Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-12

where it was widely stained with dry
blood. His trousers We're turned up high.
exposing bare. sinewy ankles and feet
sun scorched, scratched and abraded,
from their unaccustomed contact with
rough ground. and parched and clustered
with the heat of incandescent sands.
His appearance. in short. delineated Very
faithfully the mishap-ridden mariner OF
the old-time romances: forlorn and hope
less half starved and weather worn, the
gall and NORWOOD of frustrated hope
AID blasted fortune in his heart, dogged
I endurance in his somber eyes.
But the vrulence that Crittenden
tasted was due more to the plight of his
Soul than to the evil circumstance III
which he found himself.
Through all the yesterday, from the
hour when he had wakened to find Lobb,
Perez and Rhode standing over him and
in possession of his only weapon, until
sleep claimed his distraught senses long
after nishtfaI he had endured purSa-
tory, his mentality rent by Internal dis
senSions, his heart in mutiny against the
dictates OF his reason. He had fought
himself as manfully as he would have
fought his bitterest enemy; and i'm the
end had told himself that he had tri-
umphed. that he had succeeded in casting
out the passion that possessed him; that
Cynthia was no longer anything TO MIN,
that honor and decency We're masters OF
his affections-that white was black. On
this assurance he had slept.
Later reused out of uneasy slumber by
he knew not what shapeless apprehen
sion he had risen and wandered. without
purpose. from his resting place along the
outer beach to its extremity, where u
turned to curve in round the lagoon. Ana
there he sat himself down to rest in mute
communion with his benumbed senses.
promising himself that this torpor born
of utter WEAKNESS meant indifference:
that he could thenceforth entertain the
thought of Cynthia without emotion. con-
template eternal separation from her
without repning. that what he had
named love was but fugitive infatuation-
that white was black and forever would
be SO
The splitting crackle of wireless from
the CYNTHIA sounding its tocSinlike alarm
in the Silly night. failed to interest him.
He hearkened without troubling TO at
tempt Interpretation. The confusion that
followed, eliminating in departure Oh
both vessels, left him in like apathy: he
had looked to he left behind and had
reconciled himself with the understand
ing: 10 see his expectation fulnlled TO the
blacklist letter failed TO move him. He
even in the aStigmatiSm of perceptions
that saw his abandonment matter
of less consequence than the inviolate
preservation of his ideal of honor. found
himself sufficiently unconcerned To doZe
upon the knowledge of his desertion, until
daylight banished further thoughts OF
sleep.
Then. in somewhat objectless return to
the place he had selected for his fire, he
had stumbled across the lifebelt. wet
from recent immersion. lying across what
otherwise he might have overlooked-the
trail of flying footprints. dim. divergent;
marks of feet shod i'm light. narrow, |
lleelless sandals. Crusoe on Juan Fer
nandez discovering the marks of Friday
feet had been no more dumfounded. Crit
tenden aStare. was oppressed by a sus |
picion vague skeptical. but gnawinS. |
that dried his mouth with fear lest ii |
have support i'm fact.
Now having tracked her down. he /
gazed upon the substance of his fears
and dreams alike still bewildered.
How could il be possible that she was |
there?
He put himself between her ana the