River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-06-06

Il
instant he hardly credited his eyes,
then, with 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 unobserved Che had
rare eye for beauty, the O'Rourke),
the wanderer sat on without moving,
| stirred only by active curiosity. The
strangeness OF her appearance upon
| deck at such an hour fascinated his
imagination no less than her person
held his eye. He gave himself over
to vain and proftless 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
her?
Why, if not to escape such observa-
ton? 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
4 naJnahIa carpoopt7
Events conspired to weave the man
into 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-
ton; and then from the after part Of
the deck he had heard slight and
guarded cry of distress, and small
scuff1ing 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 bust
ness so amazed O'Rourke that he
paused and held his hand, briefly
rooted in action. For although it was
apparent that she had been caught off
her guard, wholly unprepared against
assault, and while she struggled fierce
ly to break the lascar's hold, the wom-
an still uttered no cry. A single
scream would have brought her aid;
yet she held her tongue.
The two, the woman's slight, white
figure and the lascars gaunt and sim
envy one, strained and fought, swaying
silently in the shadows, tensely, with
| the effect of fragment of some dis
ordered nightmare. But then, as the
lascar seemed about to overpower his
victim, O'Rourke, electrified, sprang
upon the mans back. With one strong
arm deftly he embraced the fellow, an
head up and back. With the other
hand O'Rourke none too gently tore
away an arm encircling the woman.
| Then wrenching the two apart, he
sent knee crashing into the small tof
the lascar's back, all but breaking him
| in two, and so flung him sprawling
into the scuppers.
Without a word the man slid upon
his shoulders a full half-dozen feet,
while O'Rourke had a momentary
glimpse of his face in the moonlight
-dark-skinned and sinister of express
sion with its white, glazing eyeballs.
Then, in one bound, he was on his
feet again and springing lithely back to
the attack: and as he came on jag
ged CLEAN of moonlight ran like light
ming down the sinuous and formidable
length of a kris, most deadly of
| knives.
O'Rourke fell back pace or two.
His own hands were empty; he had
nothing but naked fists and high cour-
age to pit against the lascar and his
kris. Keenly alert, he threw himself
into a pose of defence.
| But O'Rourke had forgotten the
woman; it was enough that he had
made possible her escape, and he had
no thought other than she had fed. It
was. therefore, with as much surprise
as relief that he caught the glimmer
of her white figure as she thrust her
self before him and saw the lascar
bring up In the middle of leap, his
nose not an inch from the muzzle of
an army Webley of respect-compelling
| caliber.
simultaneously he heard her voice,
clear and incisive If low of tone:
Drop that knife!"
The kris shivered upon the deck.
'Faithi" murmu.ed the Irishman,
land what manner of woman is this,
noW?"
The lascar stood as rigid as though
carven out of stone, long, gaunt legs
shining softly brown beneath his cool,
dazzling white cummerbund, the up
per half of his body lost in the shadow
! of the deck, gray blur standing for
his turban.
O'Rourke stepped forward, with a
! quick movement kicking the kris over
board, and would have seized the fell
| low but that the woman interviewed.
She said decisively: IF you please
mo-"
Bewildered, O'Rourke hesitated "I
beg your pardon" he said in con-
fusion.
She did not reply directly; her at
tention was all for the lascar, whom
bar revolver still covered tn him