“SO THEY ELOPED.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 244, 28 September 1922, Page 5

“SO THEY ELOPED.”

AN ISLAND ROMANCE. THREE MONTHS AT SEA. Sydney, Sept. 22. “And so there eloped in the dead of night two dusky maidens, borne in the arms of their sprightly lovers to a motor boat that was gently purring. Willingly they left the enticing coolness of the palm trees shade and sought bliss and adventure on a tropical isle whore happiness would be uninterrupted.” A picturesque narrative of the tender love of two Gilbert Islanders for their dainty sweethearts was related on the arrival of the Island trader Suva at Sydney. In childhood the quartet had played together. They were as a little society, each sworn to serve the other in the years to come. The years rolled by, and with the coming of youth soft words of love were whispered, for the dufcky youths courted their friends of childhood. The youths resolved that they would elope to an uninhabited isle if such could he found. Stealthily they stocked a motor boat with oil and provisions, and then m the dead of night they crept into the huts of their sweethearts and bore them to the waiting boat. Three months later a big steamer picked up the motor boat—there were then only fhree occupants —two men and a young woman, and they were thoroughly exhausted. They told of their adventures and hardship through storm and hunger. One of the girls had died as the result of privations. The three were brought to Sydney and were taken to Fip by the Suva on her last trip.