The Pulaskian., 1919-11-14

l good Tom, to whom, for once, of course, l could not confide. Yet had a vague purpose; or, at least, I had feeling that, if I waited on something would develop in the direction of my hopes. The doubloon still suggested that it was the key to a door of fas- einating mystery to which chance might at any moment direct me.
 And-why not admit it?-apart from my buried treasure, to the possible discovery of which the doubloon seemed to point, was possessed with a growing desire for another glimpse of those haunting eyes. They needed not their association with the mys- l terious gold, they were magnetic enough to draw any man, with even the rudlments of imagination, along the path of the unknown. All the paths out of the little settlement were paths into the unknown, and, day after day, I followed one or another of them cut into the wilderness, taking gun with me, as an ostensible excuse for any spying eye, and bringing back with me occasional bags of the wild pigeons which were plentiful on the island
 One day 1 had thus wandered unus- ually far afeld, and at nightfall found myself still several miles from home on rocky path overhanging the sea. 1 There was no sign of habitation any where. It was wild and lonely place, and presently over it's savage beauty stole the glamor of the moon rising far over the sea. I sat down on ledge 1 of the cliffs and watched the moon light grow in intensity as the darkness l of the woods deepened behind me. It was night full of witchcraft; a night on which the stars, the moon, and the sea together seemed limiting at some wonderful thing about to happen.
 Then, as if the fairy night were matching my thoughts with a chal- lenge, what was this bright wonder suddenly present on one of the boul- ders far down beneath me?-a tall shape of witehcraft whiteness, stand ing, full in the moon, like a statue in luminous marble of some goddess of antiquity.
 My eyes and my heart together told me it was she; and, as she hung poised over the edge of the water in the at titude of one about to dive, turn of her head gave me that longed-for glimpse of those living eyes filled with moonlight. She stood another mo ment, still as the night, in her loveli- ness; and the next she had dived di- rectly into the path of the moon. saw her eyes moonfilled again, as she came to the surface, and began to swim-not, as one might have expect ed, out from the land but directly in toward the unseen base of the cliffs. 1 The moon-path did lead to a golden door in the rocks, I said to myself, and she was about to enter it. It was a secret door known only to herself; and then. for the first time that night, 1 thought of that doubloon
 Perhaps if I had not thought of it I should not have done what then did. ] There will, doubtless, be those who will censure me. If so, I am afraid they must. At all events, it was the thought of that doubloon that sWayed the balance of my hesitation in taking the moon-path in the track of that bright apparition.
 1 looked for a way down to the edge of the sea. It was not easy to find, but after much perilous scrambling l at length found myself on the boulder v+aioh bod co Iafalv hoop tbo radactal of that Radiance; and, in another mo- ment. had diyed into the moon-path and was swimming toward the mys- terious golden door.
 Before me the rocks opened in a deep narrow creyasse, a long rift, evi- dently slashing back into the cliff, be- heath the road on which I had been treading. I could see the moonlit water vanishing into a sort of gleam- ing lane between the vast oyerhang- ing walls.
 Presently felt my feet rest lightly on firm sand, and, still shoulder deep in the water, walked on another yard or two-to be brought to sudden stop. There she was coming toward me, breast high in that watery tunnel The moon, continuing it's serene ascen- sion, lit her up with a sudden beam. 0 shape of bloom and glory!
 For a moment we both stood looking at each other, as if transfixed. Then she gave frightened cry and put her hands up to her bosom as she did so stream of something bright-like n.JI I | T two like streams from her opened hands. Then, as quick as light, she had darted past me and dived into the moon-path beyond. She must have swam under the water long way, for when I saw her dark head rise again in the plimmnrinp hath it was at a