The Bozeman courier., 1927-06-24

BQree hauakaS dONdnCS0
state OF exhaustion, and native woman
who was eXpending the last remnants
Of her strength in the care OF a very
sickly white infant.
These were taken back to the ship, and
the nurse died in the course Of the next
day, and one of the. Kanakas few days
later. The two remaining Kanakas had
practically nothing to say about the
white child.
They had been the deck hands of an
inter-island trading schooner. They had
been beating up towards the COnStella-
tions during a stiff blow when they sight
ed a cutter making very heavy weather.
This cutter followed them into Lagoon
inlet, which is the only good harbor OF the
Consultations, and boat came of from
| it. 1t brought aboard tall, thin white
man, an old Chinaman, his body servant,
the native woman nurse, and the white
child, who was very i'll. This white man
had bargained with the captain OF the
schooner to carry them quickly to near
by port so that doctor could attend to
the child. The little cutter was too dan
gerous a craft for such weather.
The mans price must have been good,
! for the master of the schooner put out
against the barometer and a day later
was caught in the bad weather which
wrecked him. He, his mate, and the
thin white man were drowned when the
schooner went down in deep water. Four
Kanakas got ashore with the woman and
Chinaman, both badly hurt, and the
child. They had been on the island more
than week before being picked up, dur
ing which time one Kanaka and later
the old Chinaman died.
| Before she died the native nurse had
been unable to speak, and the surviving
natives could tell nothing about the
child, its name or from where it came.
The woman and the Chinaman seemed
to have been curiously secretive and
dwelt apart with the child on the atoll.
Tney had learned that the white man
was not the father of the child but the
brother Of the mother, but whether the
mother and father were alive, and If so,
where they lived, had not been discov-
cred. The KanakaS had never before
seen the cutter that appeared so mys-
teriouSly out of the sea, and the cutter
had added to the mystery by being
nameleSS. There was nothing on the
baby to help identification.
Apart from an insufficiently maternal
stewardess, Roger Stonor's wife was the
only woman on the rescuing ship, and
she, with the aid of a doctor going on
leave, saved the baby's life.
By the time San Francisco was reached
he had become fine, healthy boy Of be-
tween three and four years old. And
something else had happened. He had
endeared himself to the childleSs StOn-
OrS, to Roger quite as much as his wife,
and they had made up their minds to
too possible. The childs parents were
never found, though Roger Stonor, rich
solicitor, had done all that was humanity
possible by lawyer and advertisement to
trace them. 1t was, in time, decided
that mother and father must have gone
down with the cutter in the rough
weather, and that the child must be an
orphan. He was therefore given the name
Of Mark Stonor and brought up as thet
child.
This revelation, though leaving Marx
| with a certain blank, served to explain
a great deal 1t explained what he haC
thought were his queer dreams. They
had been strange dreams for one who
J lived in cities. There had been ships ir
: them and the Tilt and swing of the sea
Some had the throb and the heave anc
the sense Of stuff1ness Of a small steamer
: cabin, with the face Of a woman bending
} over him. That was probably Mrs. Stono
nursing him back to life on the small
I ship that rescued him. The vast swing
ing deck of q liner was undoubtedly tina
t one which carried them all from Amer
. lea to England.
But the other dreams had wanted som
placing. The dream of a small kicking
deck and sails that swung clatterinl
above his head, of black man snatchini
! him up in his arms because SOmehOI
the swing of that sail had meant DANCE
T to him, of seas coming with a founc
2 ship, and his game of being frightene,
3 at these seas. And half naked brow
men who had laughed with a great dis
Z play Of bright teeth at his pretense O
e fright.
: He had never been able to under
q stand how the heave and rush of tina
{ small sailing ship had got into hi
Z dreams before Roger Stonor had eX
9 Iplained. Nor the wonderful brightneS
K of the days through which that shi
ST.
u islands that shyly crept by them at time
u Only when Stonor spoke Of his hidde
U past did he realize that he must hav
Il sailed on that small vessel-the cutie
y perhaps or a schoOner-and sailed on
- for a long time.
it His father, he came to think, mus
have been the master Of that vesse
E. From amid his glittering dreams he di
- entangled a tall, somber man with
% beard.
lie There was another white man, too,
tall, thin one, undoubtedly the unc
% who had been drowned on the inte
le island schooner. And there had been
lu woman, dear woman. She carried hi
~ and played with him a lot. She wa
u he felt. his real mother. And yet
lo wondered if this was but a mere col
IL fusion of memory, because in his dream
5e that woman also seemed to be bendil
20 over him in stuffy ships cabin as we
as in hot, bright room OF some hou
lis on land. Was he mixing this dear men
r ory up with Mrs. StonOr, who had al
ed been lovely and tender?
ch The house on land was by a thunde
rs ing blue sea. Tt was set against dancil
he green palms on the edge Of beach
he silver. He remembered that sand wi
k glamour. The feet slipped back in it
Ii one walked. Also it had a glorious h
at tickling effect if let escape from t
ad hands on to the bare legs. The whC
he of the memory Of this place was c
IS quisite; it's color, its jewel-like howe
ad the clear, warm wonder of its sunligl
the vision Of the small sailing ship a
od chored OFF shore and looking like 10y
10 ly toy, and finally the queer single h
65 away to the right, which somehow cal
NJ to his memory as the Witch's Hat.
IRE was always in the picture, that que
~ sharp hill that rose so abruptly out o.
. mat of greenery that seemed to make
brims But why he called it the Witc
Hat he did not know. Had the won
made up a story about it?
The lnupIfnaCC Cf this T0IoPa tho thI