The Mena weekly star., 1910-07-21

asked, swiftly.
 T am afraid of nothing. except los ing you"
 T am not worthy of you" returned the woman. "as I told you, but if you will still have me If you will take me when l have said what I must say, and when the world has said what it will say, then shall be yours as long as live"
 "It is we'll" said the man. 'T wait the ship now eagerly that may show you that what have said is true"
 "The vessel is nearer now" she said at last rising from where they had been seated together upon the grass absorbed in each other. and pointing seaward.
 Yes" he answered. "I can even see the figures upon the deck"
 "Your brother men"
 'Will there be some women on the shipg"
 T do not know she answered quickly. Tt isn't likely. Do you wish to see other womenY-
 None was the instant answer. "I wondered if my brothers would bring you sisters. That was all"
 There was absolutely no dissimula- tion about the man. There had been no coquetry about her. He would simply have failed entirely to under stand what 1t was He was as honest. as straightforward, as absolute sim. plicity and sincerity must ever be, and she had met him exactly on his own ground. It was impossible, there fore. for her to misapprehend his mere casual interest.
 She stood quietly studying the ap- preaching vessel As she did SO. 1t came to her mind that there was some thing strangely familiar about the on- coming ship. She stared longer, and the conviction grew upon her. When she realized it she clasped her hand to her heart with sudden gasp and turned a white face upon him. He was all solicitude in an instant.
 What is the matter?" he cried. "Yeur face Is white; you look so strangely"
 Tt is a sudden pain." she gasped. terror and dismay constructing her throat.
 She wavered. He thought che was going to fall. He stepped closer to her and put his arm about her.
 NO. no," she said, repulsing.
 It was the first command she had given him in those bygone days when he had stood dumbly before her.
 NO, mol" she pushed him away. T shall be all right"
 And has the approach of men de prived me of the privilege of touch ing your" he asked, wistfully. What. Is the matter?"
 Don't ask me now" she answered. 'T-I-cannot explain"
 The vessel was nearer now and as she stared 1t came to stop and swung broadside to the reef. There was no mistaking it. It was the South ern Cross. She knew 1t as we'll as she knew her own face. The thing which sine had dreaded so when she fed from that vessel in the launch. which she had dreaded for time in the first period of her sojourn on the is- land. had come to pass It was the very yacht from which she had es- caped. Undoubtedly 1t bore the man from whom she had fled He had come to claim her. Of all the teem- Ing millions which the world held, this was he whom she would fajn have avoided, Rather anyone and every one had come to her than he, What would happen when these men metf The story that she would have told him to-day in her own way had the ship not appeared, the story that she would have told him on her decks had that ship been other than 1t was. he must now learn by the brutal force of circumstances. through some com. polling necessity which she could not in any way influence or alter. She locthed the man who was coming to lid her. Her Christianity trembied in the balance. She would fain have called invectives down upon his head, and for the moment she swept the whole sex together in one unreasoning hatred and resentment in which the man of the Island participated What sorry jest had blind fate played upon herr
 She moved farther away from her nnuonartnp ha {x,f rNf these thoughts. and when he would have approached her nearer, she famed upon him in sudden anger that left him appalled,. But under the in- fluence of 1t he kept his dist nee She saw the way Of the yacht checked. ont saw the boat dropped from the davits and manned bs the men. She saw figure, too far of to recognize. but which she divined must be his. de- scend the battens from the gangway. She saw the little boat headed toward the shore. Then she turned to the man. He was standing with folded arms. his brow black as midnight. staring out to sea. He knew nothing, understood nothing. scomprehended nothing, suspected nothing. His only realization was that she. his gentle goddess. whom he had loved. was angry with him. so far as he was con cerned. without rhyme or reason or cause.
 The stoppage of the ship, the lower ing of the boat. it's approach to the island were now matters of indiffer- ence to him. She was angry. He could think of nothing else and there