The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1911-11-08
CHAPTER /.
The Primitive Norm.

llh8e which was quite unfamiliar. The
transition between her state of yester-
day and that Of to-day was as great
as if she had been born into morning
from the womb of midnight and like
a young animal she drank it in blindly
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
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 a comfort
able bed for her tired body racked
with weary days in the constraint and
narrowness of a small boat. 1t was
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
thirsty that she did not know how
hungry she was.
The demand for the material awak-
ened the animal in her. Her thoughts
centered instantly; they were at once
localized on one supreme desire. 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
her for the moment dazed again. She
sat leaning upon her hands extended
behind her back staring seward, say
ing nothing, thinking nothing, until
strange sound to the right of her at
tracted her attention. It was a sound
made by human voice and yet it was
like nothing human thateshe had ever
heard Il was a 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 man. He
was unclothed entirely save for fan
tastic girdle of palm leaves about his
waist She stared at him puzzled.
amazed, affrighted. He returned her
look with an intent curiosity in which
there was no suggestion of evil pur-
pose, rather Of great incOmprehension.
an amazing wonderment. There was
nothing about him. save the fact that
he was there, which should have
caused any alarm in her heart for
with a woman's swift mastery of the
possibilities of the other sex, she no
ticed in her vague terror and wonder
ment that he was remarkably good TO
look at. Indeed, she thought that she
had never seen so splendid a 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 in
a wild, matted tangle, not unpictures-
que, was golden; his eyes bright blue.
Beneath his beard. unkempt but short
and curly, she could see his firm,
clean-cut lips. His proportions we're
superb. He was limbed and chested
like the Apollo Belvedere. In him
grace and strength strove for FREEDOM
nance. He was totally unlike all that
she had read of the aborigines of the
South seas.
Il was the man who broke the ST.
Ience. as it had been the man who
had broken the spell of her slumber.
He made that queer little ch1ckling
noise in his throat which sounded IA
miliar enough and yet she had heard
ii from the lips of no man before. 1t
meant nothing to her except that he
who stood before her at least was not
dumb. although the noise he made
was certainly no articulate speech as
she knew speech or could imagine it.
At any rate it was stimulus to her.
She opened her own parched lips and
strove to make reply, but her thirst,
with a rising terror and nervousness
made her dumb and no sound came
forth. The man might be preparing
to kill her. He could do so. If he will
ed, she thought, but she must drink or
die. If she could not speak, she
could make signs. She leaned forward
raised her arm. followed her hand and
dipped as IL from a well and made as
If to pour 1t into her lips. Then she
stretched out both her hands to him
in the attitude of petition. The man
stared hard at her. His brow wrinkled.
It was such a simple sign that any
savage would have comprehended it,
she thought, and yet it appeared to
her. watching in despair, that it took
a long time for the idea to beat into
his brain. She could wait no longer
She rose to her knees and stretched
out her hands again
'.Water." she gasped In hoarse
whisper. Water, OF. ] die"
The man had started violently at her
speech. Giving him no time TO re-
cover. she went through the motion
again, this time with greater effect,
for the man turned and vanished. She
sank down on the sand too exhausted
to follow him even with her eyes. II
he brought the water she would drink
it and live; II he did not, she would
lie where she VAS and die. She did
not care much. she thought, which
would happen. She had so sickened Of
life before she essayed that open boat,
that she believed 1t was simply an
animal craving IN her which would
make her take the water in case 1t
shouts be brought her. And yet when
he did appear with cocoanut shell
trimming with clear, sparkling liquid
she felt as though the elixir Of life
had been proifered her.
She seized the shell with both hands
which yet so frembled that most OF
the precious water spilled on her dress
IS she carried Il to her oarched lips.