George Allan England

“ After a while the castaways reached the palm grove of the pools under the Hooding golden sunshine. Here, on the sand, a cheery fire blazed. A ship's knee, sand-polished, made a fireplace of sorts. Driftwood lay near. The smoke, which harbingered cookery, smelled savory.
“Great!” approved Lee. “Valeska can keep the fire and we'll both get wood.”
“No,” Langdon vetoed. “I'll look out for the fire myself. That's easier than dragging up wood. You two can be the wood-getters.” ”

“ The cooking sun, now doing what cooking usually does—approaching meal-time—disclosed Valeska very much bathed and laundered, and with her masses of hair twisted up most fetchingly. That hair was held by palm-leaf splinters in lieu of the usual pins. Valeska looked as pretty as it was humanly possible to look under the circumstances, which was very pretty indeed—deliciously fresh and fair. It is a singular anomaly that woman, the fairest creature in the world, is also the unfairest. ”

“ The human heart is inescapably blandished by roasted turtles' eggs, grilled iguana steak and sweet coconut milk quaffed through holes drilled with a knife in the shells.
Tobacco added the culminant touch. Even Valeska, not in on the tobacco, began to feel more at peace with all the world—except Langdon Phillips. ”

“ No man should look a gift pipe in the mouthpiece.” He filled from Langdon's box.
“Oh,” explained Langdon, “it isn't a gift pipe at all. The tobacco isn't a gift, either.” He puffed his own pipe to a glow. “Here; I'll scrape a little fire into your pipe—so. All right?”
Lee accepted, and drew his tobacco alive. His mood wasn't for argument just then. But Valeska, her cheeks burning, asked:
“What do you mean, Mr. Phillips? You—you're selling this pipe and tobacco to my father?”
“Certainly,” affirmed Langdon. “I've only got part of a box. It's immensely valuable. Why shouldn't he pay for it?” ”

“ When a man laughs just that way, his nerves are frayed pretty raw.
“You've got me—for now,” he admitted. “The Chinese say, 'Bow before even a wicked monkey when he's in power.' I'm not a fool. Give me that stick!”
“I'll rent it to you for one egg a day,” smiled Langdon, his sunburned face engagingly unmoved. “Better get busy. The longer you chew the rag the longer it'll be before you chew anything else. The eggs are likely to be anywhere along the upper slopes of the beach. You just have to dig—that's all. And as for iguanas, you merely have to follow these trails in the sand.”
Lee nodded. ”

“ And Lee grew purple.
“Every day there'll be something for you,” Langdon inexorably continued. “I never put off till to-morrow the man I can do to-day. And——”
“Why, sir, if you think I—I'm going to be your slave——”
“Suit yourself,” Langdon smiled indifferently. “Only, remember you already owe me a dozen turtles' eggs for that pipe and tobacco, and thirty sticks of wood for the use of my knife. Also, one iguana for the water you and your daughter have already used.” ”

“ Afar, buzzards soared away, stiff-winged against the azure. And an occasional serpentine trail cut the sands.
“Iguana steak,” Langdon remarked, “is excellent when properly grilled over a driftwood fire. We are decidedly getting on.”
After shucking along some minutes through the sand, with the sun now beginning to cook his brains, he heard a trickle of water from a palm thicket on some slightly rising ground. This trickle proceeded from a tiny spring that, after dallying in a couple of clear pools, overflowed onto the beach and was there absorbed. ”

“ About half an hour after Sandy Hook light faded into the shadowy grays of the horizon-line, Langdon ran plump into Severance Lee and his daughter Valeska on the upper starboard deck. Fate sometimes plays little tricks like that. ”

“ It had probably sunk in the mud or had floated away.
When Langdon returned to the grove, looking ill-slept but cheerful, Lee greeted him with some medium-bad language and Valeska with a cold white silence. But Langdon only smiled.
“Boat? What d'you care? You'd given up thinking of using it, anyhow. Even if you two could get away in a small boat, you'd be wrecked or starved. This is a good, safe island. There's wood enough to keep you busy for weeks and weeks. Food is plentiful, even though not much varied. Why worry?” ”

“ Langdon promised.
“Bath?” queried Lee, a bit lorn and anxious-eyed.
“And wash my clothes,” the young man added. “This mud on me doesn't make any kind of a hit. By the way, keep out of the sun as much as possible. You might go up under those gum-trees, beyond that green-scummed pool. But look out for ticks on the guinea-grass. They're hard to get off till they've filled themselves with blood. So are the leeches in these pools. And don't poke any floating logs. Logs may be alligators. ”

