The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1911-11-15

Goddess.
outside on the rocks where they woult
soon dry in the sun. They had beer
wetted so often that there was no Dos
sibility of their shrinking further
Then she took stock of the rest. With
needles and thread, of which she
possessed some store in the housewife
which had been saved from her bag
she thought she could make shift to
manufacture three or four garments
open at the neck, without sleeves and
with skirts that came to the. knee
garments just sufficient for modesty
There was no other need for clothes
so far as that went, in that balmy
island.
Naturally she shrank from this, but
unless she restorted to this expedient
her clothes would wear out all at
once. Indeed. they we're in none too
good a condition as it was, and when
they were worn out she would have
nothing. She would not have hest
tated a moment had it not been for
the man, but man or not, the decision
in her mind was one to which she
must come.
Unlike most overeducated women,
she was still expert with her needle,
and as her garments were to be of
the simplest she had not much diff
Guilty in making over her silk skirt in
the way she fancied. Belted in at the
waist, it would do. She would use the
rope that bound the man for that pur-
pose, keeping it always about her, She
had, of course, but one pair Of stock
ings and one pair of light canvas boat
ing shoes. which were almost cut to
pieces. She would have to go bare
foot
Putting her blue serge dress and the
rest of her clothing carefully away,
including her shoes and stockings, she
stepped out on the sands, bare armed.
bare footed, a cleaning figure like to
an Olympian goddess. She was a
woman naturally dark in complexion,
and while the sun would probably burn
her cruelty and burn her young flesh.
never exposed to its intensity, darker,
she would not grow red or blister. She
was thankful for that With unconscious
femininity At any rate, she must get
used to going out in the sun without
a hat, too. People. natives who we're
born and lived in this latitude, did
become accustomed to such things.
she knew, so undoubtedly could she.
With these thoughts, she stepped
around the headland and walked
across the Beach toward the palm tree
where she could see in the fading light
of the afternoon her prisoner was still
tied.
Modesty is a negative term. That
which is indecent exposure in a ball
room is the height Of convention on q
sea shore. Certainly this man had no
concept of such a quality. He had
not noticed before when she had come
out barefoot to swim to the barrier
reef, and yet somehow she fancied as
he stared at her approaching that this
time he marked the difference. And a
slow, fiery blush famed over her from
her bare feet to her bare head. ex-
tended along her bare arms. She
stopped under the persuasion Of i'm
pulse to turn and 30 back to the cave
and. resume her clothing, at least so
long as 1t might last But she was a
woman Of strong will She reasoned
that all the emotions to which she was
subject we're in her own bosom; that
the man before her neither knew nor
cared as to the things which Vexed
her. So she went on.
She hae In her hand the sailors
knife, with the blade open. She could
not ten exactly IN what mood her
prisoner might be. Indeed, she APP
preached him with a certain terror,
accounted for partly by the situation
and partly by the fact that in max
ing this change In her garments she
had. as II were, cut herself of from
civilization and brought herself IN
some degree at least nearer his physi-
cal level. But she could not leave him
there all night. Summoning her cour-
axe, therefore, and with a bold front
before him, she advanced to the tree
and united the rope from the trunk
and united It from his neck as well.
He stood silent. unresisting through It
all. q rather pitiful figure she thought
II first until be was freed from the