The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-11-09
CHAPTER l.
PauIVitch and an Ape.

The Marjorie VS. long boat was
floating down the broad Ugambi with
ebb tide and current. Her crew were
Iazily enjoying this respite from the
arduous labor of rowing upstream.
Three miles below them lay the Mar
jorie herself, quite ready to sail so
soon as they should have clambered
aboard and swung the long boat to its
davitS.
Presently the attention Of every man
was drawn from his dreaming or his
goSsiping to the northern bank of the
river. There, screaming at them in a
cracked falSettO, and with skinny arms
Dutstretched, stood a strange appari-
ton of a man.
"Wot in thunder?" calculated one of
the crew.
"a white man." muttered the mate !;
and then: Man the oars, boys, and
we'll just pull over an see what he
wants."
When they came close to the shore
they saw an emaciated creature with
scant white locks, tangled and matted.
The thin, bent body was naked save
for a loin cloth. Tears were rolling
down the sunken, pockmarked cheeks.
The man jabbered at them in a strange
tongue.
'Rooshun," hazarded the mate.
"Savvy English?" he called to the
man.
The scarecrow did, and in that tongue,
brokenly and haltingly, as though it
had been many years since he had used
it, he begged them to take him with
them away from this awful country.
Once on board the Marjorie w. the
stranger told his rescuerS 4 pitiful tale
of privation, hardshipS and torture, ex-
tending over a period of ten years.
How he happened to have come to
Africa he did not tell them, leaving
them to assume that he had forgotten
the incidents of his life prior to the
frightful ordeals that had wrecked him
mentally and physically. His name, he
said, was Alexis Paulvitch.
A few scraggly, yellow-white locks
had supplanted the thick dark hair that
had once covered his head. His limbs
were bent and twisted; he walked with
d shutting unsteady gait, his body
doubled forward. His teeth were gone
knocked out by his savage masters.
Even his mentality was bat sorry
mockery of what it once had been.
They took him aboard the Marjorie
W., and there they fed and nursed him.
He gained little in strength, but his
appearance never altered for the bet
ter-a human derelict, battered and
wrecked, they had found him; human
derelict, battered and wrecked, he
would remain until death claimed him.
Alexis Paulvitch could easily have
passed for eighty.
The Marjorie w. had been chartered
by a syndicate of wealthy manufac-
turers, equipped with laboratory and
q staff of scientists and sent out to
search for some natural product which
the manufacturers who footed the bills
had been importing from South Amer
lea at an enormous cost. What the
product was none on board the Mar
nor is it of any moment to US, other
than that it led the ship to certain
island off the coast of Africa after
Alexis Paulyitch had been taken
aboard.
The ship lay at anchor off the coast
for several weeks. The monotony of
life aboard her became trying for the
crew. They went often ashore, and
finally Paulvitch asked to accompany
them-he, too, was firing of the blight
ing sameness of existence upon the
ship.
The island was heavily timbered
Dense jungle ran down almost to the
beach. The scientists were far inland
prosecuting their search for the valu
able commodity that native rumOr
upon the mainland had led them to be
lieve might be found here in market
able quantity.
The ships company fished. hunted
and explored. PauIvitch shufIied VI
and down the beach or lay in the shade
Of tho GREAT trees that ersirt@d it.