Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1910-04-08
CONFINED from 7th page.

No, no! l have no fever"
Then les the sun Yet you ought
10 keep up there where the air is
freshest. I'll make you a shade"
She protested, and withdrew, some
what hurriedly, 10 her tree.
In the morning Blake was gone
again; but instead of a note, beside
me fire stood the smaller antelope
skin converted into a great bamboo
Ribbed sunshade
She spent the day as usual on the
Aeadland. There WIS 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
10 weave out of long, coarse grass; yet
shere 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
sppressiyely sultry, and 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
abe 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
yaw ruled the dead surfaces of the
watery hillocks BY sunset they were
aoiIlng high over both lines of reefs
End racing shoreward TO break upon
the beach and the cliff foot in furious
sHrf. The still air reverberated with
the booming Of the breakers Yet the
girl, inland bred and IMMERSED In
weather lore, sat hedless and indif-
ferent, her eyes fixed upon the hori
Eon in a vacant stare.
Her reverie YVES at last disturbed by
she peculiar behavior of the seafowl
Those in the air circled around in a
manner strange to her, while their
mates on the lodges wa died restlessly
about over and between their nests.
There was a shriller note than usual
d 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. 1t was only that a feeling of dis
quiet had broken the spell of her rev.
erie; It did not obtrude upon the field
sf her conscious thought. She sighed
- To ntt to tI1 Ill I,t
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
1er than an odd effect of color and
Mght. She smilingly compared it with
au attempt at a sunset painted by an
artist friend of the lmpressionist
SCHOOL
Neither Winthrope nor Blake was in
Rignt when she reached the baobab,
and neither appeared, though she de-
lzyed 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
@rening hunt
At last, tired of waiting, she covered
ahe fire and retired into her tree-cave.
sThe 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
cropped it open when she came out in
she morning After a moments hest.
zation, she went on across the hollow
ezving the door wide open.
Il will rest a little, and close it
nater," she sighed. She was feeling
weary and depressed.
An hour passed. An ominous still
4ess lay upon the cleft. Even the
eeicadas had hushed their shrill note
The only sound was a muffled re-
rerberating echo of the surf roaring
upon the seashore. Beneath the giant
spread of the baobab all was black
ness.
Something moved in a bush little
way down the cleft. A crouching
dgure appeared, dimly outlined in the
starlight. The figure crept stealthily
across into the denser night of the bao-
Sah. The darkness closed about it like
Shroud.
A binding fash of light pierced the
blaekness. The figure halted and
egouched lower, though the flash had
gone again in a fraction of second.
A dull rumbling mingled with the
eeaseless boom of the surf
A second flash lighted the cleft with
SIS dazzling coruscation. This time the
creeping figure did not halt.
Again and again the forked light
Hing streaked across the sky, every
stroke more vivid than the one before.
The rumble Of the distant thunder
aeepened to a heavy rolling which
dominated the dull roar OF the break
sss. The storm was coming with the
on-rush of a tornado. Yet the leaves
aung motionless in the still air, and
shere was no sound other than the
thunder and the booming of the surf.
The lightning flared, one stroke upon
She other, with a brilliancy that lit
up the caves interior brighter than at