf, not quite buried il
the sand, there was small metal box
She knelt down, scraped the SAM
away and presently uncovered 1t. |
appeared to be of silver. 1t was O
such a size that she could clasp
EASILY in her hand She opened it no
without some difficulty and found with
In it-nothing' Well, not exactl
nothing but certainly that for whic
she could see little value. There wer
several hard pieces of stone of a rec
dish color Clipped and shaped in cur
GUS fashion. She turned the box owe
and examined it on all sides. Their
were initials upon 1t, monogram. Sh
rubbed it clean with her hands an
studied it carefully-"Js R. c." Tn
book and the box had belonged to tn
same person, John Revell Charnock.
She laid the box aside and searche
the cave further. There was abs
lutely nothing else to be seen. Disal
pointed vaguely. although she had e.
nected nothing and had gotten NOR,