Evening star., 1921-03-27

out behind him. again close to the
| house.
He thinks that the Frenchman
had lost sight of the poor woman
Of silence. But the horrible ruffian
had not given up his murderous pur-
pose. He reasoned that she would
Itry to steal back to her child. and
went to lie in wait for her near the
house.
1T must have been something like
! that. AS she entered the light falling
about the house ladder, he had
rushed at her too soon, impatient for
vengeance. She had let out that
second scream of mortal fear when
she caught sight of him and turned
to run for life again.
Ihls time she was making for the
river. but not in a straight line. Her
shrieks circled about Davidson. He
turned on his heels. following the
ness. He wanted to shout This way,
Anne! I am here" but he couldn't.
At the horror of this chase, more
ghastly in his imagination than if he
could have seen it, the perspiration
broke out on his forehead, while his
throat was as dry as tinder. A last
supreme Scream was cut short sud-
denly
"The silence which ensued was even
more dreadful. Davidson felt sick.
ne 'oIe ms ieel from the spot and
walked straight before him, gripping
the revolver and peering. into the
obscurity fearfully. Suddenly a bulky
shape sprang from the ground within
few yards of him and bounded
away. Instinctively he fred at it,
bled against something soft, which
threw him down headlong.
Even as he pitched forward on his
/ head he knew it could be nothing else
but Laughing Anne's body. He picked
himself up and. remaining on his
knees. tried to lift her in his arms.
He felt her SO limp that he gave it
up. She was lying on her face, her
long hair scattered on the ground
Some of it was wet. Davidson, feel
where the crushed bone gave way
under his fingers. But even before
that discovery he knew that she was
dead. The pursuing Frenchman har
flung her down with kick from
behind. and. squatting on her back,
weight she herself had fastened to
his stump. when the totally unex-'
pected Davidson doomed up in the
night and scared him away.
Davidson. kneeling by the side of
that woman done so miserably to
death, was overcome by remorse.
She had died for him. His manhood
was as if stunned. For the first time
he felt afraid. He might have been
pounced upon in the dark at any
ing Anne. He confesses to the i'm
pulse of creeping away from that
pitiful corpse on his hands and knees
to the refuge of the ship. He even
says that he actually began to do
"one can hardly picture to oneself
Davidson crawling away on all fours
from the murdered woman-Davidson
unnamed and crushed by the idea
that she had died for him in a sense
far. What stopped him was the
thought of the boy, Laughing Anne's
child. that Davidson remembered her
very words) would not have a dogs
chance.
IT'S no use telling you in detail
how Davidson got on board with the
burden Anne's miserable cruel fate
had thrust into his arms; how next
morning his scared crew, after OBJ
serving from a distance the state of
affairs on board. rejoined with
alacrity; how Davidson went ashore
and. aided by his engineer (still half
dead with fright). rolled up Laughing
Anne's body in a cotton sheet and
brought 1T on, board for burial at sea
later. While busy with this pious
ceived huge heap of white clothes
huddled up against the corner-post of
the house. That it what the French
man lying there he could not doubt.
Taking 1t in connection with the dis
NAL groan he had heard in the night,
Davidson Is pretty sure that his ran
dom shot gave a mortal hurt to the
murderer of poor Anne.
LAS to the others. Davidson never
set eyes on a single one of them. He
lost no time in getting out of the
creek directly the Sissie foated.
THE body Of Laughing Anne hay-
ing been committed to the deep some
twenty miles S.S.W- from Cape Sela-
tan. the task before Davidson was to
commit Laughing Anne's child to the
care OF his wife. And there poor, good
Davidson made fatal move. He
didn't want to tell her the whole
awful story. since 1t involved the
knowledge of the danger from which
he, Davidson, had eacaped. And this,
too, after he had been laughing at
her unreasonable fears only a short
time before.
"I thought that If I told her
everything Davidson explained to
me. she would never have a moments
peace while l was away on my trips
He simply stated that the boy was
an orphan. the child Of some people
to whom he. Davidson, was under the
greatest obligation, and that he felt
morally bound to look after him.
Some day he would tell her more, he
said. and meantime he trusted in the