Evening star., 1924-04-20
I HE PAGAN
BY JOHN RUSSELL
Heritage Vengeance the Son Without Hate and the Call of
the Half.Wild in Polynesia

finally drove him out OF his dreams
into making some sort OF a show for
himself.
He hurried to tho big house. He
donned q pair Of dove-gray panta
He Laid out q shirt with pearl but
tons Better stin, from q battered
cowhide trunk he unearthed old yell
low shoes. a jacket Of black alpaca
and q venerable silk waistcoat sprig-
Eed with forEet-me-notA Once he
had nearly strangled himself with
a collar button and had set . warped
straw hat to top the glory, he felt
like an armored knight; very gentle
manly. indeed. Then he marched
over to the store, where he relieved
his Niue-boy clerk and sold three
yards OF calico for q total proft OF
ten pence hS-penny and felt him
self . business man.
Tho moral uplift sustained hin, all
day long: until swift tropic night
began to pour in against the land:
until a lantern on Jaranson's cutter
cooked its baleful and expectant eye
at him across vitongo bay: until he
crcpt down cautiously to avoid his
dear cousin, Gordon-who doubtless
would be watching and spying some
where among the palm trees-and
padded out in his little outrigSer
proa on the dappling phosphorescence
Of the lagoon to achieve his destiny.
Tito was waiting for him Some
hA 40
would be waiting and he was glad,
though inwardly quaking. In a way,
this encounter was worse than the
prospect OF his ordeal with Joranson,
for a half-caste courtship is hedged
with infinite ceremony, and he never
had addressed actually a dozen words
to his lady love. He could SEQ her
gown as a lighter patch there on the
forward deck. So he put on his shoes
instruments of torture. which he
had saved to the last moment-and
climbed aboard over the cutters rail.
"A good even to you. Miss Joran-
son."
"A good even. Mister Shoesmith." :"
He swept Off his hat with q -four
ish. She made him a curtsey in
the grand manner OF the saddle
tinted aristocracy. But both of them
rather spoiled the effect by turning
an anxious glance toward the after
cabin. where their common ogre sat
alone at his dinner Their voices
were hushed.
Il did not hn' you at the prture
theater las Thursday night" began
Henry politely.
No. That was the same Might the
dance Of the Ladies' Tuina Club" re-
turned Tito primly.
AS matter Of fact, Henry had not
gone to the picture theater; neither
Rad Tito gone to the dance. These
were company conventions, to which
they desperately clung.
Business as been good today" OBJ
served Henry, tanning himself. Cop
ra is up again think there will be
much money in the villages this sea-
SON.
Yes. And much gay time in Apis y
agreed Tito. Two weddings viii be
scotland a christen' party
AS a matter of fact business and
parties were equally far from them. :.
out they were saying the proper
things.
OUT on the broad horizon grew a
faint halo. luminous with coming
moonlight. 1t made a backxrpund
for Tito's fllletbound head. Higher YET
huns two quivering points of radi-
ance. Henry thought they must be
hrefies caught in the dusky web Of
her hair. Then he saw they were
stars, and presently, as a wonderful
ana very dear and very intimate rev.
elauon, they showed him her face.
A hawless face, of a beauty that
would have matched a Reni Msdou-
na-the soft, rich, almost Latin beam
ty of her type. Henry knew it's
loveliness- But now as he looked
down at the tremulous mouth, the
glorious great eyes uplifted and
dwelling in his by the starlight
now in a dizzy sweep Of tenderness
he knew something else: her wistful
appeal; her trouble that answered
his own trouble--the same timfd and
passionate longing clouded with the
same complex of doubts and misxiv-
inEs and imposed restraints possessed
each Of them.
She wore q tight frock OF some
pink stuff On her arms. smooth and
firm as copper cast as flesh, and over
her superb shoulders she had tied
wooly shawl. By one ear dangled
q bunch OF ribbon. and she went
mincfng In ballroom slippers-velvet
with jet trimmings-the kind that
knock about all the shelves of the
Pacific in 3ob-lot consignments for
the colonial trade Her whole splen-
did body, made for sun and freedom
and the embrace Of cresting seas. had
been pinched and frilled and tricked
out in q pathetic attempt at fashion-
With sudden enlightenment Henry
recognized the pathos-not, as anoth-
er might have done, the absurdity,
Of 1t: suddenly this girl who had