Part 40 (1/2)

Maud tried to reply, but could not speak Her lips were blue with cold, and she was hollow-eyed-but oh, how bravely her brown eyes looked ather hands and toher arms up and down and about until she could thrash theh she would have fallen had I not supported her, I forced her to walk back and forth the several steps between the thwart and the stern-sheets, and finally to spring up and down

”Oh, you brave, brave wo back into her face ”Did you know that you were brave?”

”I never used to be,” she answered ”I was never brave till I knew you It is you who have made me brave”

”Nor I, until I knew you,” I answered

She gave , tre more in her eyes But it was only for the moment Then she smiled

”It must have been the conditions,” she said; but I knew she rong, and I wondered if she likewise knew Then the wind cah a heavy sea toward the island At half-past three in the afternoon we passed the south-western pro froer ues Then the wind slowly died down By night it was dead cal once more at the oars-but weakly,the boat's bow touched the beach of our own inner cove and I staggered out to th to carry her I fell in the sand with her, and, when I had recovered, contentedher up the beach to the hut

The next day we did no work In fact, we slept till three in the afternoon, or at least I did, for I awoke to find Maud cooking dinner Her power of recuperation onderful There was so tenacious about that lily-frail body of hers, a clutch on existence which one could not reconcile with its patent weakness

”You knoas travelling to japan for ered at the fire after dinner and delighted in theI never was The doctors recoest”

”You little knehat you were choosing,” I laughed

”But I shall be a different woer woman,” she answered; ”and, I hope a better woreat deal more life”

Then, as the short day waned, we fell to discussing Wolf Larsen's blindness It was inexplicable And that it was grave, I instanced his statement that he intended to stay and die on Endeavour Island When he, stronglife as he did, accepted his death, it was plain that he was troubled by so more than mere blindness There had been his terrific headaches, and ere agreed that it was some sort of brain break-down, and that in his attacks he endured pain beyond our comprehension

I noticed as we talked over his condition, that Maud's sympathy went out to him more and more; yet I could not but love her for it, so sweetly womanly was it Besides, there was no false sentiorous treath she recoiled at the suggestion that I ht some time be compelled to take his life to savewe had breakfast and were at work by daylight I found a light kedge anchor in the fore-hold, where such things were kept; and with a deal of exertion got it on deck and into the boat With a long running-line coiled down in the stem, I roell out into our little cove and dropped the anchor into the water There was no wind, the tide was high, and the schooner floated Casting off the shore-lines, I kedged her out bybroken), till she rode nearly up and down to the small anchor-too s starboard anchor, giving plenty of slack; and by afternoon I was at work on the windlass

Three days I worked on that windlass Least of all things was I a mechanic, and in that time I accomplished what an ordinary machinist would have done in as in with, and every simple er ends I had likewise to learn And at the end of three days I had a windlass which worked cluiven, but it worked and ot the two topuyed as before And that night I slept on board and on deck beside my work Maud, who refused to stay alone ashore, slept in the forecastle Wolf Larsen had sat about, listening towith Maud and me upon indifferent subjects No reference was made on either side to the destruction of the shears; nor did he say anything further abouthis shi+p alone But still I had feared hi, and I never let his strong arht, sleeping under my beloved shears, I was aroused by his footsteps on the deck It was a starlight night, and I could see the bulk of him dimly as he moved about I rolled out offeet He had armed himself with a draw-knife from the tool-locker, and with this he prepared to cut across the throat-halyards I had again rigged to the shears He felt the halyards with his hands and discovered that I had not made them fast This would not do for a draw-knife, so he laid hold of the running part, hove taut, and made fast Then he prepared to saw across with the draw-knife

”I wouldn't, if I were you,” I said quietly

He heard the click of hed

”hello, Hump,” he said ”I knew you were here all the time You can't fool my ears”

”That's a lie, Wolf Larsen,” I said, just as quietly as before ”However, I ao ahead and cut”

”You have the chance always,” he sneered

”Go ahead and cut,” I threatened ohed, and turned on his heel and went aft

”So, when I had told her of the night's occurrence ”If he has liberty, heHewhat he may do We must make hi ”I dare not co as his resistance is passive I cannot shoot him”