The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-11-04

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
lions Of q volcanic island. Coral
rocks, like those which had caught
my raft, were outposts trooping Sea-
ward for a 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 a
ers ran an enhancing gamut OF color
full beauty. The mountain, as SYM
metrically coned as Fuji Yama, stood
over it all in grave domination. Oh
to the left, sponge-like cliffs broke
steeply upward from the level of the
beach, and about their clefts circled
endless flights of gulls. There, I
knew, the rising tide would shortly
thunder and break itself to pieces in
a thousand p1umes of spray.
But how had I 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 Wastrel could I have ex-
pected better treatment than "a cut
lass swipe or an ounce of lead" Pal.
pably, 1 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
11oated 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 Spon its TIM
bers. Perhaps he had not similarly
secured himself because of an over
trust in his ability to remain afloat.
I have been haunted by the fear
that his effort to save me may have
overtaxed 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 I wished
that 1 might have shared 1t with him.
I fumbled at the soaked knots of
my rope with fingers that had grown
numb. When at last I vas free, and
had, to some extent, restored the cir
culation in my stagnant veins, I be-
gan the task of freeing my oarless
craft from it's wedged position so thai
the insetting tide might carry me to
the shore.
In the pocket of my pajama Jacket,
soaked with salt water and almost re-
duced to a pulp, 1 found the letter
which stood charged TO deliver to the
girl in Sussex.
laughed. 1 knew that I was not
in reality the solitary survivor Of the
Wastrel. I was merely the latest sur
vivor. I was to die more slowly than
my fellows. This sum-, at the end Of
my lingering, would beat down on ms
bones, whitened, ~disjointed, and per-
haps vulture-picked; but it was what
lay between this day and that which
troubled me.
The revolver in my belt was al
ready clouding into red rust. l 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.
ly uneventful to me; a thing l would
have willingly surrendered.
Now | found myself standing precd.
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 m feet should slip and my fir:
gers could no longer hold their life
grip. I knew that I should not turn
the pistol upon myself while all the
chances of fate stood over against ne
in battlefront. l should fight back a,
them with wolish defiance until they
spread me on the beach for the buZ
yards. Meantime l should probably
go mad, but that lay hereafter.
Whether I was to have my island ir
sole tenancy, or must fight for a foot
hold with hostile natives, was a ques
ton which also lay hereafter. At pres
ent I had only to wait for the tide
Since l could not hurry the tide,
must lie here thinking.
On one hand stretched the sea from
which I could look rescue only by :
miracle. What had been Coulter''
destination he had not confided, bu
1 knew that we had for days been il
imperfectly charted waters, and that
as likely as not, our screws hat
kicked up a virgin wake. We hat
passed atolls marked OF the char
P. D. and E. DEPOSITION doubtful,
"existence doubtful"-and to hop
that some other wanderer woul'
shortly follow would be taxing coin
cidence too far.
At the other end lay the island
perhaps empty, perhaps populate'
with God knew what type of humaI
and animal and reptilian life.