Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-12-14

In the pocket of my pajanaa Jacket,
soaked with salt water and almostsre-
duced to. a pulp, ] found the letter
which stood charged TO deliver to the
girl in Sussex.
laughed. l knew that I was not
in reality the solitary survivor of the
Wastrel. / was merely the latest sur
vivor. 1 was to die more slowly than
my fellows. This sun, at the end OF
my lingering, would beat down on ms
bones, whitened, disjointed, and per-
haps ,vulture- picked; hut it was what
lay between this day and that which
troubled me. 4 Ill
The revolver in my, belt. was al
ready clouding into red rust. I ex-
perimentally turned the cylinder, and
found that the corrosion had not yet
attacked the mechanism. One shot
could cheat my sentence Of slow
death, yet I did rot fire the shot.
Life had heretofore been tiresome-
" uneventful to me; thing 1 would
have willingly surrendered.
Now / found myself standing preca-
riously on the narrow and very slip
perry edge of existence; and with
Death advancing on me I no longer
wished to die. The very odds against
me brought a logged desire to cling
until my feet should slip and my fin
gers could no longer hold their life
grip. / knew that / should not turn
the pistol upon myself while all the
chances of fate stood over against ME
in battlefront. should fight back at
them with wolfish defiance. until they
spread me on the beach for the buzz
yards. Meantime I should probably
go mad, but that lay hereafter.
Whether I was to have my island in
sole tenancy, or must fight for foot
hold with hostile natives, was ques-
ton which also lay hereafter. At pres.
ent / had Only to wait for the tide,
Since I could not hurry the tide, |
must lie here thinking, s st
On one hand stretched the sea from
which could look rescue only by q
miracle. What had been Coulter's
destination he had not confided, but
knew that we had for days been in
imperfectly charted waters, and that,
as likely as not, our screws had
kicked up a virgin wake. We had
passed atolls marked on the chart
P. d. and E. d." position doubtful"
existence doubtful to hope
that some other wanderer would
shortly follow would be taxing coin
cidence too far.
At the other end lay the, island
perhaps, empty, perhaps, populated
with God knew what type of human
and animal and reptilian life, Il
I could view it across the accursed.
ly beautiful waterway, and speculate
upon its nature; but could not beat
up very hopeful confidence in it's
treatment of me. It's truncated cone,
it's spurs of coral crags jutting sea-
ward, its steep activities and lush
palm jungle, its fern and shrubrsoft-
ened rocks, all spelled beauty which
was. opulent, and which would have
been magnificent had the ,greenery
not wrapped and softened every com
handing angle.
It was a loneliness which suggested
treacherous menace, the deceptive
beauty of the panther or of the soft
gliding snake that charms its prey to
death.
Looking as l did then into the eye
of the unknown, could foresee only
death or madness followed by DEATH
Isolation would sap my mental es-
sence and atrophy my brain, unless
some device could be found by which
could side.focus and divert my trend
Of thought. Even had the young
girls diary remained to me- might
by 1t have kept myself reminded of
that other life had left behind me,
and SO die sane. A single book would
have helped. II "a .t
had been credited with sense of
the ludicrous so whimsical as to be al
most irresponsible. II now could
invoke that quality in this grim situ-
alton, might hope to be regarded as
a consistent humorist. If any person.
al quality could see me through, it
would be that, since that is the one
effective shield against the poisoned
darts of the morbid. I wondered how
long should be able to laugh. ] tried
it now, and the result was SO dismal
that found myself smiling at it's still
born hollowness.
Then, at last, saw that the tide
was setting in, and realized that was
hungry. When / had drifted inward,
and had once more under my feet the
feel of solid earth, the sun was hang
ing near the snow-capped crater Of
the volcano.
/ left for the morrow all effort at
and, stripping, ran up and
down the soft sandj Of the beach un.
til the blood was once more pulsing
regularly throug1 my naked body.
Then, on hand Ind knees, pursued
and devoured numbers of the unpal-
atable crabs that scuttled hither and
thither to hiefng places under Shiny
tangles OF sfaweed. My throat was
hot and sticky with the parch OF
thirst, but as the night fell the jungle
began to loom darkly. forbidding
hinteriansl, and no fresh water came