The Comrade. (Winnfield, La.) 1890-1914, 1910-08-05
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CYRUS townsend
v V BRADY
Observation-Disclosures.
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CHAPTER |.
The Primitive Norm.


thing she was sure, it had been dark
when consciousness left her and it
was now broad day, although the light
seemed to come to her with greenish
tinge which was quite unfamiliar. The
transition between her state of yester
Gay and that Of to-day was as great
as If she had been born into morning
from the womb of midnight and like
with closed eyes. She could hear the
thunderous roaring of the breakers
crashing upon the barrier reef. Alone
her boat had been wrecked in the
darkness of the night before -
the sound softened and mellowed
by distance came to her in a
deep, low accompaniment to the
sharper and nearer sounds of the birds
singing and the breeze rustling gently
through the long leaves of the trees
overhead
The dry sand on which she lay was
soft and yielding and made comfort
able bed for her tired body racked
with weary days in the constraint and
narrowness of a small boat. 1t was
B warm, too. She had been drenched
when she scrambled on the shore and
fell PROSTATE on the beach, retaining
just strength enough and purpose
enough to crawl painfully inward to
where the tall palms grow before she
lapsed in whatsoever way it might
], have been into oblivion.
Incoherent thoughts raced through
her bewildered brain; each one, how
ever, bringing her a little nearer the
awakening point of realization. Then
there ran through her young body a
primal pang which dispelled the trem-
ulous and vague illusions which her
fancy had woven about herself as she
lay warm and snug and sunny at the
foot Of the tall trees, and she realized
that she was frightfully thirsty, so
hi thirsty that she did not know how
B hungry she was.
The demand for the material awak-
ened the animal in her. Her thoughts
conferred instantly; they were at once
localized on one supreme desfre. Coin.
cidently her eyes Enclosed and she sat
up blinking In the strong light. The
rising sun still low on the horizon
smote her full In the eyes and Left
IS her for the moment dazed again. She
{ sat leaning upon, her hands extended
behind her back staring seward, say.
& ang nothing, thinking nothing, until q
strange sound to the right of her at
tracted her attention It was a sound
made by5a human voice and yet it was
like nothing human that she had ever
55 heard. It was wordless, language
& less ejaculation, but it reused her in
terest at once despite her material
cravings.
She weakly turned her head and
there standing erect with folded arms
looking down upon her was a man. He
was unclothed entirely save for fan
B tastic girdle of palm leaves about his
/ waist. She stared at him puzzled
a amazed, affrighted He returned hel
look with an intent curiosity in which
there was no suggestion Of evil pur
Dpose, rather Of great incomprehension
an amazing wonderment. There was
nothing about him, save the fact thai
.ss he was there, which should have
g#s caused any alarm in her heart, fol
with a woman's swift mastery Of the
J possibilities of the other sex, she no
ticed in her vague terror and wonder
nlent that he was remarkably good t.
look at. Indeed, she thought that she
had never seen so splendid speci
men Of physical manhood as that be
fore her. In color he was white Save
that he was bronzed by the tropic sun
he was perhaps whittier than she was
His hair, which hung about his head il
d wild, matted tangle, not unpictures
que, was golden; his eyes bright blue
Beneath his beard, unkempt but shor
and curly, she could see his firm
clean.cut lips His proportions Wer'
superb. He was limbed and chestet
like the Apollo Belvedere. In hin
grace and strength strove for FREEDOM
nance. He, was totally unlike all tina
she had read of the aborigines of tn
3 South seas.
It was the man who broke the 81
lenee, as 1t had been the man VIII
had broken the spell of her slumber
He made that queer little chucklinI
sa5s noise in his throat which sounded IA
miliar enough and yet she had hear
from the lips OF no man before.
meant nothing to her except that b
who stood before her at least was no
dumb, although the noise he mad
was certainly no articulate speech a
she knew speech or could imagine i
at any rate it was q stimulus to hel
she opened her own parched lips an
stroye to make reply, but her. thirs
with rising terror and nervousness
made her. dumb and no sound cam
forth. The man might be preparin
I'd kill her. He could do so,.if he vii
ea, she thought, but she must drink g
die, IF she could not speak, sh
ould make signs. She leaned forWar
3iS5,,.5 !, ny, hnllowaff her hand an