Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-12-14
CHAPTER w.
Alone on an Island.

constitute uSlt equipment even 1uL
the tropics, but that was the least
pressing of my concerns.
When fell on the boat deck of the
Wastrel, the last picture printed on
my retina was that of young Mans
field beating back assaulting madmen.
If mans dying stare photographs
a final curtain scene from life, and Il
I had never awakened from thar
swoon, my eyes would have held fixed
a portraiture Of strenuous physical
exertion. But, as fate would have it,
my lids fluttered open again, under
circumstances which left thousand
questioned unanswered and unanswer-
able. & s.
How long 1 remained insensible !
can only estimate; but often there
come back to, me-, from that time,
wraithlike shreds of memory in which
/ seem to have drifted down the cen
turtles.
recall for one thing, a stunned and
throbbing aching back OF the eyes and
a half conscious gazing up at the
rocking stars. It IS possible that I
may once have drawn near to the
narges of sensibility only to relapse
again; because, out Of this vagueness,
there looms one more succinct impress
sion. seem to remember painfully
turning my head for a glimpse OF
some triangular point rising and fall
ing with gentle swish in the phost
phorescent water. Unless this IS inn
agination, it must have been the I'm
of a shark.
At all events, when rational under
standing returned to me the sun was
glaring insufferably from a scorched
zenith. / began to patch together
fragments of memory and to call
aloud for Mansfield. s.,
There was no, answer, and when ]
attempted to rise something held me
fast and powerless. Finally I,succeed-
ed in propping myself on a numbed
elbow to view what was left OF the
world. found myself roughly dashed
to the life-raft by several turns OF
rope so tightly drawn that the nerves
in my legs gave no response. Mans
field was nowhere to be seen.
Ny support was rocking in its lods.
ment between two weed-trailing boul-
ders stained like verdigris and licked
smooth y,the tapping of the sea. on
to my front stretched waters SO quiet
that they seemed almost tideless,
though at a distance could hear the
running surf.
To look behind involved a painful
twisting of my neck, but 1 made the
effort, and was. rewarded with the
sight of Jar quarter OF a mile
away smooth reaches OF white SAND
met the water, .and beyond them,
mounting up from palm-fringe to snow
cap, rose the very respectable proper.
kions of volcanic island. Coral
rocks, like those which had caught
my raft, were outposts trooping sea.
ward for mile, breaking, here and
there, the surface of jade.green shall
lows.
From the deep turquoise of the out
er sea to the green of the shore wat
ers ran an enhancing gamut of color
full beauty. The mountain, as SYM
metrically Nconed as Full Yama, stood
over it all in grave domination on
to the. left, sponge-like cliffs broke
steeply upward from the level of the
beach, and about their clefts circlcd
endless flights of gulls- There,
knew, the rising tide would shortly
thunder and break itself to pieces in
a thousand plumes Of spray.
But how had reached their place.
and what had become Of Mansfield?
It must have been he who had
dashed me to the raft. From no one
else on the WasEel could ! have ex-
pected better treatment than "a cut
lass swipe or an ounce of lead" Pal,
pably, l conjectured, he had emerged
victor from the battle, and, save for
myself, sole survivor. What had now
become of him?
My theory is that, when he had
noated the raft from the partly sub
merged deck, he had found the spark
of life still lurking in my pulses,
and had made me fast upon its TIM
bers. Perhaps he had not similarly
secured himself because OF an over
trust in his ability to remain afioat.
/ have been haunted by the. fear
that his effort to save me may have
oyertaxed his sorely tried powers.
Possibly he had lost consciousness as
we drifted, and had been washed over.
side, to fall prey to the prowling
sharks. I could not hope to know
what his end had been, but l wished
that might have shared It with him.
/ fumbled at the soaked knots OF
nv rope with fingers that had grown
numb. When at last 1 was free, and
had, to some extent, restored TIE cir
culation in my stagnant veins, | be-
gan the task of freeing my oarleks
craft from its wedged position so that
the inserting tide might carry PIE to