The Irish standard., 1911-08-19
CHAPTER VII,
The Rosewood Box,

CHAPTER Vii.
The Rosewood Box.
On the girl, Tom Fanshaw's passion.
ate, stormy avowal had the effect of
q sort Of moral earthquake. It left
the ground beneath her feet suddenly
unstable and treacherous; it threaten
ed to bring down about her ears the
whole structure Of her life. The very
thing she had relied upon for shelter
and security against outside troubles
and dangers. was, on the instant,
fraught with greater danger than
any of them.
For the first few moments after his
avowal she had felt no emotion other
than that of establishment and in
credultty. Even when he asked her
If she could not marry him, anyway,
though the question revolted her, she
told the truth in saying that she was
not angry. .
into fame that was all the hotter
for its hardness in kindling. It must
have an outlet somewhere, and as
such, the promenade up and down the
other side OF the deck was altogether
insufficient.
The sight Of a small boat at the
foot Of the accommodation ladder
seemed to offer something better. So,
pulling on a pair of fur gauntlets, she
dropped into it, cast off the painter,
shipped the pair Of light oars it con-
tanned, and rowed away without any
thought Of her destination-of any
destination whatever; without, even.
very clear idea Of what she was do
Ing. She must do something; that
was all she knew. Certainly she pulled
away from the yachts side with no
Idea that she was running into any
possible danger.
1t was half a mile, perhaps. from
the yacht to the particular bit OF
shelving beach toward which she I'M
consciously propelled the boat. She
rowed steadily, without so much as
a glance over her shoulder, until she
felt the crate Of the single beneath
the bow.
She became aware, not only that
she had unconsciously come ashore,
but also that the yacht was nowhere
to be seen. A bank of fog had come
rolling in from the eastward, 30
heavy as to render an object 100
PAGES away totally invisible. The
clump of empty buildings here on the
beach could hardly be half that dis
lance, as she remembered, yet looking
round from her seat in the row boat,
she could make out no more than
their blurred masses against the white
Ice and sand which surrounded them.
She scrambled out Of the boat and
pulled 1t high up on the beach, The
fog made tho air seem cold, though
for the arctic it was a mild night
Two Of the abandoned buildings on
the beach behind her were mere
sheds, windowless, absolutely bare,
never having served, evidently, any
other purpose than that of storage.
But the third, and largest, as she re-
membered 1t, offered q shelter that
was becoming attractive. There were
some rude hunks in it where she
could rest comfortably enough; and,
unless she was mistaken, Scales had
left in tho hut halfburned candle
which they had used in exploring it's
dark interior. She had box Of wax
vestas in her pocket. She could go in
there and make herself at home, and
at the same time keep an alert ear
for hail from the yacht.
She found the candle in the place
where she remembered Scales had
laid 1t down, struck light and
wedged the candle into a knot-hole
She turned toward one of the hunks
with tho idea Of stretching out there,
and by relaxing her muscles, persuade,
perhaps, her overstrung nerves to re-
lax. too.
She had taken step toward 1t, in
deed, before she saw, through the
murk and candle smoke, the thing that
lay right before her eyes-a rather
large, brass-bound rosewood box or
chest 1t had not been here in the
afternoon when they had entered the
place, for they had searched its bare
interior thoroughly in the hope that
there might be something which previ-
GUS investigators had overlooked. This
box, six inches high and foot long,
or more, could not have been here
then. It was standing now in the most
conspicuous place in the room-in the
very middle of the bunk.
The sight of it might well have
caused establishment or alarm in the
girls mind. But 1t was neither alarm
nor establishment that her next ect
expressed She dropped down on her