The Washington herald., 1914-05-31

hoarser. He started strutting up and
down the beach. I'll admit / felt small to
see this blessed fossil Iording It there.
And my head and face were all bleediue,
and-well. my body Just one jelly OF
bruises.
and leave him alone for a bit. until the
affair blew over / Skinned up the tallest
palm tree and sat there thinking of IT all.
! don't suppose I ever felt 80 hurt by any
thing before or since. It was the brutal
insratitude of the creature I'd been
more than a brother to him. I'd Matched
him. Educated him. A great, Rawky.
out-of-date birdl And me a human be-
ins-heir of the ages and all that.
Il though after q time he'd begin to see
things in that light himself. and feel q
little sorry for his behavior. ]. thought II
was to catch some nice little bits of
fsh. perhaps. and go to him presently IN
. casual kind of way. and offer them TO
him. he might do the sensible thing. Il
took mo some time to learn how unfor-
giving and cantankerous an extinct bird
can be. Malice,
II won't tell you all the little devices I
tried to get that bird round again. I
simply can't It makes my cheek burn
with shame even now to think Of the
snubs and buffets had from this Internal
curiosity. I tried violence. chucked
Jumps Of coral at him from q safe dis
tance, but he only swallowed them I
SHE'D my open knife at him and almost
lost it. though it was too big for him to
swallow. tried starving him out and
struck fishing. but he took to picking
along the beach at low water after
worms, and rubbed along on that Half
my time spent up to my neck in the Ia
goon. and the rest up the palm trees. One
of them was scarcely high enough. and
when he cought me up it he had a regular
Bank Holiday with the calves Of my legs.
II got unbearable. don't know II you
have ever tried sleeping up a palm tree.
II gave me the most horrible nightmares.
Think of the shame Of II. too! Here was
this extinct animal incoming about my
island like a sulky duke, and me not al
lowed to rest the sole of my foot on the
place. I used to cry with WEAKNESS and
vexation- told him straight that
didn't mean to be chased about a desert
island by any damned anachronisms. I
told him to go and peck a navigator of
-; p,,t ha
beak at me. Great ugly bridal legs and
neck,
Il shouldn't like to say how long that
went on altogether. I'd have killed him
on a way Of settling him at last. It's a
South American dodge. I Joined all my
fishing lines together with stems Of sea-
weed and things. and made a stoutish
string. perhaps twelve yards in length or
more, and fastened two humps Of coral
rock to the ends of this It took me some
time to do, because every now and then
I had to go into the lagoon or up a tree
as the fancy took me. This 1 whirled rap
idly round my head and then let it go at
him. The first time I missed. but the
next time the string caught his legs beau
tifully and wrapped round them again
and again. Over he went. I threw 1t
standing waist deep in the lagoon. and as
soon as he went down was out Of the
water and saving at his neck with my
knife
IT don't like to think of that even now.
I felt like a murderer while I did It,
though my anger was hot against him.
When I stood over him and saw him
bleeding on the white sand and his beau
tiful great legs and neck writhing In his
last agony-Pah,
with that tragedy. loneliness came
upon me like a curse. Good Lord, you
can't imagine how missed that bird.
sat by his corpse and sorrowed over him.
and shivered as looked round the DESC
late. silent reef. thought Of what jolly
little bird he had been when he was
and of a thousand pleasant
tricks he had played before he went
wrong. I thought II I'd only wounded
him I might have nursei him round into
a better understanding. II I'd had any
means OF digging into the coral rock I'd
have buried him. felt exactly as If he
was human As II was couldn't think
Of eating him. so put him in the lagoon
and the little fishes picked him clean
Then one day a chap cruising about in
a yacht had a fancy to see If my atoll
still existed.
He didn't come q moment too soon, for
was about sick enough of the desola-
ton Of 1t. and only hesitating whether
I should walk out into the sea and nm
ish up the business that way. or fall back
on the green things.
II sold the bones to a man named Wins
Iowa dealer near the British Museum.
and he says ks sold them to old Havers.
It seems Kavers didn't understand they
were extra large. and It was only sftsr
his death they attracted attention. They
called 'erl Aepyornis-what was itr'
"Aepyornis vastus." said I. It's funny.
the very thing was mentioned to mo By
a friend of mine When they found An
Aepyornis with a thigh yard long they
thought they had reached the top Of the
scale and called him Aepyornis maxi
mus. The, some one turned up another
thigh bone four feet six OF more, and that
they called Aepyornis Titan Then your
yastus was found after old Havers died.
in his collection, and then vastissimus
turned up"
"winslow was telling me as much"
said the man with the scar. IF they gst