John Fleming Wilson

“ Angela gulped. Her eyes were filled with pleading. “You despise me!”
“Not I!” he answer sharply. “I despise myself. And all this time I never dreamed that—I might have had you.”
A maddening terror seized her. She lifted herself stiffly and closed her eyes in torture. He saw the lines of agony trace themselves in her face.
“Then—there's some one else—another woman?”
Before her blind eyes Somers's lips formed a hasty “No!” but no sound came. He rose and walked quietly away, struggling with himself. His hands clenched, his muscles tightened under the terrific strain of his unworthy longing. ”

“ The world has forgotten the wreck of the Shearwater and the mystery of it. But you and I were Harry’s friends. We were Kitty’s friends. And for the sake of the two of them I’m going to tell you the truth to-night. Then we are never going to whisper so much as a word all the rest of our lives. Some people would misunderstand.”
He lighted his pipe deliberately and stared into the grate a moment. Gorham is noted in many ports for his mumness, his almost savage insistence on plain facts, his steady judgment. ”

“ The Oldest Journalist lit another cigar and smoked in silence a moment. Then he repeated his last word: “Lonely. You are young and can occasionally catch a friendly eye in the crowd. We both have our profession, our work. But sometimes in these warm seas, under these gleaming stars, I pause an instant and know what loneliness is. Maybe it’s bred in our bones, this Anglo-Saxon feeling, in the dumbest of us, for our social life. Anyway, I think I understand Simpkins. He wanted a place in a community, to be somebody—to be chairman of the floor committee at the ball of a leper settlement. ”

“ In all this splendor the Maid of Bath became small and diminished; the island looked miniature, surrounded by the iridescent sea. Somers changed the course and headed in where a space showed be tween the lines of leaping breakers on the reef.
For some time they slipped along soundlessly. Presently the boom of the surf rose about them. Somers took the wheel himself and conned the schooner, with two hands forward in the bows and two at the sheets. The deck began to rise and fall with greater liveliness, the blocks of the gear to thump and creak. ”

“ THE torpedo got home right abreast the bridge, and when the racket subsided and I found myself still alive, it took but a glance to show me that the Cerulean was mortally injured. She was already careening to starboard as the sea poured into the huge gap in her steel side. But quick as my glances had been, and swift as my decision, Captain Jones' had anticipated me. To this day I'm unable to guess how he escaped the first force of the explosion, for the deck where he had stood was gone. ”

“ For the third time the sampan, carrying Flint, crept out through the shining reaches of Pearl Harbor and toward the spot where the little buoy bobbed on the waves. The contractor could see the diving boat slowly coming in under the impulse of her sweeps. There was no wind. Skin Flint nodded to the Japanese to let the boat lie, and he peered over the side into the lucid depths. ”

“ Griffiths remarked, and he summoned the steward.
Standing together at the chart-table with the hot dishes before them, the two began to eat slowly, thoughtfully, as if there was nothing more to be said. The silence continued until the simple meal was finished and the steward brought the Captain his second cup of coffee and cleared away the other dishes. It was the Captain who spoke first, setting his coffee-cup down with a delicacy that brought a lump into Isabel’s throat, it so reminded her of the physical perfection of trained muscles and nerves that had always marked his movements. ”

“ You want power and money and position. But you love me. You need me.”
Once more she turned to the other, to her betrothed. I could see that she hoped he would save her from herself; show a valiancy that would help her word of honor, and assure to her what she had so shrewdly intrigued to attain. But the heir was under the spell of the cold eyes of the Silent Presence.
I would have leaped to save that woman for myself. She was magnificent. But Destiny! We all cry out that name. It made me bank-clerk, instead of the prime minister of a king! ”

“ It is incredible how engrossed we became in this exploration; how the yearning for just one germ of life grew in our hearts, how it seemed as if our very passionate seeking must succeed.
At the end of the three weeks Anerson’s savage temper broke completely. He tossed his salmon away and sulked, bursting almost immediately into a frightful paroxysm that compelled Nelson and myself to exert every ounce of our tact. ”

“ He looked at me with those grim eyes of his and added: "So long as I live she'll never even have to listen to suggestions of what life can be made when one is wicked."
He was right and I said nothing. He was protecting the purity of her love for him, the gentle and pure affection that was like an altar candle in her heart. Tantor Martin was decent. He wasn't even urging her to marry him quickly because he was afraid. The girl—the woman one loves—is sacred—even when one marries her—I understood Tantor.
But Burton's love for her had turned to something infernal. ”

“ Nelson turned up the flickering wick of the bulkhead lantern and we stared at each other—the Evanses, Anerson, Meta Braun, and myself.
While the gale still bellowed overhead and we could hear the swift rush of water past the ship’s side, we all distinctly heard the voice of Nelson saying: “Land! Land! We’re ashore, by all that’s holy—and there’s no land here!”
“Are we dead?” demanded Meta shrilly. ”

