Part 25 (1/2)

CHAPTER VI

SAILS UPON THE SEA

dick put the hook away and took to the sculls He had a three- in, which did not ru mood for some time past: the chief cause, Eed; even her face had changed A new person had come upon the island, it seemed to him, and taken the place of the Emmeline he had known from earliest childhood This one looked different He did not know that she had grown beautiful, he just knew that she looked different; also she had developed neays that displeased hio off and bathe by herself, for instance

Up to sixand eating, and hunting for food and cooking it, building and rebuilding the house, exploring the woods and the reef But lately a spirit of restlessness had come upon hiue feeling that he wanted to go away from the place where he was; not from the island, but from the place where they had pitched their tent, or rather built their house

Itout in hi Of the cities, and the streets, and the houses, and the businesses, and the striving after gold, the striving after power Itout for Love, and not knowing yet that Love was at his elbow

The dinghy glided along, hugging the shore, past the little glades of fern and the cathedral gloo a promontory, she opened the view of the break in the reef A little bit of the white strand was visible, but he was not looking that way--he was looking towards the reef at a tiny, dark spot, not noticeable unless searched for by the eye Alhen he ca on his oars and gaze over there, where the gulls were flying and the breakers thundering

A few years ago the spot filled him with dread as well as curiosity, but fro, the dread had almost vanished, but the curiosity rehter of an aniazed for a while, then he went on pulling, and the dinghy approached the beach

So had happened on the beach The sand was all trampled, and stained red here and there; in the centre lay the re, and just where the water lapped the sand, lay two deep grooves as if two heavy boats had been beached there A South Sea rooves, and the little ers, that two heavy canoes had been beached there

And they had

The day before, early in the afternoon, two canoes, possibly from that far-away island which cast a stain on the horizon to the sou'-sou'-west, had entered the lagoon, one in pursuit of the other

What happened then had better be left veiled A war dru; the victory was celebrated all night, and at dawn the victors manned the two canoes and set sail for the home, or hell, they had come from Had you examined the strand you would have found that a line had been drawn across the beach, beyond which there were no footmarks: that meant that the rest of the island was for some reason tabu

dick pulled the nose of the boat up a bit on the strand, then he looked around hiotten; it was ht-hand side of the beach so lay between the cocoa-nut trees

He approached; it was a mass of offal; the entrails of a dozen sheep seemed cast here in one mound, yet there were no sheep on the island, and sheep are not carried as a rule in war canoes

The sand on the beach was eloquent The foot pursuing and the foot pursued; the knee of the fallen one, and then the forehead and outspread hands; the heel of the chief who has slain his eneh which he has put his head, and who stands absolutely wearing his eneed on his back to be butchered like a sheep--of these things spoke the sand

As far as the sand traces could speak, the story of the battle was still being told; the screa of clubs and spears were gone, yet the ghost of the fight remained

If the sand could bear such traces, and tell such tales, who shall say that the plastic aether was destitute of the story of the fight and the butchery?

However thataround hi just escaped froone--he could tell that by the canoe traces Gone either out to sea, or up the right stretch of the lagoon It was important to determine this

He climbed to the hill-top and swept the sea with his eyes There, away to the south-west, far away on the sea, he could distinguish the brown sails of two canoes There was so indescribably mournful and lonely in their appearance; they looked like withered leaves--brownthe beach, these things becahts for thedone their work

That they looked lonely and old and mournful, and like withered leaves blown across the sea, only heightened the horror

dick had never seen canoes before, but he knew that these things were boats of so people, and that the people had left all those traces on the beach Howwas revealed to his subconscious intelligence, who can say?

He had climbed the boulder, and he now sat doith his knees drawn up, and his hands clasped round them Whenever he ca happened of a fateful or sinister nature

The last tihy; he had beached the little boat in such a way that she floated off, and the tide was just in the act of stealing her, and sweeping her frooon out to sea, when he returned laden with his bananas, and, rushi+ng into the water up to his waist, saved her Another time he had fallen out of a tree, and just by a miracle escaped death Another tioon into snow, and sending the cocoa-nuts bounding and flying like tennis balls across the strand This ti, he knew not exactly what It was al to him, ”Don't come here”

He watched the brown sails as they dwindled in the wind-blown blue, then he came down froe bunches, which caused him to make two journeys to the boat When the bananas were stowed he pushed off