, 1923-06-13
CHAPTER x
Dishcd.

wv NIlt Z
In the north the sea was of a violet
blue accentuated by the white blaze
of the sands.
The sands, once one got moving on
them, were full of interest, strewn
along the sea-edge with all sorts of
prizes-colored shells, cuttlefsh bones,
extraordinary seaweeds, bits of wreck
age; a few yards out a nautilus fleet
was steering, with tiny sails set to the
wind, the oldest ships that ever float
ed on the sea, unspoiled by storm and
time, just as they were launched in
the morning of the world. He watched
them for awhile, ~forgetful of the gulls'
eggs, or quicksands, or the sun, now
sensibly declining.
He saw to his satisfaction that the
gulls were beyond his reach, a broad
channel of water cutting the spit in
two right ahead. He took his seat
on an old spar for a moment TO rest
and look about, and as he sat the
gulls, wheeling and crying. kept up
around him the elusive atmosphere
of ~storyland.
All III lltlltN Ill lIt NbTll tOulu
moi have brought him that! Nor could
he have found it had he landed here
from a yacht with grown-up com
p%anions.
He fell TO thinking what an extraor-
dinarily lucky person he was, and to
plume himself on his instructive wis
dom in dropping SHELTON and civilian
ton for Jude and Satan, who had led
him into n world of things he had
never e things he had never imag-
ined, things he had half-forgOtten.
Carqlinez alone was n revelation,
to say nothing of Sellers and Cleary.
There was only one cloud. smaller
than a mans hand hut there where
was II to end? II was all very well
talking to Jude about. sailing round
the world: you can't sail out of Time.
and the time would come-the time
would come
Jude was winding threads round
him as a silkworm winds a cocoon
tiny threads but deathly strong. 1t
was almost ms though she were' be
coming part of hlmself-part of him
self and part the sun and freedom
and blue sea. Well. there was no use
In bothering. So he said to himself,
and as he said II the cloud no larger
than n mans hand swelled and twist
ed and rolled across the sandspit be-
fore him. resolving itself into a troupe
Of female relations. male relations.
frfends-people as remote from Satan
and Jude as parrots from seagulls,
Gagged parrots content in the great
gilded cage of convention.
What would they say about Jude?
He had an instructive knowledge of
what Jude would say about them, If
they ever met, which seemed impos-
sible.
Then came the weird recollection
that they had. in n way, actually met.
She had met SHELTON. the high priest
of the whole crowd. Sir William Skel-
ton, Bart. Old Popplecock was the
label she had affixed to him. and II
meho stuck and fitted. What label
would she affix 10 his aunts, his two
maiden mid Victorian aunts, should
she ever meet them?
A faint halloo from the south g
aunts and all other considerations fly
ing. He turned. Jude. far away on
the sands. was coming toward the
dinghy. She was carrying something
and running MS II pursued; then he
saw her trip and fall.
She was on her feet in n second,
and the thing pursuing her had EVIL
IDENTIFY given up the hunt. for she
stood examining something she had
picked up from the ground. ana
seemed regardless of everything else.
He waited for her by the boat and
as she came up he guessed the trag-
edy. She had been carrying n hatfnl
of birds eggs and had smashed them
when she fell. The hat was eloquent.
CTo DE coNTINuED)