The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1919-06-13
CHAPTER !.
pauIvItch and an Aps.

The Marjorie WIS long boat was |
floating down the broad Ugambi with |
febb tide and current. Her crew were
flazily enjoying this respite from the |
tarduous labor Of rowing upstream. |
Hhree miles below them lay the Mar
fjorie herself, quite ready to sail SO
Soon al they should have clamhered
aboard and swung the long boat to it's
dayits.
| Presently the attention Of every man
was drawn from his dreaming or his
Igossiping to the northern bank of the
(river. There, screaming at them in a
Cracked falsetto, and with skinny arms
Iontstretched. stood q strange appari-
|tion Of man.
"Wot in thunder3" calculated one Of
1.-THE crew.
"A white man I" muttered the mate
and then: "Man the oars, boys, and
wen just pull over an see what he
wants"
When they came close to the shore
tthey saw an emaciated creature with
iscant white locks, tangled and matted.
The thin, bent body was naked save
flor a loin cloth. Tears were rolling
down the sunken, pockmarked cheeks.
The man jabbered at them in a strange
tongue.
"Rooshun," hazarded the mate.
l"Savvy EnglishT he called to the
man.
The scarecrow did. and In that tongue.
gbrokenly and haltingly, as though 1t
had been many years since he had used
Ut he begged them to take him with
athem away from this awful country.
EOnce on board the Marjorie w. the
stranger told his rescuers pitiful tale
tof 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
1.-THE incidents Of his life prior to the
Mrightful ordeals that had wrecked him
4mentally and physically. His name. he
ssaid, was Alexis Paulvitch.
A few scraggly, yellow-white locks
1had supplanted the thick dark hair that
3had once covered his head. His limbs
were bent and twisted he walked with
- shufling, unsteady gait, his body
doubled forward. His teeth were gone
Knocked out by his savage masters,
tDven his mentality was but q sorry
3mockery Of what 1t once had been.
They took him aboard the Marjorie
Nv, and there they fed and nursed him
Gle gained little in strength, but his
appearance never altered for the bet
sr-a human derelict, battered and
wrecked. they had found him a human
Sderelict, battered and wrecked, hi
would remain until death claimed him
ALEXIS Paulvitch could easily hav,
ipassed for eighty.
The Marjorie w. had been chartered
ny q syndicate Of wealthy manufac
tturers, equipped with laboratory anS
Il star Of scientists and sent out Z,
search for some natural product which
1.-The manufacturers who footed the bill
had been importing from South Amer
Yea at an enormous cost. What tn,
product was none on board the Mar
1orie w. knew except the scientists
NOR IL 1t Of any moment to rs, othe
than that 1t led the ship to q certain
ASA0Au VA S4O ~O0SS Va AAAlC0 axtC
ALEXIS Paulvitch had been take
aboard.
The ship lay at anchor OF the coas
for several weeks. The monotony o
tife aboard her became trying for tn
crew. They went often ashore, an
finally Paulvitch asked to accompan
them-he, too. was firing Of the blight
ling sameness Of existence upon tn
ship.
= The island was heavily timberet
Dense jungle ran down almost to tn
3beach. The scientists were far inlan'
prosecuting their search for the val,
able commodity that native ruml
upon the mainland had led them to b.
ilieve might be found here In marke
liable quantity.
The ships company fished. hunte
land explored. Paulvitch shufled U
land down the beach or lay in the shai
of the great trees that skirted 1t.