“ If ever a man had a chance to prove himself, he had. But he fumbled with his cuffs and stammered something about “impudence.” Under her gaze, I thought for one moment that he would find his manhood. I tell you, he had his chance. One word of defiance, one movement to assert his rights, one generous impulse to strike for his own soul and the woman he had sworn to love and cherish, would have saved him. But he stammered weakly.
Slowly the woman’s rich eyes turned back to the man who had spoken so boldly. I see him yet, destiny incarnate, the very magnet of her passion, master of her soul! ”

“ Gorham went on composedly:
“At dawn we still had six miles to drag the Western Pacific. The line still held, because of Owen’s extraordinary seamanship. That was his hold on his crew. I am convinced that no other man afloat could have kept his men at work as Harry did. And what work!
“The gale had piled up a sea that ran irresistibly from horizon to horizon, which lifted the Shearwater up to dizzy heights, flung her savagely to one side, dropped her into vast hollows that resounded like caverns. ”

“ He saw the sack strike the shadow that was Axel Gustafsen, and instantly there was a flicker of the knife. Flint leaned farther out. Other shadows were gathering. Then a dark cloud enveloped the shadow that was the diver and as if from a great distance Skin Flint heard a shout from the other boat and a rapid order. But he had no eyes for anything but the shadows below him. He saw the whole mass slowly rise, but the black cloud enveloped it and he laughed.
“Blood!” he muttered. "He cannot see to strike with his knife.” ”

“ Angela crouched apart, her eyes stony, her lips bloodless.
HE shattered the quiet. “Then,” he croaked, “you are my wife.”
She made no response.
Somers moved slightly. “When did you marry—marry me?”
“Oh!” she sobbed.
“You made a game of it,” he went on. “What a game! And you couldn't find me at the last, and so you went right on and played the game alone and said you were married to me, and took my name and came down here.” His eyes flared over her an instant. “You are young and beautiful and clean and fine. Any man might be proud. But it—it is too late!” ”

“ Buxton, the mate, threw his roving eyes about the saloon and openly cursed the whole outfit, easily and freely. 'By heavens, I never thought I'd get down to this,' he told me. 'Now, you've got a good berth waiting for you, Captain, when you get this old tub into port. But, I swear, I'll be ashamed to look for another ship. Who'd have thought I'd ever work for a Jap?'
"The engineer glanced up from his plate, and his watery eyes held a doubtful, sly look that offended me. 'If she breaks down we'll have a devil of a time getting to shore,' he said, almost menacingly. ”

“ The wreck rode to the drag of the cable in uneven swings. Now she took a wave on the starboard bow, now on the left. Once in a. while a sullen crash and sharp quiver of the hulk told of a surge met squarely.
Through the heavy glasses in the ports of the low deck-house came a slight glow, showing that the survivors of the crew still felt confidence in their shelter.
“She’s riding it well!” I cried in Nelson’s ear.
“Not long!” he bellowed back. “Ship’s old—leaking—sea rising.”
And then we were joined by a third figure, Meta Braun. ”

“ Years passed. Each dawn saw the king seated in his chair. Each noon passed over his head without eliciting a single movement; night settled down from the hills and cast over that immutable, gigantic figure the majesty of obscurity. I went about the business of the island; I trafficked and ruled; I was the Providence of a thousand natives under his invisible scepter. Wealth poured in by every schooner. Hibiscus became rich. My duties multiplied. And still each day I was conscious of that huge Presence seated there under the palm. ”

“ But Isabel insisted that you hadn’t had a chance, and for her sake I gave you a further trial. I have a rule in my business, Griffiths!”
The answer was a slight, definite gesture of protest.
“It is to have nothing to do with people who don’t pay dividends on the investment,” Ellery went on. “I invest my daughter’s happiness in a career to you, and I get nothing. I am going to get rid of you.”
“By dividends you mean that I don’t strike you as a success as a clerk in your office,” Griffiths returned. “I’m not. Of course I’m not. If I were, I should have no hopes of ever making Isabel happy.” ”

“ You see Burton of the Hazel saw all this and he fell in love with the girl, too. You knew him—a smooth, quiet, dangerous fellow. He was awfully nice to Gertrude, and she, being that kind of girl that likes everybody and knows no evil, took him for what he professed to be. And she made Tantor Martin smile at him. Tantor even forget his old grudge against Burton, though he remembered that Burton had been no friend of his during the time they were thrashing out the little matter of the Tam O'Shanter and Captain Dare. ”

“ Simpkins there passed away the single citizen of the unfortunate colony on Molokai who pursued the avocations of a friendly life without any reference to the misery and despair about him. Mr. Simpkins did not make many close friends, but the streets of Kalaupapa will be the sadder for lack of his untroubled countenance, and the pale festivities of the settlement will move less joyously for want of one participant who never by word or act or glance gave any reminder to his fellow citizens of their infirmity or their separation from the world of the active and healthy. ”