William Wallace Cook

“ Hovering dangers reconciled Rutherford Tolly to the situation. Nevertheless, he was highly indignant. The island had been warranted not only uninhabited but safe. If the syndicate had defaulted in any part of its agreement, he was disposed to hold it legally responsible.
A search by the castaways of their joint belongings developed a most deplorable fact. Neither Uncle John nor Dick had been marooned with a firearm of any description; nor had Mr. Tolly and the ladies been shipwrecked to any better purpose. Hatchets and axes comprised the only weapons which the party possessed. ”

“ Either the improved appearance of Uncle and nephew, or intercessions for clemency on the part of the ladies, aroused charitable disposition in Mr. Tolly He was pleased to let them remain on the island, but they must keep strictly to their side of it. The divine afflatus, while dealing theoretically with the Gregarious Instinct, could not realize it practically without damage to the theme.
How the ladies regarded this segregation did not, for the moment, appear. They promenaded the beach in their smart clothes, while Dick and Uncle John stood afar off and yearned for companionship. ”

“ Mornings were given up to labor, afternoons and evenings to promenades and social intercourse. Uncle John, proceeding into the jungle with a hatchet, achieved for himself and his nephew a pair of neatly trimmed clubs. Armed with these, and the hatchets, the Committee of Safety escorted the ladies in their daily rambles along the beach. guarded them during their delightfully informal picnics, and at night stood watch at the stockade wicket. ”

“ Contract!” A look of alarm flitted across the other's sun-burned, unshaven face.
“Merciful Dick! It can't be possible that our hardships have—have—”
He came to a horror stricken pause, then patted his nephew on the shoulder.
“There, there, my boy,” he added soothingly, “brace up and don't take this business so much to heart.”
“I am perfectly sane, Uncle John,” Dick laughed, a little nervously. “You see, I contracted for this experience with Mr. Reuben Tew, general-manager of the Desert Islands Syndicate
“'Pon my soul!” gasped Uncle John, staring hard at the young man. ”

“ Uncle John and Dick were appointed a Committee of Safety. They decided that the Tolly camp should be moved into the vicinity of their own, and Mr. Tolly decreed that the colored factotum should provide meals for all.
The Committee of Safety, aided and abetted by the ladies, constructed a stockade. Uncle John was the engineer; and the fearsome result of a stock-broker's conception of a barricade elicited quiet smiles from Miss Clarissa and Miss Margaret, and a certain amount of sub rosa raillery. ”

“ We own and control five hundred (500) unchartered islands in various parts of the two great oceans and are prepared to supply applicants with tropical paradises, refuges in the temperate zone, or arctic retreats where seclusion is positively guaranteed. ”