Evening star., 1925-05-10

young girls. So 1 was en-
tirely to blame for being startled
when there walked into the smoking
room of the hotel, where I was sit
ting alone. a young and very pretty
girl, who threw me a careless glance,
then began. apparently, to undress.
Taken thus off my guard. 1 stared
at her, then looked fo~,d for the
camera man, for this was down in
the moving picture country. But
there was no camera man. l was
about to retire when the girl eX-
tracted a pin which had been stick
ing into some part of her. reassem-
bled again, then remarked:
Clothes are great bother, aren't
they. 1 don't see why people want
to wear so many of Them
She shook her head and tumbled
down a bale of insecurely fastened
ruddy hair.
Bother" said she, impatiently,
It's just the same with your hair.
So many silly little pins and things!
l don't know how to make it stay.
Do you?'
Il never tried" I answered, so
the chances are should make a mess
of it. If you go into the ladies'
dressing room the maid might fix it
for you"
She ignored the advice and fas-
tened me with a pair of large eyes
which were of a pale but very soft
long black lashes. / saw Immediately
from their expression that I had to
do with some sort of a primitive.
You look very nice" said she.
do you know my father?'
Than you,' l answered. What is
your fathers name?"
't1lliot Fiske. We have just got
here from long way Off 1 never
saw any people before. Father says
I'm sure he wouldn't mind my speak
ing to you"
But / was hardly listening. Elliot
Fiske-Elliot Fiske. The name was
entirely familiar. Some time or other
had known one Elliot Fiske, and the
vague association impressed me as
having been a pleasant one. The
girl interrupted my effort at recol-
lection.
What is your name?" she asked.
"Mine is Lucia
And mine is Arthur Brown"
answered, at which she clapped her
hands.
Then suddenly 1 remembered Elliot
Fiske as one of the American art
students at Julian'S Paint School,
when l had studied there nearly %
years ago, and one of the widest of
that rollicking crowd. 1t seemed to
me also that / had heard somewhere
of his having been lost at sea.
"Of course" 1 said, and as / spoke
Fiske himself came in. / doubt if 1
should have known him. He did not
look to have aged so much. though
his hair and Van Dyck had whitened,
but his handsome face was tanned
and weather-roughened. as if from
,f ho n
strong. virile intensity of expression
utterly lacking in the Elliot Fiske
whom 1 remembered. His body, too,
gave a suggestion of splendid mus
cular strength and nervous tonicity.
Here you are again!" he snapped
to Lucia. How many times must l
tell you to keep out of the smoking
room and not to bother strangers?"
Hello, F'iske," interrupted.
years?"
LIE recognized me at once. Then
L some woman acquaintance look
ed in and called to Lucia, who went
out with rush. F'iske dropped into
4 chair with a sigh.
Now what the deuce am I to do
with a young savage like that?" he
demanded Just think of it, Brown:
until a week ago she'd never seen a
living person but her mother and old
Andre and myself
"Where have YOU been?" asked.
In Magellan Land. Old uncle Salt
onstall stuck me on one of his wind
TANNERS for a voyage round the Horn
to cure me of the liquor habit"
Did yeu get cured?"
You bet, 1 was cured before we
, crossed the line, but it wasn't the dry
ness of the ship that did 1t. The
skipper was a secret drinker, and he
was taking out the niece of a French
wine-grower in California. Her name
was Renee Duffroy. and she was a
beauty. 1 fell in love with her, of
course.
"Oh, it was a beastly cruise, and
kept getting worse the nearer we got
to the Horn. Down there off old Cape
Stiff the mate was swept overheard
one night, and the second mate fell
from aloft and smashed himself to
pieces, and just then the old man
blew up in a raging attack of dts and
saw sea serpents and things tearing
over the waves and clashing their
jaws. The crew got at the liquor,
and. with all hands drunk, we got
caught aback and dismasted. Before
this we'd been swept repeatedly. and
lost all of our boats and most of
the hands. Then the weather cleared,
and we found ourselves wallowing in
the backwash from the foot of tower
ing cliffs, and finally slowed into a
blight and fetched up in iandlockcd
basin on three big pronss of rock"
How many Of you were there?'
"SiX of us. Renee and the skipper
and Andre, the cook, two of the hands
and myself 1t was a terrific sort of
place-huge, heaped-up. jagged cliffs.
7 full of caverA and grottoes. and far
ther inland there were high plateaus
and deep gorges and valleys with boil
ing springs and geySers and things.
The sea roared against it. and the
wind roared over it., and part was
frozen and part steaming, and there
were seals and myriads of birds and
good many wild goats. 1t was an
island, I think, though in 20 years
time never got all the way across it
to see. In the basin where the ship
fetched up there were places where
the water boiled up hot and fresh in
big. fiat eddies, and in some of the
little valleys the vegetation was trop-
ical. You can't imagine such mixed
up place, and it had a sort Of fan.
tastic beauty of the TurnereSque
school. A few miles away a mini
ature volcano got semi-active once in
while and turned the atmosphere a
ruddy saffron. 1t was an awful place
for thunderstorms, too"
"And you've just come from there?'
Yes. After about 1S months Of it,
without ever sighting SO much as
smoke, we built a pinnace. and the
skipper and two hands cleared out
but they must have been lost. Be
fore the skipper left he married
Renee and me, and about year later
Lucia was born. Andre preferred to
stay with us.