The Delta independent., 1912-03-15

it be? What threatened her? And
why?
He dimly promised himself the
| pleasure of her acquaintance, relying
in the rapid intimacy that springs up
between strangers on a long voyage.
with a still more indefinite intention
of putting himself at her service in
any cause that she might be pleased
interfere with his plans for reaching
Rangoon "in ninety days"
That night he was hoping to find
the lady at dinner; but though the
ships company was small, he failed
to see her in the saloon, at either the
captains, the chief Off or the
doctors table; nor. SO far as he could
determine, was she taking the air on
deck. Was 1t possible, then, that he
had been right, that she had a reason
equally as compelling as his own for
secluding herself? Or, was it simply
land infinitely more probably that
Mrs. Prynne was indisposed, an ener.
| waited victim of excessive heat?
The latter conjecture proved ap,
parently the right one, Mrs. Prynne
failing to appear during the two fol.
lowing days, while the Panjnab was
rocking down the Red Sea channel;
and O'Rourke grew interested enough
Che had little else to occupy his mind
for duller voyage he had never
known to give Danny permission tc
pursue his inquiries: with an injunc
ton, however, prohibiting too lavish
an expenditure of the boys wealth OF
affection. Whereupon Danny return
ed with the information that the mis-
tress of Cecile, the maid, was suffer
ing from heat exhaustion.
This was entirely reasonable
o'Rourke accepted the demolition OF
his airy castles OF Romance, laughed
at himself, in part was successful If
putting the woman out of mind
doubtless, in time. he would have done
so altogether, had not the lady chosen
to take the air the night that the
Panjnab negotiated the Straits O,
Bab-el-Mandeb. For on that same
night, O'Rourke, himself wakeful, was
minded to sit up and watch the lights
of Perrin Island heave into view.
O'Rourke, in a deck-chair on tn,
starboard side, well cloaked in the
shadow of the deck aoove. watch
ed the other passengers, one by one
quiet their chatter, yawn, stretch anc
slip below to stuffy staterooms.
He suffered a dreamy eye to row,
where it would. greedy of the nights
superb Illusion.
Four bells-two o'clock-chimet
upon his consciousness like a physica
shock. He verified the hour by his
watch and, reluctantly enough, agreed
that 1t was time he got himself to
bed. He half rose from his chair, ther
sank back with an inaudible catch o.
his breath. Without warning the ap
partition of white-clad woman hae
invaded the promenade deck. For an
instant he hardly credited his eyes
then, with a nod of recognition, he
identified Mrs. Prynne.
Unquestionably unconscious of his
presence in the shadow, she fell tc
pacing to and fro. Now and again
she stopped, and with chin Graded in
her small hands, elbows on the rail
watched the approaching cliffs OF
Arabia; then, with perhaps a sigh, re
turned to her untimely constitutional
petduot he Hdu no WISH u
startle her, partly because he was
glad to watch unobserved Che had
rare eye for beauty, the O'Rourke)
he wanderer sat on without moving
stirred only by active curiosity. The
strangeness of her appearance upon
aeck at such an hour fascinated his
imagination no less than her person
,eld his eye. He gave himself over
o vain and profitless speculation. :.
Why, he wondered. should she
keep to her cabin the greater part of
The evening, only to take the air when
none might be supposed to observe
ner?
Why, II not to escape such observa-
don? Then, he told himself, he must
be right in his supposition that she
had something to fear, someone to
avoid. What or whom? What was it
all, what the mystery that, as he
watched her, seemed to grow, to cling
about her like some formless, i'm
palpable garment?
Events conspired to weave the man
.nts the warp and wool of her affairs;
more quickly than he could grasp the
reason for his sudden action, he found
himself a-foot and dashing aft at top
speed. But an instant gone Mrs
Prynne had passed him, unmolested
and wrapped In her splendid isola-
ion; and then from the after part OF
the deck he had heard a slight and
guarded cry Of distress. and small
scufiiing sound.
In two breaths he was by her side
and found her struggling desperately
In the arms of a lascar-a deck-hand
On the steamer.
At first the strangeness of the husi-