Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-05-25

and exhausted on the yellow sands. Nearby tall and stately trees nodded at him. Close at hand great crab regarded him with reflective interest. hesitating between prudence and car nivorous desire. Gluttonous inclina- ton to sample the goods the gods had provided prevailed over caution. It moved quickly forward. when what 1t had considered only an unexpected and welcome piece de resistance ab- ruptly got up. The tables were turn ed. That which came to dine was dined upon. A crushing blow demon strated the law of the survival of the Attest. The weaker adorned the board. The man tore it to bits-ate it like the famished animal he was.
 For a week nothing of moment in. terrupted the even tenor of his ex- istence He led the life of savage and found 1t to his liking, bounced upon turtles and cooked them, kept his fire going because he had but few matches. One day box was washed ashore, a message from the civilized centers to the field of primitive man! On its cover were the words. "Fia Sailing Vessel Lord NelSon," followed by the address. The convict pried the boards apart and gave shout. Rum. and plenty of it-bottle after bottle in an overcoat of straw. nestling lov- ingly one upon another! The man licked his lips, knocked of a neck, drank deep. and then. stopping many times, carried his treasure to his bow CT.
 Day after day turned Its page, merg- ed into the past; sometimes. perforce. he got up, and. not pleasant thing to look at, staggered to the beach with his club. There he would slay some crawling thing from the sea, return with his prize to mingle eating with drinking until. sated with both. he would fall back unconscious among the flowers. But the prolonged in- dulgence began to have marked eff feet on his store. Bottle after bottle was tossed off, the empty shells flung aside to the daisies. At length the day came when only two bottles re- mained in the case, one full pair. sole survivors of the lot. The man took them out, set them up and regarded them; sense of impending disaster. of imminent tragedy. shivered thraGsh his dulled consciousness. He reached for the bottles and fondled them, started to knock the head from one and put it down. Resisting desire. he told himself he would have look at the beach; the ocean had generously cast one box of we'll primed bottles at his feet; perhaps it would repeat its hospitable action and make him once more the recipient of it's bounty. The thought buoyed him to the shore; the sea Tapped the sand with Lydian whis- pers, and there, beyond the edge of the soft singing nipples. he saw some thing that made him rub his dazed eyes.
 A box, a big box, q box as tall as he was! No paltry dozen or two this time. Perhaps there was whisky, too and the bubbling stuff the long necked lords had sometimes pressed upon him in the past when he had ''ousted' his man and put quids in their pockets or some of that fiery vfn-something he had once indulged in with a Johnny hCN fn a fl mel, when he had been free to swagge! through old Leicester square. Any how, he would soon find out. and rushing through the water, he laid { proprietary hand on the box.
 A long time he battered and batter ed in vain with his rocks; but, after aI hour or so. he succeeded in splinterins his way through the tough pine. II his befuddled, half crazed condition hC had thought only of bottles, What ht found proved a different sort of mer chandise.
 Maddeued. he tossed and scattered the contents of the box on the beach | The ocean had deceived him, laughed at him. cheated him. He turned iron ! the shore unsteadfly. walked back t his camp and knocked the neck iron one of the two remaining bottles. : few hours later, sodden. sottish, h | lay without motion. face to the sky And as he breathed thickly. one bleed ing hand still holding the empty bot tie, bird from an overhanging branc
 looked down upon him-a tiny bird lii tie bigger than his thumb, that carrie
 a bright, beautiful spot of red on it
 breast, cooked Its head questionlngly.
 (To be conttnued.)