The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1911-11-08

she would have eaten until she had
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
had simply stared at her uncompre-
bending 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
face; little shudders swept over him;
his mouth opened; he looked at her
with singular expression of awe not
unmixed with terror in his eyes, for
this was the first time in his recollec-
ton or what would have been his rec
objection if his retrospective faculties
had been developed, that he had ever
felt the touch of a woman's hand, of
any human hand upon him.
Noticing his peculiar demeanor in
the, to her, perfectly natural situation,
the woman summoning some of the
remains of the reserve of force which
is in every human body until life is
gone, released his arm and stared
about her leaning against the trunk of
the nearest palm. This time, and for
the first time, she took in that expanse
of sea, lonely yet beautiful, upon which
her eyes were to look so often. Out
of the deep and the night she had
come. Into what deep and into what
day had she arrived?
She turned and surveyed the shore.
The beach curved sharply to the right
and to the left. the long barrier reef
following roughly its contour until the
land obscured it on either side. Back
OF her stretched grove of palms and
back of that rose a hill; its crest bare
and crag-like lowered above a sea of
verdure Through a chance vista she
saw the mass of rock as a mountain
peak. On one side high precipitous
cliffs ran down close to the shore and
shut out the view. Over them water
fell TO the beach.
Save in the person of the man be-
sidesher there was not an evidence of
humanity anywhere. No curl of smoke
rose above the trees. No distant call
of human voices smote the fearful hol-
low Of her ear. The breeze made music
in the tall palms and in the thick YER
dure farther up the hill side, birds
sang softly here and there, but there
was a tropical stiffness to which the
great heaving diapason on the distant
barriers was a foundation OF sound
upon which to build a lonely quiet
Human beings there might be, there
must be. on that island, if island it
were; but if so. they must be abiding
on the farther side. She and the man
were alone.
Standing on her feet. with slight
renewal of her strength from what
she had eaten and drunk, the woman
now felt LEGS fear of the man. He had
treated hG kindly. His aspect was
gentle, even amiable. He looked at
her wistfully, bending his brows from
time to time and ever and again shak-
ing his head, as a great dog looks at
the master with whom he would fain
speak, whose language he would fain
understand, to whom he would fain
impart his own ideas If he could.
She stared at him perplexed. She
was entirely at loss what to do, until
her eyes rowing past him detected a
dark object on the water line just
where the still blueness touched the
white sand. The sunlight was re-
Elected from CLEANS Of metal, and
thinking that she recognized it, she
stepped from the shade Of the palms
end made her way unsteadily toward
It. The man, without a sound. follow
ed closely at her side.
Her vision had been correct. for she
drew out OF the sand leather hand
bag, such as women carry It had
been deliberately fitted with bottles and
mirrors and toilet articles. Alas. it
was in a sad state Of dilapidation now.
The bottles we're broken, their con-
tents gone. The bag had been lying
in the boat when it had been hurled
on the barrier IN the night and the