, 1910-01-06

which would be helpless, the sport Of
win and waves, after perhaps 80
hours. That boat was alone in the
great expanse of the Pacific ocean.
Somewhere about there were islands
probably. Indeed, on the charts those
seas were dotted with points Of land,
but they were small, in~considerable,
u~ninhabited, unknown. In that little
boat she might pass close by many
of them without seeing them. She had
provisions. such as they were, and
water sufficient perhaps for a week
or ten days. After that unless she
landed somewhere she would drift on
until she starved and died. If a storm
came, the launch probably would not
survive it. Her chances of escape, in
any event, were worse than problem
atical. The end was almost certain.
But she was happy. The first real
ray of happiness which had entered
her soul since the beginning of the
great awakening, which had culmin-
ated in the frightful scene of the
night, illumined her being. AS she sat
in the stern sheets. her hand on the
steering wheel, listening to the steady
drumming of the motor, seeing the
black water broken into foam by the
boats bows flash by her, keeping the
launch steady on her course by the
aid of the compass needle. her eyes
turned yer and anon to the fast d.
minishing point of light which marked
the rapidly disappearing yacht, and
she realized that she was free. She
had hurled out of her path-and how
she exulted in her w prowess; 1t
was something of a salve to her soul
for the wretched h%umiliations which
had been heaped upon it-she had
hurled out of her path and stricken
down as any other animal might have
done him who had brought her to this
awful pass. She was away from him,
free from him. She was once more,
30 far as wind and wave allowed, the
master of her fate, the mistress of her
destiny.
She was glad in her heart, too, that
there were to be no physical conse-
quences from her brief alliance. She
did not realize that there were to be
other consequences which not even all
the water of the sea over which she
floated could wash out. There was a
strange citation in her. soul. She felt
as If in some way she had indicated
her right to be. There was something
yet in her philosophy and did oppor-
tunity serve, could she get free from
the dangers that encompassed her, she
vowed that she would prove It.
All nfnhf Inn0 che ctouaA owaka
keeping the launch in her course.
When morning broke she was abso-
lutely alone upon the ocean Standing
erect upon a seat, from her low van
tage point she could see nothing but
smoothly ~undulating sea. She break
tasted sparlngly from her scanty store
and resumed her post at the wheel.
She was tired and sleepy. but while
the little engine was alive she could
not leave 1t to it's own devices. She
must hold on her chosen course as
long as the motive power remained.
She could not lose a moment while
that motor throbbed and beat. She
must be alive with It. There would
be time to sleep when 1t was ex-
hausted. She must put as many
leagues between her and pursuit by
holding the direct course as long as
was possible.
And so she sat there grimly, hands
clutching the wheel through the long
day and through the longer night and
well into the following morning. It
must have been half past ten on the
morning of the second day before the
motor stopped. The silence. after the
ceaseless drumming of a night, a long
day, n longer night and a still longer
morning, struck her with the same
strange sense of shock. She calculated
that the motor had been running for
IS hours and hat she had gone $50
miles at least on her course. She had
see nothing whatever of the yacht.