The Mena weekly star., 1910-09-01

Here the man of action interposed Do you watch by him, chaplain '' said the lieutenant-commande rising
 T will go back to the landing mon the other side and send for the doc tor. Then we will bring a party ashore and search every foot of the island. It is bad business. To think Of tsat woman offering herself to this man in vain. The fool!"
 Don't" said the chaplain. oHe ss not much more than a cniid In spite of all that he has learned. We must make allowances for him. He did love her. evidently. Look to what her loss has brought him. Perhaps stricken bv the hand of God his soul has gone ouA to meet hers"
 Well. we must fight for his life anyway Do you stay here. I will be back in short time"
 The lieutenant-commander rose to his feet and started back across the island without another word
 The chaplain composed the mem- oers of the stricken man. putting him In a comfortable petition on the warm sand, then knelt down ane be- gan to pray. It seemed long time to the waiting priest before his shipmate returned, and yet but short time had elapsed. He came up panting flom the violence of his exertions.
 T have sent the cutter back for the surgeon. I told the men to row for their lives. I gave the midshipman in charge an account of what we had found and begged the captain to send parties ashore to search the island What of the man?"
 He breathes still" said the chap lain. T should think he was in some kind of syncope. His heart evidently was affected. He has had no prepa- ration for such violent strains. The things which are usual and ordinary with us and which, I take it, indurate us to the greater things of life have been conspicuous by their absence in his case and he has not been able to bear up under the sudden shock" Those clothes. have you examined them?"
 No" said the chaplain, "it has been too dark in the first place, and"
 T will look at them" said MT. Whit taker. Perhaps we may find some new clew in them"
 The heutenant-commander stopped over the pathetic little heap of worn garments. There were the blouse. the skirt. the stockings, and the worn and torn white shoes. The Bible lay upon them as if to weigh them down. and they had been placed well above the reach of the highest tide. The tide was then just coming in to the island. The Bible had been opened and laid lace downward on the clothes. Mr. Whitaker lifted 1t up reyerently. He observed as he did so that his own pencil, which he had left, he now re- membered, with the woman. lay be- heath the open book. On the blank leaves between the Old and New tes- taments something was written. No mention of any writing had been made in the affidavit of the night be- fore. He lifted 1t, turned his back toward the east where the sun was lust on the verge of rising. and stud led it out
 Do you find anythingg" asked the chaplain.
 There is writing on this page" said ine younger man. 'I can just make 1t put"
 Man" he read slowly, studying each word in the dim light, q loved Sou. In one sense. in your sense, vas unworthy of you. perhaps but | not in mine. You alone had my heart. The past was a frightful mistake for which l should not be blamed, but for which l must suffer. I tried you with he world by your side. The world
 vas kind. but you were not. You broke my soul and killed something within me which had thought dead, put which you had revived No power
 sould revive 1t again. I cannot marry i.angford, for do not love him. I will not marry you, for you do not love me.
 will not go back to the world now. 1 have m desire to dc SO and cannot i've alone with you upon the island You will not go without me, and so will go first by myself alone. You will hink of me, know, in the great world. Perhaps you will judge your self harshly. but l do not judge you nt all. You did not know, you did not | understand. It came too suddenly upon you. You cannot forget me, but do not repine over me and remember I to the very last that loved you. | Good-by. May God bless you, and
 may he pity mel"
 Underneath she had written the i'm | personal name which he had loved to | call her, Woman"
 So characteristic was the letter that
 hat superscription was supererogatory
 hought Mir. Whitaker Only wom-
 an could have written it. She had
 gone out of his life, because with her | in it there was no solution of 1t for
 him. because-how pitiful 1t sounded
 there in the gray of that morning in that lone island to those two men!- because he did not love her. And she had gone out of 1t with excuses for
 him on her lips and love for him in
 her heart. No wonder that divining
 this which he had not seen. realizing
 only that she was gone. he had been stricken as he was.
 The doctor arrived presently. He
 ordered the man, still unconscious, to