Evening star., 1924-07-13

leaves of the cliff plants glistened
with spray moisture. At the end OF
the little beach the girl paused and
then turned to look out to sea, bal
ancing herself on a slab of wet, shiny
granite. where the cone-shaped she'll
fish clustered and from which the
long green weed floated out and in
on the heave of the tide. The girl
held back the red hair that whipped
about her forehead and stared from
under an arched palm.
TeS naught but plaguey dolphin
d'believe," she muttered yet still
stayed for one more glimpse of the
dark thing that was bobbing VI
through the curdling foam pattern
A singing scatter of spray blew into
her eyes, binding her, and when she
looked again the dark thing had come
nearer, and she saw it to be the body
of man caught in the ratlines OF
some shrouds that the seas action
had Tapped around drifting mast
Were 1t not that his chin was hitched
over the ratlines, so that he was
borne along with his face-a pale
foam-upturned. he would doubtless
have sunk. for he was not dashed to
the mast in any way.
The girl called to him twice in her
strong, rough voice; then, since even
If he still lived he was past any con-
sciousness of doing SO. she kept her
energies for the saving of him. Wad-
ing in as deep as she dared-not
more than up to her hips, for even
then the heave and suction of the
water threatened to knock her off her
feet-she clung on to a ridge of rock
with one hand, and. leaning forward,
made snatcheS at the spar whenever
1t surged toward her
TO her dismay she saw that with
every heave his legs must be catch
ing against some rocks, for his head
began to sink away from the support
ing ratlines, and when at last she
caught one end of the spar she only
succeeded in drawing it away from
him. His head disappeared. The next
minute surge of undercurrent
brought him knocking against her
legs; she just managed to hold on
with one hand while with the other
she plunged down at him. Her fingers
met the cold sickness of his face.
then caught in his tangled hair, and,
drawing herself UP backward against
the rock lodges. she pulled him with
her, step by step. A few minutes
more and she had staggered up the
narrow strip "a beach with her bur-
den dragged from her arms.
Tumbling him along the dryer sand
at the cliffs foot, she knelt beside
him and pulled apart the clinging
shirt. She felt at his heart, then
laid her ear to the pale glistening
chest where the dark hair was mat
ted to a point between the breasts.
She beat that pale chest with her
hand, and at last saw the faint red
respond TO the blows of her fingers.
On that much of hope she desisted,
seemed to hesitate, then, half hauling
him up by hand beneath each shoul-
der, she began dragging him toward
where the cliff curved outward again
to the sea
At a point some three or four feet
from the ground the cliff overhung
so that it was possible to imagine
creeping beneath it at low tide,
though d curtain of glossy spleen
wort hung down so thickIy it was
difficult to tell. Going upon her
knees, the girl crawled backward un-
der the, dripping dark green fringe
and pulled the man in after her.
Within, a tunnel, in which it was soon
possible to walk upright, led at
gradual incline up to what was ap-
parently the heart of the cliff, that
here was honeycombed into those
smugglers' caves of the west of
which even now all the secrets are
herself and him. and at last dragged
him triumphantly into the big cave
where she and her father, Bendigo
Keast, stored the smuggled goods in
which they traded SO successfully.
1t was very dark, but with accus-
toned hands she felt for the small
iron box in which the flint and tinder
were kept; soon a tiny flame sprang
10 life, and she passed it on to wick
sinking fishoil on the floor. In the
mere breath of light thus given the
rows of stacked barrels loomed dimly
the outermost curve of each gleam-
ing family, while between them the
shadow lay banded.
Thomasin keast ran some brandy
from little keg near into her palm
and tilted it between&the mans teeth,
then stopped the raw spirit over his
shirt, drenching it again. Then
not stripping him, for the modesty
of a Cornish woman, who thinks
shame to show even her feet, pre-
vented that-she filled her hands with
brandy and ran them in under his
clothes, rubbing tirelessly up and
down until the flesh began to Try
and tingle, and all the time that his
life was coming painfully and re-
luctantly back to him under her
strong, glowing hands, she felt as
though some presage of new life were
flowing into herself.
The old saw has it that the saving
OF a drowning man brings i'll luck
to his rescuer, but Thomasin, as she
watched grow in his features that
intangible something which makes
the face human instead of a mere
mask. scorned the superstition, and
still more she scorned it as her
urgent hands felt the rising beat of
his pulses and arteries. For she felt
him hers-hers by right of discovery
as well as right of salvage.
THOMASIN KEAST and her father
lived in "a little foursquare cot.
tage set about half a mile from the
headland-a half-mile of thorn and
bracken Of tumbied powders and