Hapsburg Liebe

“ Either it was night, or the hatch covers had been carefully and closely fastened down. He could hear nothing save the occasional slush!—ush! of the little vessel's bluff bows as they drove themselves into the foaming waters of a deep sea swell, or the occasional slatting of dirty sails. An hour passed. The schooner lurched violently and heeled over, and George Leef was thrown halfway across the bottom of the stuffy, ill-smelling hold. His hands collided with the legs of a big man, and the unknown moaned. Leef shook the legs hard. ”

“ Leef agreed. "But—it's better to hang a man before than after. I liked the way you put that survival business yesterday, Queen Celeste. 'Survival of the strongest' seems to me a better expression than 'survival of the fittest.' And yet, the strongest are generally the fittest. I find myself wondering—who will be the survivors, the two survivors, of this, Hell's Island?" ”

“ He gripped his seraya club, straightened proudly in his tatters, and stood waiting and staring defiantly. He knew that between them, the six of them and the one of him, there must be blood-red hatred and war unto death. And August Slaeger and Ngan Tai-Po,—they too, would be his mortal enemies when they learned. It was a fearful situation. The pack is always quick to fall upon the lame wolf.
"Do you really expect to get away with it?" said Illsworth. ”

“ Leef followed and struck down Ngan Tai-Po, the jungle-born and the godless, with the very weapon his own savage brain had devised.
The two who had survived faced each other. The man threw down the club and took the woman's slim hands in his.
"We were the strongest," she said, "you and I."
"Say, rather, that you were the strongest," smiled Leef. "You, the hyacinthine, the ethereal, the ultra-feminine. While I may have been the strongest one man, it is by your will that I live, your mate. But it is human love that is the survivor. Celeste. ”

“ There are men on this island who will come to love you madly, savagely, before long. It is the inevitable. And upon your—er diplomacy, depends largely your safety and the safety of the rest of us. You must try to be as unfeminine and uninteresting as a wooden joss,—which will be hard for you; and you must be careful that you show no particular favor to any of us. Why? The thin veneer of civilization wears off quickly in places like this and under circumstances such as these, and most men are jealous and unreasoning brutes when that veneer is gone—that's why. ”

“ There was no mongrel strain in them; they represented the average, rather than the slush, of humanity; it was the jungle's accolade. And yet, Leef tried to reason with them.
"Is it fair for eight men to fight one?" he asked quietly. "I did not try to win Celeste's favor; you know that. If she chooses me for a husband from the nine of us, it is no fault of mine." ”

“ Lugu-lugu kill my master!"
"Lugu-lugu, your great-grandmother!" sneered Illsworth. Always he sneered now.
"A great serpent, eh?" came sourly from De Montefort. "There isn't a snake on this island, Tai."
However, they followed Ngan Tai-Po into the jungle. Lying under a flowering tree, face downward, they found August Slaeger. In the top of his head there was an even row of four small holes, each of which was of about the diameter of a man's third finger.
"He was unfit to survive, therefore he perished," quietly said Celeste. She continued: "Those are the marks of teeth." ”

“ The men went to one of the other huts; there they sat in solemn council, and pledged themselves to loyalty to their liege lady as long as they lived on the island. But the pledges of men are sometimes not even so good as scraps of paper....
About noon a furious tropical storm sprang up, in which there was little or no rain. An hour before sunset, Celeste and her seven subjects went to the north beach to watch the storm die in the waves, and there came face to face with August Slaeger and his savage skipper, Ngan Tai-Po. ”

“ Neither man vestured to speak for a minute. It seemed to them that there was nothing to say. Why should they raise a hope that must soon be shattered? De Montefort now thought only of Celeste, and Leef was a hundred times more than sorry for her. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1957, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 65 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”