The Harlowton news. [volume] (Harlowton, Mont.) 1909-1914, 1910-02-18
CHAPTER !.

'eesrAI1-r. 1903 81 NC c1AA~an. ooDrRlcr

Whether she had tainted or fallen
asleep, she did not know, but this one
thing she was sure, it had been dark
when consciousness left her and it
was now broad day, although the light
seemed to come to her with a greenish
tinge which was quite unfamiliar. The
transition between her state of yester-
day and that of today was as great
as If she had been born into morning
from the womb of midnight and like
young animal she drank it in blindly
with closed eyes. She could hear the
thunderOus roaring Of the breakers
crashing upon the barrier reef. Alone
her boat had been wrecked in the
darkness of the night before -
the sound softened and mellowed
by distance came to her in a
deep, low accompaniment to the
sharper and nearer sounds of the birds
singing and the breeze rustling gently
through the long leaves of the trees
overhead
The dry sand on which she lay was
soft and yielding and made a comfort
tADiC bNu iCI llCi III Cu bOhJ ! NLNANu
with weary days in the constraint and
narrowness of q small boat. 1t was
warm, too. She had been drenched
when she scrambled on the shore and
fell PROSTATE on the beach, retaining
just strength enough and purpose
enough % { 1wl painfully inward to
where tie tall palms grow before she
lapsed in whatsoever way it might
have been into oblivion.
Incoherent thoughts raced through
her bewildercd brain; each one, how
ever, bringing her a little nearer the
awakening point Of realization. Then
there ran through her young body
primal pang which dispelled the trem-
ulous ana vague illusions which her
fancy had woven about herself as she
lay warm and snug and sunny at the
foot OF the tall trees. and she realized
ttal she was frightfully thirsty, so
thirsty TRAIT she did not know how
hungry she was,
The demand for the material awak-
euoa The animal in her. Her thoughts
conferred instantly; they were at once
localized on one supreme desire. Coin
cjdeutv her eyes Enclosed and she sat
up biuliug in the strong light The
risiug sun sUl low on the horizon
smotr her full in the eyes and left
her for the moment dazed again. She
sat leaning upon her hands extended
behind her back staring seward, say
ing nothing. thinking nothing, until
strange sound to the right of her at
tracted her attention. 1t was a sound
made by human voice and yet it was
like nothing human that she had ever
heard. 1t was a wordless, language
less ejaculation, but it reused her in
terest at once despite her material
cravings.
She weakly turned her head and
there standing erect with folded arms
looking down upon her was a man. He
was unc'Othed entirely save for fan
tastic grdle of palm leaves about his
waist. She stared at him puzzled,
amazed, affrighted. He returned her
look with an intent curiosity in which
there was no suggestion of evil pur-
pose, rather of great incomprehension,
an amazing wonderment. There was
nothing about him, save the fact that
he was there, which should have
caused any alarm in her heart, for
with a woman's swift mastery of the
possibilities of the other sex, she no
tiCed in her vague terror and wonder
ment that he was remarkably good to
look at Indeed she thought that she
had never seen so splendid a speci-
men Of physical manhood as that be-
fore her In color he was white. Save
that he was bronzed by the tropic sun
he was perhaps whittier than she was.
His hair, which hung about his head in
wild, matted tangle, not unpictures.
que, was golden; his eyes bright blue
Beneath his beard, unkempt but short
and curly, she could see his firm,
clean-cut lips. His proportions were
superb He was limbed and chested
like the Apollo Belvedere. In him
grace and strength strove for FREEDOM
nance He was totally unlike all that
she had read of the aborigin7s of the
South seas.
1t was the man who broke the ST.
lence, as 1t had been the man who
had broken the spell of her slumber.
He made that queer little chuckling
noise in his throat which sounded ia
miliar enough and yet she had heard
It from the lips Of no man before. 1t
meant nothing to her except that he
who stood before her at least was not
dumb, although the noise he made
was certainly no articulate speech as
she knew speech or could imagine It,
At any rate it was a stimulus to her
She opened her own parched lips and
strove to make reply. but her thirst
with q rising terror and nervousness
made her dumb and no sound came
forth. The man might be preparing
to kill her. He could do 30. II he WILL
ed. she thought. but she must drink OF
die. II she could not speak. sht
could mako signs. She leaned forward
raised her arm. followed her hand and