Part 11 (2/2)

”Once I would not have ventured, Hokoolele Once I looked at you fro only of you as one who had dropped from the sky--so different froht of e and beautiful, but real--

_”Bosoht!”_

He caught her hands in both of his

”Coroves of Huapu There ill laugh and dance and sing all the day through, and I will bring you water in a fern-leaf and weave you flower chains and climb to pluck you the rarest fruits, and build a nest to keep you safe

There you shall never be sad any more, or wearied, or lonely--or afraid

Because I will be with you always, always--Hokoolele! Coht!”

Then the ht palm in the tropic hurricane, for a lover's arainst her cheek, and these things were happening to her for the first tiled inexpertly, fluttering at his touch, bathed in one swift flush ”My father--!” she gasped

”What does it matter? Your father shall marry us any way he pleases--afterward But ill live in Huapu forever!”

And with a sudden dizzied weakening she saw that this was true and that she had treasured the knowledge for this very moment Her father would marry them He would marry them as he married Jeremiah's Loo and the shell-buyer--”and only too thankful” Curious that the conventional fact should have pleaded with the night's spiced fragrance, with the bland weight of the island zephyr on her eyelids, with the vibrant contact of young flesh and the answering madness in her veins Curious, too, that her dread and loathing of the ed her the sa with desire like spray ind, and all conspiring to loose her froo now--this”There are boats to be had below on the beach We can reach Huapu before et the path--the people--” She could hardly frahts on the chapel--!”

But Motauri laughed low for love and pride

”I do not use a path Ae-dweller to need steps to h for ht down to the shore”

”By the ravine?” she cried stricken ”Impossible! It has never been done No one can climb down there It is death!”

”It is life!” With the word he swept her up like a wisp of a thing in his strong arms ”And also I aht my star from the sky See--thus is it done!”

Such was the elopement of Miss Matilda, when she left her father's house and her father's faith in very much the same manner as her remote maternal ancestor went about the sae And in truth Miss Matilda was living the Stone Age for the half hour it took Motauri to get theed she never afterward knew Not that she slept, or fainted, or indulged in any twentieth century tantrum But it was all too tense to hold

Of that descent she retained chiefly a ent, now babbling and chuckling in her ear At tiain waded from stone to stone in the current or lowered theled roots It hurried theh pulse for their hearts and the pace for their purpose like an exultant accomplice Nor did Miss Matilda shrink frouessed forces awoke in her

With the hands that had never handled anything rougher than creork she chose her grip along the tough ladder of looped lianas As confidently as a creature of the wild she sprang across a gulf, or threw herself to the cliff, or slipped to the e Massed shadows, shi+fting patches of limpsed abyss and silvered sea far down--these held no terrors Sharp danger and quick recovery, slidingrock, the clutch of thorn and creeper--all the rude intricacies of wet earth and teelingly alive, gloriously alert This was her wonderful night, the great adventure that so

Only at the chute she could not hope to aid Motauri meant to find a certain slanted fault beyond the last break that offered like a shelf

If they could reach that, theyoutfall, drenched but comparatively safe, for the rest was no entler slopes of the valley and the beach below He told her his plan, then swung her up again and took the whole task to hi inch by inch down the narrow channel The water boiled and raved about his knees; she could see the streak of its solid flood ahead, where it straightened for a last rush, where the leastrunaway into space

But she would not look ahead She looked at the dim, adorable face so near her own, at the carven lip, the quivering, arched nostril, the fine, proud carriage and dauntless glance of her Godling The flash of their eyes h of content she surrendered herself to him, drew her arms about his neck until she was pillowed on his se there should be no boats at this end,” said Motauri