, 1923-07-25
b. H. DEvERE STAcPooLE
"A Romance of the
Bahamas
ospyrish. By hobart n. MeBrd. Z C.
CHAPTER xlII-con.lnu.d.

He rose up and they went on, with
out a word. Then presently they be-
gan to talk about Indifferent matters
almost as though nothing had oc-
cured.
They found a nest of turtles 6
and Jude marked 1t; farther along
they came upon something strange, a
sort of platform h~alf-covered with
sand. Jude said 1t was the foretop
Of a ship Junk and sanded over.
Its the Nombre de Dios, maybe"
said Radcliffe.
top Of an old ship, anyhow. See,
where the mast's broke or-she's
thirty or forty foot under that"
mot much good to us. even II she
Is the Nombre de Dios."
mot much"
The gulls seemed to agree, and tie
little waves. falling crystal clear on
the beach.
1t was near the end of the spit just
here, and the sands shelved out. los
Ing themselves in the Unreasonable
loneliness Of the sea stretching to
Mariguana and the Caicos and the
northern shoulder Of South America.
Jude, on her knees with a bit of
dr1ftwood, was scraping away the
and from the edge of the sunk fore
TOP, when something caught her eye.
a turtle had landed where they had
marked the eggs. II was so far away
thai 1t did not look bigger than a
half-dollar.
She flung the bit of driftwood away,
rose to her feet. and started running,
taking the extreme sea-edge where the
Aand was hard. Radcliffe followed.
4 They were half a minute too late. the
turtle turning hack to the sea and
leaving them spent and laughing. She
got down on her knees and hived the
eggs In her hat, still laughing. He
helped. filling his hat and his pockets,
and then they started for the lagoon
edge. Jude suddenly IN the widest
spirits. He had newer seen her in
such high. good spirits. When they
got board 1t was just the same. Even
Satan's maniacal passion for old junk.
expressed at supper in the determine
tion to spend two more days picking
and scraping at the Haliotis. did not
depress her, II only made her laugh.
you'll be cryin' before you're done
II you go on laughin' like that" said
Satan. whats possessed you, ehY'
Sure enough she was. The words
acted like a pin on a bubble.
She flushed, pushed her plate away.
half rose, and then sat down again.
you're always going on at me
Whatch'a want mt to do? II In
crying, I ought to be laughin'. an II
I'm laughin' l ought to be crying
I'll laugh as much as I want"
Then, logically, h broke into vio-
lent tears, rose, and ran on deck.
"What the h-l-nation's the matter
with her?' asked Satan.
-es don't know" replied Radcliffe.
HQ had time to think over the mat
he lay In his Junk that night.
He fell to wondering, among other
things, what the spell was that drew
him toward Jude and held him.
Was 1t the indefinable attractive
quality that had made her mother a
'nacheral calamity" where men were
concerned, or just the power Of youth?
Scarcely the latter. He had met lots
OF youth In his time. and II had not
attracted him inuch; besides. when
you have only IT, look into the look
ing-glass to see youth, It is ut a dis
count.
Puxzling over the matter. he came
to the bedrock fact that Jude, In
some extraordinary way. had the pow
er to make him feel more alive than
he had ever felt before.
Leaving other things aside. there
were an honesty, faithfulness, and
simplicity about Jude hat removed
her from the category of bifurcated
beings and raised her to the level OF
q dog.
Instinct told him that this compound
quality was worth more than all the
gold lying under the matches OF the
Nombre de Dios, more than all the
diamonds In the Rand. when com
bined with that other quality speak
ing In her level gaze-steadfnstness,
the something that would make her
keep the wheel In all w%eathers.
But these e~xcellences would have
been nothing without the impossible
tiles with which they were allied
social and %conventual impossIbilItics.
The one reacted on the other, making
an Irresistible whole combined with
the something else that WINS Jude.
He remembered the queer little
hugh with which she had freed her
self from his hand round her waist
then he fell asleep and dreamt that
he and Jude and n lot OF larrlkins
were lying in wait by n harbor blue
as the sen on jamaica. to clod bathing
Niger girls; and then he was chnslng
Jude round and round n tree. only to
catch her md nnd that she was Car
quinez.
When he got on deck next morning
he found the ssIp deserted. The 9th.
ers were AWAY on the sandbank. and
he amused himself by fishing till they
~Dofurned.
- Jude showed 10 traces Of the tears