The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-06-20


Prynne but once since he had board
ed the Panjnab. That morning, him
self early astir because Of his vague
misgivings, be had discovered her on
the hurricane deck of the liner; an in
conspicuous, slight figure in the shad-
ow of a life-boat, leaning upon the
rail and gazing with Che fancied)
troubled eyes, out and across the
waste below Ismalia
Though she must have been con-
scious of nearing footsteps, she had
not stirred, and he had passed on,
gaining but a fugitive glimpse OF a
profile sweetly serious; nor had she
appeared either at breakfast or lunch
con. A circumstance which led him
to surmise that she did not court OBJ
servation: an idiosyncrasy which
seemed passing strange in a woman
so fair.
He told himself that she wore an
air of watchfulness, of vague expec-
fancy, as though she, like himself,
feared some untoward mishap; that
she had the manner of one definitely
apprehensive. constantly on guard
against some unforeseen peril.
Now, he asked himself, what could
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 4 still more indefinite intention
Of putting himself at her service in
any cause that she might be pleased
to name, Professionally: she must not
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 officers or the
Doctors table; nor, so far as he could
determine, was she taking the air on
deck. Was it 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
(and 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 a duller voyage he had never
known to give Danny permission to
pursue his inquiries: with an injunc-
tion, 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 in
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 of
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 the
starboard side, we'll cloaked in the
shadow Of the deck above, watch
ed the other passengers, one by one,
quiet their chatter, yawn, stretch and
slip below to stuffy staterooms.
He suffered a dreamy eye to rove
where it would, greedy of the nights
superb Illusion.
Four bells-two o'clock-chimed
upon his consciousness like a physical
shock. He verified the hour by his
watch and, reluctantly enough, agreed
that it was time he got himself to
bed. He half rose from his chair, then
sank back with an inaudible catch of
his breath. Without warning the ap-
partition Of a Whitehead woman had
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 to
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.
Partly because he had no wish to
startle her, partly because he was
glad to watch unobseryed Che had a
rare eye for beauty, the O'Rourke),