The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-12-13

gaping rent in its side. AT little dis
sands, bosom and shoulders heaving
convulsively, damp, matted hair yelling
her like curtain of sunlit seaweed-
| He moved with painful effort toward
her. She turned up to him her pitiful,
writhen face, white as parchment.
"Are you-hurt ?" he managed to ask.
II mean-injured"
She moved her head from side to
side. as if she could not speak for pant
ing.
'Im-glad," he said duly. you
stay-here I'll go get help"
He raised his eyes, peering inland.
Back of the beach the land rose in
long, sweeping hillocks, treeless but
| green. His curiously befogged vision
made out number of shapes that re-
sembled dwellings.
| Go get help :"
he repeated thickly.
He started off with q brave, stagger-
| ing rush that carried him dozen feet
inland. Then his knees turned to wa
| down upon his senses.
When Whitaker awOke the afternoon
was cloudy-warm and bright, so that
his eyes were grateful for the shade of
white paraSOl that girl was holding
over him. He grew suspicious of his
| senses; and when the parasOl was
| transformed into the shape of a wom-
an wearing a clumsy jacket of soiled
covert cloth over a nondescript gar
ment of weirdly printed calico-then
| he was sure that something was wrong
with him.
Besides, the woman suddenly turned
and bent over him an anxious face, ex-
claiming in accents of CONSERVATION:
20 dear! If he's delirious-!'
His voice, when he strove to answer,
rustled and ratified so that he barely
managed to say: what nonsense! I'm
| just thirsty!"
Il thought you would be-" said the
woman, calmly; $50 / brought water
| Here :"
She offered a tin vessel to his lips
He sat up suddenly, seized the vessel
and buried his face in it, gradually tilt
ing 1t, while it's COOL delicious sweet
ness irrigated his arid tissues, until
every blessed drop was drained. Then,
and not till then, he lowered the pail
and with sane vision began to renew
| acquaintance with the world
He was sitting in the lee of the
| beached catbOat. The woman he had
rescued sat quite near him. The gale
was still booming overhead, but now
and the surf still crashed in thunders
on the beach hundred feet or more
away; but the haze was lighter, and
the blue of the sky was visible, if tar
| nished.
The sands curved off in a wide cres-
cent, ending in long, sandy spit
| There was low, ragged earth bank
rising from the sands. Midway be-
tween the beach and where the hazy
uplands lifted their blurred profile
against the faded sky, stood a COM
monplace farmhouse, in good repair,
strongly constructed and neatly paint
ed; with a brood of out buildings.
Here and there, in scattered groups
| and singly, sheep foraged.
With puzzled eyes Whitaker sought
| counsel and enlightenment of the wom-
| an, and found in her appearance quite
as much to confound anticipation and
deepen perplexity. What she had
worn the night before he could not
say; but 1T certainly could have had
| nothing in common with the worn.
stained, misshapen jacket covering her
shoulders, beneath it the calico wrap-
per scant and crude beyond belief, I'D
on her feet the rusty wrecks that once
had been shoes.
As for himself, his once white fan
mel trousers were precious souvenirs.
even though the cloth had contracted
to an alarming extent-uncomfortab
as we'll; while his tennis shoes re-
NAMED tolerably intact, and the can
vas brace had shrunk upon his ankle
until it gripped it like a wise.
But these details he absorbed rather
than studied, in the first few moments
SCSScuIeut " 1uS dWdh6IlluS. Ills
ciliefest and most direct interest CEN
tered upon the woman. There was
warm color in the cheeks that he had
last seen livid, there was the wonted
play of light and shadow in her fas-
cinating eyes; there were gracious
| rounded curves where had been sunken
surfaces, followed out by fatigue and
strain; and there remained the in
eluctable allurement of her tremendous
vitality.
you are not hurt?" he demanded.
You are-all right?''
Quite" she told him with a smile
significant OF her appreciation of his
generous feeling. But you? Haven't
you slept at all?"
"Oh, surely-a great deal. But I've
been awake for some time-a few
hours"
But +! What time is it?"
Il haven't a watch, but late after
noon, l should think-going by the
sun. It's nearly down."
Good heavens! he muttered,
dashed. Il have slept!"
You earned your right 70.
You needed it far more than l." Her
eyes shone, warm with kindness.
She swayed almost imperceptibly to-