Evening star., 1939-10-08
Il Short Story Complete in This Issue

and the barnacled piles of the long pier stalked
across it like centipede crawling across
mirror
moored at the piers end. The vessel seemed
so small to have held so much of happiness for
year. Its rigging stood etched against the
1 brillance Of the tropic sunset like the fine
..lsreads from which her love had been spun.
A current of air touched her face. 1t was
= too faint to stir even the fronds of the palms
- SO faint that it might have been night
. Erd winging by, but it was relief after the
mid breathlessness of the jungle. For a
while she had thought that she was lost, so
many were the trails forking off in all drec
lions; then the jungle had opened again as
suddenly as it had closed upon her two hours
,arlier
She brushed from her face the invisible
webs which insects had hung across her path,
almost wishing that she had been lost. She
was tall blue-eyed girl, and her cotton dress
cung damply to her wellformed limbs. She
Strengthened it self consciously, remembering
what the doctor had told her two hours earlier.
She had gone into the forest to be alone with
this new problem To get hold of herself, to
try to think. But all she could think OF was
how glad she was that she hadn't been sure
enough to tell Peter.
She walked quickly down to the white
beach, avoiding the village where Union
Jack hung Imply on its pole from the Resident
Agents bungalow When she turned up on the
pier she saw no smoke from the schooner S
galley and knew that the crew was still
ashore The deck was deserted as she walked
down the gangplank. She went aft, pausng IN
the open scuttle of the companion tor
moment and her ears caught the fretting OF
the surf on the outer reef Then she went
below and lit the cuddy lamp.
The first thing that met her eyes was one
of Peters neckties hanging over the back of
a chair where he had tossed it in favor Of a
better one as he dressed to 60 ashore. AS she
picked it up to put it away. the smell OF
tobacco which clung to it was like some heady
iraught that made her senses reel, She laid 1t
against her cheek.
Night fell with its tropic suddenness. 1t was
| the time of the day she had loved - when the
many tasks were done. the watch had been
set and the mate was in charge. Peter would
pring his ledger or log to the table under the
swinging cuddy lamp and, pipe in mouth. 90
over his accounts or his days score, scratching
his head frowningly now and then when his
iomely arithmetic did stunts with his cal
culations.
She would listen for his wheezy pipe to go
dead, which was the signal for him to close
the book and for her to put her sewing away.
Thev'd lie in the double bunk, listening to
fhe kissing wake and the sails Stating on deck
above their heads She would lie there safe
and content thousand miles from shore
ecause his arm was about her. and she could
] scar the beating of his strong heart.
Tonight she crept under the covers. shiver
ng. although the cabin was still hot from the
sun beating on the deck all day. She lay still,
wondering if she could ever bring herself to
| fit into the curve of his arm again. She real
lzed what a year of marriage to Peter had
done to her; how utterly dependent she had
become on him for happiness.
They talked very little. His business as the
CAPTAIN of trading schooner was as strange
to her as if he had been an alChemist. 1t never
ceased to amaze her how he could find his
way from port to port across thousands OF
miles of traCkless sea. When he came below
at noon with his sextant after taking observa-
tions and went into the chart room, and after
..:.,,+o, c,voa Cut and told her how