Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-04-29
II.
Conscious of His Manhood.

SOuSCIONS OI = "dItilOOOs
High noon and they were back at
the landing place and h 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 slim
illus of the unknown was upon her.
but it was coupled with a very lively
desire begot of stern necessity to know
what there was to be known of the
land upon which she had been cast
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 re%assuring. 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 un-
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 a
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 it off. The silence of
the man oppressed her as we'll. 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 we're answer
ing echoes from the jagged crag be-
hind her, but when these died away
LA1CAO was SAACASS ~ 0"NS ~
the queer ~babbling, chuckling noises
of the man.
She looked at him with a sudden
sinking of the heart. Had this godlike
creature roaming the woods, this faun
of the island been denied a brain,
a%rticulate 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 -?
What a situation was that in which
she found herself!
She was a highly specialized product
of the greatest Of universities. In
science and in philosophy she was a
/ master and a doctor. She should have
had 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 establishment.
And yet she was now overwhelmed
with craving for companionship, for
~articulate speech, as If she had never
looked into a book or given a thought
to the deep things of life. If this
mar beside her would only do some
thing, say something, be something
rather thar 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 vas 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 Il him to sit dowr
and then she sat in front of him and
studied lin. He looked as little like
a fool as like a knave. She could. in
deed, detect no evidence of any intellec
tual capacity. but b 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 a mind
entirely u~ndevelOped. mind utterly