San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-15
Begin Here Today.

1 DNSh AOoass
Ned Cornet, his fiancee, Lenore, and
BeSs, Il seamstress, are survivors of
a shipwreck. They land on an island
inhabited only by man named
Doomsdorf and his Indian wife.
Doomsdorf tells Them he has named
the island He'll" and warns Ned and
the girls that he is master of the ISL
and and that they must be his will
ing slaves.
Ned defies Doomsdonf and the two
| fight. Ned, however, is no match for
the big mans strength and is badly
| beaten. Second in command is the
squaw and she proves herself faith
full watch dog for her master.
Bess is the stronger of the two girls.
She makes up her mind TO be ready
for any opportunity of escape. Lee
| more seems helpless TO cope with the
situation. Now go on with the story.
but / really must get down to es-
sentials. It's so long since I've talked
TO the outside world that / can't help
being garrulous. TO begin With
came here some years ago, not en-
tirely by my own choice. Of course,
not even the devil comes 10 such
hell as this from his own choice.
There's always pressure from above"
He paused again, hardly aware of
the Mortified gaze with which his
hearers regarded him. A startling
change had come over him when he
spoke again. His eyes looked red
as weasels in the Swallowed room;
. a Of he x.nia.. e,,,
dued, yet throbbing with passion.
Il remember gray walls. long ago,
in Siberia" he went on slowly and
gravely. Il was not much more
than a boy, student at a great uni
versity-and then there were gray
walls in n gray, snow-swept land, and
gray cells with barred doors, and men
standing ever on watch with loaded
rifles, and thousands of human cat
tie in prison garb. 1t was almost
straight west of here, far beyond Ber-
ing sea, and sometimes inspectors
would come, stylish people like your
selves, except that they were bearded
men OF Petrograd, and look at us
through the bars as at animals in a
zoo, but they never intcrfered with
tHt way Mtlt L WIS
enemy of society. they said--so l be.
came an enemy Of society in reality.
Right then / learned a hate for So
ciety and n desire TO burn out the
heart of such weak things as you !"
He turned to them, snarling like a
beast.
"One day the chance came to es-
cape. While more cowardly men would
have hesitated, 1 pushed through and
out. On the way | learned a little
lesson-that none of the larger crea-
lures of the wild die as easily as men.
l found out that there is nothing more
to killing a man that is in your way
than killing a caribou 1 want TO eat
l didn't feel any worse about it af-
terward.
Il had to come across here.
couldn't forever escape the hue and
cry that was raised. Ultimately, /
landed ON this island-with Sindy and
few steel traps.
"In this climate we can trap al
most the whole year round. We can
start putting them out in a few days
more-keep them out clear TIL June.
Every year a ship-the Intrepid, that
you've likely heard of-touches here
to buy my furs-just one trip year
and it leaves here supplies of all
kinds in exchange. But don't take
hope from that. Hope is one thing
you want to get out of your systems.
The &ptain of the Intrepid and the
japanese crew are the only human
beings that know / live here, except
yourself-that know tn res hui
man occupant on this island. On
their yearly visit I'll see to it that
none of them get sight of you.
"Once i was used to working all
day from dawn to dark, with an armeda
master on guard over me. 1t isn't
going to be that way from now on.
I'm going TO be the armed master.
The next few days you're going to
spend building yourselves a shack and
cutting winter fuel. Then each of You
will have trap line-a good stiff
one, too. Every day you'll 60 out