Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1910-06-30
CHAPTER II.
Conscious Of His Manhood.


High noon and they were back at
the landing place and she at least was
very tired. Accompanied by the man,
who made not the slightest attempt to
guide her, after some difficulty she had
succeeded in forcing her way through
the trees to the top Of the hill. Part
of the time she had followed the
course of the rivulet from which she
had drank at the foot of the cliff. She
was determined to get to the top, for
she must see what was upon the other
side. Humanity's supreme desire when
facing the hills has always been to see
what was on the other side. The stim-
illus of the unknown was upon her,
but 1t was coupled with a very lively
desire hegot of stern necessity to know
what there was to be known of the
up by the sea.
Her view from the hilltop-she did
not essay the unclothed and Jagged
peak; she could make her way around
its base and see all that there was to
see-was not reassuring. She could
detect on the other side of the island
no more evidence Of life than were
presented by that she had first touched
upon. In every direction lay the I'M
vexed sea. The day was brilliantly
clear; there was not a cloud In the
sky. No mist dimmed the translucent
purity of the warm air. Nothing broke
the far horizon. The island, fair and
beautiful, was set alone in
mighty ocean. In so far as she could
tell, she and the man were alone upon
it. The thought oppressed her. She
strove to throw 1t of. The silence of
the man oppressed her as well. She
turned to him at last and cried out,
the words wrung from her by the hor-
ror of the situation.
Man, man, whence came you? How
are you called7 What language do
you speak7 Why are you hereI"
The sound of her own voice gave her
courage. Waiting for no answer, and
indeed she realized that none could
come, she stepped to the brow Of the
hill where the trees happened not to
be and raising her voice called and
called and called. There were answer
ing echoes from the Jagged cfag be-
hind her, but when these died away
there was silence unbroken save by
the queer babbling, chuokling noises
of the man.
She looked at him with a sudden
sinking of the heart. Had this g0dl1ke
creature roaming the woods, this faun
Of the island been denied q brain,
articulate speech? Was she doomed
to spend the rest of her life alone In
this paradise of the Pacific with a
harmless mailman forever by her side?
What a situation was that In which
she found herselfi
She was a highly specialized product
of the greatest Of universities. In
science and in philosophy she was q
master and a doctor. She should have
had resources within herself which
would enable her to be Independent Of
the outside world, a world in which
her experience, self-brought, had been
bitter, in which the last few weeks
had been one long disillusionment
And yet she was now overwhelmed
! with craving for companionshipl for
articulate speech. as If she had never
looked into book or given a thought
to the deep things OF life. II this
man beside her would only do some
thing, say something, be something
rather than a silent satellite forever
staring in wonder. II she could only
solve the mystery Of his presence, an.
swer the interrogation that HE very
existence there alone presented.
Her future, her present, indeed,
should have engrossed her mind. What
she was to do, how she was to live,
the terrible problems In which his
presence on the island involved her
should have been the objects Of her
attention; they should have afforded
food for thought to the keenest OF
women, She simply forgot them in
her puzzled wonder at him. It would
have been much simpler from one
point OF view II she had found the
island uninhabited. and yet since the
man was human and alive, In spite OF
her Judgment, her heart was glad thai
he was there.
She motioned to him TO sit down
and then she sat in front of him and
studied him. He looked Rs little like
fool as like knave. She could. in
deed, detect no evidence of any intellec
tual capacity. but she thought. as she
studied him keenly, that he possessed
unlimited istellectual possibilities
(, There was mind back of those
bright blue eyes. that broad noble
brow, but it seemed to her mind
entirely undsVeloped. mind utterly