“ A majestically cosmic loneliness closed its hand about the shipwrecked trio. The fire burned low, grew filmed with ash, under which coals glowed like angers unavenged. Langdon directed his peon to drag up a timber from near the surf, and supervised arranging it so that the fire should last all night. One is careful of one's capital. At last he remarked:
“Well, I'll toddle along now. We've got a hard day ahead of us to-morrow. That is, you have, Mr. Lee. I'm going to have you try and bag a 'gator. Good night, both.”
Valeska didn't even know he existed. ”

“ One young man, clean, calm and unburdened, sauntering along the beach in care-free fashion; and,
Item: One distressed father, grim, grimed, sweating and toilsome, with bulging pockets; his right arm heaped with driftwood sticks, his left hand dragging a four-foot lizard.
This lizard, which Lee was hauling by the tail, had formidable jaws, crooked legs and puffy throat. It was mottled, also decorated with improbable frills, spines and crests.
“Oh!” formed the limit of Valeska's speech. Then her eyes flamed. They would have shriveled Langdon had that nonchalant young man been shrivelable. ”

“ Those sandpipers out on the mud-flats prove that this key supports life. I see some pelicans, too, down by that point to westward. Coconuts are edible. The swamps are likely to contain alligators and other reptiles. Probably we sha'n't starve.”
“Please,” entreated Valeska, “try to find some fresh water—and start a fire, and get us something to eat. We—we've really got to suspend personalities here.”
“By all means,” agreed Langdon, while his look fed on her with only qualified approval. ”

“ He only smiled as he followed Lee to the fire. There Lee flopped his burdens into the shaded sand.
“Lunch is here,” announced the young man, his eyes cheery under the fringes of his coconut-husk hat.
“This infernal ruffian,” Lee exploded, “is going to_make slaves of us, and——”
“Father, be calm!” adjured the girl, her bonny face ablaze. She flung at Langdon, “Shame on you, to make an old man——”
“Not so old as you think,” cheerfully affirmed Langdon, refilling his pipe. He lighted it with a bit of burning driftwood. “Not by a long shot!” ”

“ Valeska and her father, however, warmed up to Langdon about as much as a couple of Bolsheviks would warm up to a soap salesman. They favored him with looks that would have made a more impression able young man shrink. ”

“ He drank in the upper pool and washed himself and his clothes in the lower one. He put his tobacco on a driftwood board in the sun to dry out, which it did very speedily. So did he.
Waiting for this process to end, he inspected his papers, money and watch, all damaged by sea water. The watch had stopped at two-forty-seven, the hour when they had been spilled into the surf. Langdon cranked up the watch, but the motor remained stalled.
“Well, never mind. Time has no value here.”
A few minutes later, clean and rough-dried, he took his stick and once more pushed on along the beach westward. ”

“ He's earned four and a half hours' use of my fire. He's got an hour's use of my knife to his credit, and another pipeful of tobacco. One iguana buys a lot, you know. We've got a regular schedule of prices, including water and everything. It's kind of complicated, but we'll soon have it worked out and memorized. Great idea, eh?”
“Do you dare to stand there, Langdon Phillips, and tell me you—you made my father——”
“I didn't make him do a darned thing—really I didn't! He chose to on a business basis—that's all. Business is business.”
“Stop, Valeska!” commanded Lee, returning from the pool. ”

“ If he tries it, he'll fall and maybe kill himself.” She got up, stood before him. entreated. He, too, rose. His eyes slid over her face, then lowered, lest she read his thoughts.
“I don't think he'll kill himself,” said Langdon. “He can't climb six feet.”
Valeska flounced out of the grove.
“Give me that shirt, father! I'll climb it—the tree, I mean!”
But she didn't. Young women of gentle breeding cannot climb palm trees. It isn't done. Valeska and her father compromised by driving a ten-foot branch of a gum-tree into the sand, with the shirt tied to the upper end. ”

“ There are at least three Americans on it.”
“Yes—but others?”
“Well”—Langdon smiled—“you can explore if you want to. Mud-flats to east and west. Behind us, swamps.”
“Humph!” Lee grunted.
“Let's take a walk,” suggested Langdon. “Miss Lee can wash up. We'll go round that point for an hour or two and make ourselves some hats. You can gather driftwood, dig turtles' eggs and maybe catch an iguana. Then, later, you can bathe and do your laundry.” ”

“ And wind and sun, painting out her rather hothouse complexion, substituted colors which—once her nose should have quite done peeling—would vastly improve her. That open-throated effect is always becoming, with the tanned collar-bones to match the brown arms. ”