The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-31

involutarily. Some extraneous force
seemed to drive him.
The girl chung to him and tried tc
coax him. even drag him, back into
his chair. He seemed to be utterly
unaware of her weight. There was a
| knife in his hand. His hollow eyes
never left the Pearlhunter's face.
With all the girls hurried assur-
ance that he was harmless, that there
was no danger, it took all the Pearl
hunters resolution to abide the coming
of that gaunt gray apparition. His
breath came fast He set the basket
down on the floor, dropped his hat be-
side it, and kept his eye on the knife.
Oddly enough, as he recalled after
ward, the only detail he could distinct
ly remember of that tense scene was
that the knife had a buck-h handle
and a slightly curved blade.
A pale fire burned away back in the
Wild Mans vacant eyes, and his beard
writhed with culver of his features.
He even raised his hands and ran them
over the Pearlhunter's face, as a blind
man might in searching for some rec
ognizable feature.
pale fires died out of his eyes; his
face quvered; his breast seemed to
collapse; the tense silence shivered
with groan. The thrush of strength
that had seemed to dover his vast
frame with irresistible force fell from
him as a mantle. He totered as the
girl led him, like a tired child, back
to his chair.
Her father! The daughter of the
Wild Man!
He stepped aside out of the open
door and let the sun in. 1t streaked
across the floor and caught her where
she stopped over the old mans chair.
Its light brought out her wholesome.
healthy beauty; the fresh, fragrant in
nocence of her-a flower by a ruined
wall.
She seemed for the moment to have
forgotten his presence. He glanced
around the cabin. 1t was really four
cabins-four rooms-under one roof.
The door by which they had entered
faced south. He stood in the center
room or center cabin. A curtained
opening led to another room on the
west; a similar opening, with the cur
tain looped back and tied with a BIT
east. A closed door gave entrance to
the third room, probably the kitchen.
logged a little to allow for a window
near the northwest corner of the con
ter room.
The furnishings were a surprise to
the Pearlhunter. He didn't know that
people ever had such things in houses
chairs with cushioned seats; a Iueer
r,Y,hn Icfa IN,
leather; lowered carpet on the floor;
wonderful pictures on the walls; over
the windows snow-white curtains held
back by bright ribbon. He was afraid
to move. He couldn't bring himself to
think OF walking over that soft covered
floor. He stood still and gazed about
him.
The evidence Of the girls hand was
on a table by the window
a vase of wild roses beside a dainty
flat basket with a bit of sewing hang
Ing over the rim; a cover, thrown over
the mantel shelf, was embroidered in
glories; square pillow on
the queer little leather covered bed
had worked upon it in colored threads
the picture of a man and woman
standing by an open well.
the east room was her room. Through |
the loopedback curtain he glimpsed |
It's daintiness-so like her. 1t came |
over him that it was not quite, well, |
to be looking into a girls |
'oom. so he turned his eyes away.
One feature of the room impressed |
am deeply; the books-a long case of
hem along the north wall. How could |
anybody ever read so many. Books! |
He had wished for them; had resolved |
% know what was in some of them,
when he had found his pearl. And now
lie had found his pearl.
His gaze travelled back to the fire
place. A revolver-a very dependable
ooking six-gun-lay upon the mantel.
Above it, arranged across a draped
american flag, hung a silk sash, tas-
eled cord, a pair of silver spurs, and