The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-11-20

and in that uncomfortable conveyance known
as the breeches buoy, which, in Armstrong;
case, owing to the rolling of the wrecked
steamer, had been a giant swing, now dip
ping him deep in the frothing breakers, now
whipping him a half-hundred feet heaven
ward, 50 that, when he had been eItricated
from the breeches, he had been carried
to nearby farmhouse and worked over for
nearly an hour before he was brought pain
fully back to an existence which had al
ready begun to bore him at the age Of
twenty eight.
1t was quite in line with Armstrong;
romantic career that there should be q
young and Beautiful girl connected with this
experience, and that it should be largely
owing to her efficient care that be should
find himself on his feet 4 month after his
rescue and the pneumonia which followed it.
1t was out of keeping with all presidents,
however, artistic as it may have been, that
Armstrong should fan quite in love with the
maiden, for hitherto, In the wisdom of
his youth, he had denied that the claims
Of Cupid were anything but selfish and
passing.
Now the unbelievable had become the fact.
skepticism had gone down before the unde-
niable. II was April, and Armstrong had
quite recovered his usual good health boats
left the Isl, ID weekly, yet he showed no
disposition TO leave the coy farmhouse,
sheltered by the rounded hills from the
sveep Of the winds, and but for the fact
that eventually a new check book and some
clothes he had sent for were delivered there
might have been no connection at all be-
tween the island and the mainland for him
THREE joys he had IN life now-to eat
l. as he had never cared to eat before, to
sleep the dreamless sleep of the island and
TO make love in the intervals to Alice Sands
OF the three he preferred the latter, which
was saying much, for the island appetite
would be paradise to many a dyspeptic, and
its salt-sealed sleep a haven Of rest TO
his insomnious brethren. But after time
he began to take these as a matter of
course, while his third joy grew to be not
q Joy unalloyed.
For Armstrong found It no easy matter
to make love to this girl. There was that
in her pristine virtue which held him aloof
in the island independence of spirit which
emphasized the fact of his being an in!ander,
and beyond this, in the personal equation,
she was a girl of singularIy masculine
character; and this fact he decided, after
much elaboration. was what led her to treat
him with a delightful comradeship, and
nothing more, that must be done away with
before he became aught but a simple friend
to her. In plain words then, it resolved
itse'f into demonstration of the superiority
of the physical man to the physical woman,
and how this could be accomplished be was
quite at loss, for a months acquaint-
ance had shown him that Alice could drive
and ride a horse, sail a boat and swim
far better than he himself
Yet it was not the girl alone which en-
deared the island to Armstrong. He loved 1t
for itself, for its wind rounded hills which
stood in clear outlines in the pure island
air, with their brown stone walls creep
ing endlessly over them and the sheep and
cattle nibbling the sparse grass. He loved
it for its sterner side-its frowning cliffs
of clay with the virgin sand at their feet
golden where the fell on it, pounded
hard by the everlasting seas which tow
cred, curling in, to detonate in grand har-
nony on it's level bed. Lastly, he loved
the simple island folk, with their ethics I'M
fettered by conventions and their sturdy in
dependence.
Evenings Armstrong sat with the family
IN the comfortable sitting ROOM" Mrs.
Sands knitting sewing, Alice reading,
or writing, perhaps, and her father doing
beside the big stove. At such times Arm
strong delighted to inveigle the older man
into recounting the yarns of the island,
stories as salty as the sea itself, smack
ing of romance, often; strong and simple
and original ever
1t was through him he first heard of the
Great Wild Dog. On the northern end the
island was broken into a succession of steep
bluffs and storm cut gulleys on the sea side,
while inshore, fresh water marshes, impene-
trabe of foot and overgrown with brush
growth, held the islanders at bay. Here
was the home of the animal 'hich was
to play so important a part in his life.
Two years previous to the one in which
Armstrong had made his debut on the is
land, Danish bark had come ashore one
night in midwinter on the east shore 1t
had been an hour before the coast guard
had discovered her through the drive of
snow, and some time later when his Coston
had brought the life saving crew, with NOR
Tar and line, opposite the wrecked ship.
By the time preparations had been made
to send a line over the wreck her masts
had gone and the seas were sweeping her
in way that made the existence of life
aboard her impossible. So the keeper and
surfmen had watched the terrible combers ia
the hope of saving some strong swimmeS
who might reach the breakers in one chance
cut of thousand.
Only one of the surfmen had seen aught
Of life in the terrible seas To him, peer
ing into the darkness, had come a vision
of an enormous head and cleaning teeth
held above the froth and borne shoreward
on huge comber. This breaking and re-
cedinx, a huge dog had stagxered up the