The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-11-11

Guy. IL was brutal humOr, but iC was
there, and when at shutdown l reached
the Place where the portrait smiled
whinsicaily at me from it's post of
honor, it seemed to assure me that
my talisman would hold it's power to
the end.
l SGT for a. while looking into the
compromising eyes, anG as looked
my thoughts took more cheerful col
or. In the first brush, at least, I had
got their goat" Before me lay a bat.
tie in which l was to pit my legacy Of
human development against the brute
odds of minds lighted only to the
mistiness of dawn.
frances" I said, "you smile. Q:
course, since you are fixed in print,
you can't do otherwise than smile.
] WONDER"
I broke off and becar,e suddenly
and unaccountably serious.
II wonder if you wou,i smile, were
you here with me in the flesh as well
as merely in the spirit. I wonder if
You would"
Then, with a feeling which was ire
mendously real, l added f%ervently and
aloud:
THANK God your are not here in
the flesh! Eut I'm grateful for your
smiling. Somehow l find it reassur-
ing"
cot still ouoSp oro1 fhnn DC 7 r0co
to go down to the beach for my meal OF
raw crabs. I summarized the entire
situation for tho benefit of the lady
with whom l discussed my affairs.
"You see my DEAR" l informed her,
ito their u%ntuttored and man-cating
minds l present a dilemma. I III eth
er a great immortal, whom it would
be most unwise to heckle, or I ain
very good eating, in which case it is
a pity to let me grow thinner"
A few yards away l turned and
came back.
1T shall be u care, dear lady," ]
added, ITO maintain this status of god
ship, and to that end we must arrange
q little program of simple miracles
from time to time. "You see," l cx-
planned, lit won't be- long before they
will be coming here and demanding
what manner of deity l am, and what
is my mortal nare Do you know
what l shall tell them?"
l paused and grinned into the smiling
eyes and the lips that seemed tre-o.
bling OH the verge of speech.
Il shall tell thcm," l assured her.
"that in me they behold the great god
~Four-Tlush."
If l ccncede to the cold logic Of ma
tcrial reasoning that this dependable
comrcnionship ard love Of . man for
q portrait washed up by the sea was
y.erc,y the alteration of a brain III
gcatcd by solitude, l must also believe
tat a series of totally Incredible CO.
medicines subsequently befell mo.
But, if it be that certain things are
written in the stars and certain pas
sions irrevocably decreed, my life is
freed of grotesqueness n becomes
logical.
While I lived under the sword OF
the problematical tomorrow suspend
ed by the hair of an uncertain today.
my dependence upon her grew great
er. The brave man ia said to die once
and the coward often, but the line BE-
tween courage and cowardice is not
absolute.
There we're periods when I felt that
I could play the game and die if I
must, with the detached philosophy of
a Socrates. At other times I wallow-
ed in the pit of foreboding and died
several times a day. In these moods
I wished for the moment of crisis
which should put my resolution to
the touch, and end the matter.
The savages did not approach my
cave; but sometimes, when evening
fell and the jungle spread itself in a
fringed blanket against the moonlight.
I could make out skulking patches Of
shadow at it's edge. In my rambles.
too, I had a sense of being e~ndlessly
watched by unseen eyes; and once,
bending over a sunlit pool to drink.
I was startled by the haggard face
which looked up from it with streaks
Of white in it's long, tangled hair.
Still, each day I brought fresh or
chids from the jungle's edge and
keaped them before my tangible lady.
"They are more beautiful, Frances"
I told her, than any I could buy you
along the Champs Elysees or on Fifth
Avenue-and all the cost is q ship
and crew and cargo.
One morning I discovered that
where the growth of cane and moss
and vines had formerly been thick
and unbroken, there were now several
clearly defined alleyways, made b.
the coming and going of the blacks
bent on observing me. A few inQuisi-
tive steps into one of these traits re.
vealed, at a little distance, a pool of
water.
It's basin was Of messy rock. and
its edges were choked with ferns. A
slender waterfall fed it. and through