The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1910-05-05


strove to throw it 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 called? What language do
you speak? Why are you here?"
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 crag be-
hind her, but when these died away
there was silence unbroken save by
the queer babbling, chuckling noises
of the man.
She looked at him with sudden
sinking of the heart. Had this godlike
creature roaming the woods, this faun
of the island been denied brain,
articulate speech? Was she doomed
to spend the rest of her life alone in
this paradise of the Pacific with a
harmless madman forever by her side? 7?
What a situation was that in which
she found herself!
She was highly specialized product
Of the greatest of universities. In
science and in philosophy she was a
master and a doctor. She should have
had resources within herself which
would enable her to be Independent of
the outside world, 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 companionship, for
articulate speech, as if she had never
looked into book or given thought
to the deep things of life If this
man beside her would only do some
thing, say something, be something
rather than a silent satellite forever
staring in wonder If she could only
solve the mystery of his presence, an
swer the interrogation that his 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. 1t would
have been much simpler from one
point of view if she had found the
island uninhabited, and yet since the
man was human and alive, in spite of
her Judgment, her heart was glad that
he was there.
She motioned to him to sit down
and then she sat in front of him and
studied him. He looked as little Like
a 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 intellectual possibilities.
There was a mind back of those
bright blue eyes, that broad noble
brow, but it seemed to her mind
entirely undeveloped, mind utterly
latent Here was a soul, she thought
half in fancy, half in earnest, that was
virgin to the world. How wise, how
deeply learned she might be she was
face to face with this primeval norm.
Could she teach this man anything?
He seemed tractable, reverential, def
erential now. knowledge was power.
Would it be power with him? Could
she open those sealed doors of his
mind, what foods would outpour
therefrom, of power, of passion?
Would she be swept away? 1t mat
tered not. She must try. The i'm
pulse seized her to begin now. Fixing
her dark eyes upon him, she pointed
directly at him with her finger.
Man." she said clearly and EN-.
phatically.
He was always looking at her. He
had scarcely taken his eyes from her
since she had seen him in the tall
grass by the shore, but at her gesture
and word his eyes frightened. There
was that little wrinkling Of the brow
again which she had noticed, outward
and visible sign of an inward attempt
at oom0rnhoncion