Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1918-05-14
CHAPTE Err K.
The spx.

AiTeduy the sun WIS WdTil, lne rant
breeze bland. Standing at the window
and shading his eyes against the glare,
Whitaker surveyed world new
washed and radiant; the iandlocked
bay dimpled with vagrant catspaws
and smitten with sunlight as with
scimitar of fire; the earth fresh and
fragrant, steaming family in the ar
. dent glow of the dawn.
In another moment he was at the
kitchen door, interrupting Sum Fats
first matutinal attentions to his teeth
with a demand for bathing suit
Three minutes later, from the end of
the small dock, he dived neatly com
ing to the surface with his flesh tin
Cling with delight of the cool water I;
then, with the deliberate and powerful
movements of an experienced swim
mer, struck away from the land. Two
hundred yards out he paused, rolled
over on his back, and, hands clasped
beneath his head, fioated serenely, sun
light warming his upturned face, his
body rejoicing In the suave, clean, fluid
embrace.
Then something disturbed him-a
dull futterlng, vibrant upon his sub
merged eardrums. Extending his arms
and moving his hands gently to pre-
serve his polse, he lifted his head from
the water. From the landing stage on
the Ffske place motor boat was
standing out. The churning of its pro-
peller had aroused him. He could gee
but a single person for ell Its crew.
Seated astern, dividing her attention
between the side steering wheel and
the engine, she was altogether ignorant
OF the onlooker. Only her head and
shoulders showed above the coaming-
her head with Its shining crown, her
shoulders cloaked with a light wrap
gathered at the throat.
Whitaker, admiring. wondered q.
Sweeping in a wide arc as 1t gath
smartly on a straight course for the
barrier beach.
Why? What business had she there?
And at an hour so early?
No affair of his-Whltaker admitted
as much freely. And yet he was be-
ginning his fourth day on the Great
West bay without having set foot upon
its Great South beach, Ridiculous
oversight And one TO be remedied
without another hours delay.
Grinnlng with amused liberation of
his own perverse sophistry, he turned
over on his side and struck out In the
wake of the motor boat. When at
length he waded ashore he found the
motor boat moored in shallow water
at the end of a long and substantial
dock. He patted the TANKS of the YES
sci as he waded on.
Good little boatl" said he.
Walking rapidly, very soon he stood
at the head of a rude flight of wooden
steps which ran down from the top of
a wave-eaten sand bluff some ten or
twelve feet in height, to the broad and
gently shelving ocean beach. Midway
between the sand bluff and the break
ing waters stood the woman Whitaker
had followed. (There wasn't any use
mincing terms-he had followed her
In his COMPOUNDED, fatuous curiosity y
Her face was to the sea, her hands
clasped behind her. Now the wind
modelled her cloak sweetly to her body
now whipped its skirts away, disclos
ing legs straight and slender and gra
ciously modelled. She was dressed, II
seemed, for bathing.
Whitaker turn to go, and turning le
his gaze sweep up from the beach anC
along the brow of the bluff. He paused
frowning. Some twenty feet or so dis
tant the legs of a man, trousered anC
booted, protruded from a hollow be
tween two hummocks of sand. Ant
the toes Of the boots were digging int,
the sand, Indicating that the man wal
lying prone; and that meant Qf h
were neither dead nor sleeping) tina
he was watching the woman on thu
beach.
Indignation, righteous indignation
warmed Whitaker's bosom. 1t was al
very well for him to catch sight O
the woman through her cottage win