Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-04-21

AAAtAAAE 49, go
should be brought her. And yet when
he did appear with a cocoanut smell
trimming with clear, sparkling ilquio'
she felt as though the elixir OF me
had been proffered her.
She seized the shell with both nanus
which yet so trembled that most Oh
the precious water spilled on her dress
as she carried it to her parched lips.
This was good in the end, Tor II tnat
vessel had been the famed Jotunenelm
drinking horn, she would have drained
it dry ere she set it down. AS It was
| she got but little; yet that little was
enough to set her heart beating once
more. Emptying the shell of the last
drop-and with that keenness OIL per-
ception which her long training had
intensified and developed, marking the
while that it had not been cut clean
by any knife or saw or human nipple
ment, but was jagged and broker as
if from a fall, she dropped 1t on the
sane and looked again toward the
man. He held in his hand fruit OF
some kind, she did not know what 1t
was. 1t might have been poison. What
mattered it? Having drunk she must
also eat. 1t looked edible, it was IN
viting to the eye and smell, and as she
sunk her teeth into it, she found 1t
agreeable to the taste also. He had
brought it to her. II he had meant
harm, present harm, surely he would
not have given the water. She ate 1t
confidently.
AS the man saw her partake OF what
he had given her, he clapped his hands
!, and laughed. She was grateful for
, that laugh. 1t was more human than
! the babbling sounds which he made
before.
/, There &as but little of the fruit. just
what a child would have brought and
this again was good for her, for had
J, there been an abundance, in her need
she would have eaten until she mad
!, made herself i'll. When she had par
= taken, she rose to her feet. Before do
ing this she had extended her hand
to him as If seeking assistance, but he
4 had simply stared at her uncompre-
= hending and she had been forced to
get to her feet unaided. Once stand
ing, she trembled and would have
fallen, but that she caught his arm
and steadied herself by holding tightly
to it. The man started back at her
touch, Color came and went in his
Il face; little shudders swept over him;
u his mouth opened; he looked at her
with a singular expression OF W not
q unmixed with terror in his eyes, for
q this vas the first time in his recollec-
"A ton or what would have been his rec
v objection if his retrospective faculties
q had been developed, that he had ever
+. felt the touch Of a woman's hand, OF
ID any human hand upon him.
Noticing his peculiar demeanor in
er the, to her, perfectly natural situation
,e- the woman summoning some OF the
IN remains of the reserve of force which
.al is in every human body until life ]!
gone, released his arm and stared
nd about her leaning against the trunk o
ms the nearest palm. This time, and fo
lie the first time, she took in that expans'
in of sea, lonely yet beautiful, upon which
lis her eyes were to look SO often. Gu
ID, of the deep and the night she hat
Ter come! Into what deep and into Wha
oh day had she arrived?
ur- She turned and surveyed the shore
On, The beach curved sharply to the RICH
ras and to the left, the long barrier rec
lat following roughly it's contour until tn
I'VE land obscured it on either side. Bac
for of her stretched a grove of palms an
he back of that rose a hill; its crest~b bar
no and crag-like lowered above a sea {
err yerdure. Through archance vista sh
to saw the mass of rock as a mounta1
she peak. On one side high precipitou
eel cliffs ran down close to the shore an
be- shut out the view. Over them Wate
ave fell to the beach.
un, Save in the person Of the man b
Eas. side her there was not an evidence
in humanity anywhere. No curl Of smol
res rose above the trees. No distant CO
lue. of human voices smote the fearful ht
tort low of her ear. The breeze made mus
rm, in the tall palms and in the thick We
ere dure farther up the hill side, bir'
tied sang softly here and there, but the
him was a tropical stiffness to which Il
ON great heaving diapason on the dista
hat BARRIERS was a foundation Of SOU
the upon which to build a lonely qui'
Human beings there might be, the
ST. must be, on that island, IL island
who were; but If so, they must be abidi
Der. on the farther side. She and the m
ing were alone.
Ia- Standing on her feet, with a slie
sard renewal Of her strength from wi
~ she had eaten and drunk, the won
: he now felt less fear Of the man. He b
not treated her kindly. His aspect "
gentle, even amiable. He looked
. as her wistfully, bending his brows FRI
= - time to time and ever and again sh'
neh, ing his head, as a great dog looks
ahu the master with whom he would Il
speak. whose language he would Il
neea understand, to whom he would 4
$50 impart his own ideas II he could.
r1sii' She stared at him perplexed, s
i, I. was entirely at loss what to dc, VI
~ her eyes rowing past him detected
~ dark object on the water line
- where the still blueness touched
i as white sand. The sunlight was
she necteu lrom u...aS~ &
man stepped from the shade Of the pa
lIaa and made her way u~nsteadily tow
anv it. The man, without a sound, foil
ID 1t, 60 closely 81 hei sluo -
ID to Her VISION nag peen oo,1ess !.