"HIS ISLAND PRINCESS."

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18242, 16 July 1931, Page 4

"HIS ISLAND PRINCESS."

OUR SERIAL STORY

BY W. CLARK RUSSELL.

CHAPTER VL—Continued. LOOBOO. The canoe was about twenty feet long, bottom sharp, built of short pieces of about six feet lons', the short pieces lashed together by sinnet, made out of the fibres of cocoanut. Captain Scott afterwards informed me that the seams arc caulked with these fibres and played with breadfruit gum. "Do you ever use her?" I asked. "Sometimes for fishing, but not often. We can catch fish in abundance, from the rocks," answered Captain Scott. "How long would it take you to reach England in that boat," said Eulalie. She was so ingenuous, her questions were so transparently sincere in her desire for information, that I had no idea then, or ever after, of lightly turning her off with a joke, or returning answers that might make more enlightened people smile. So I told her gravely that the boat was too small for so tremendous a voyage, that England lay many thousands of leagues distant, and that no man in his senses would ever adventure such a journey in such a fabric. My manner of answering the girl seemed to gratify the father. His eyes rested with a very kindly expression on me whilst I addressed her. I then said, looking in the directon of the house—- " Pray, how did I get from lhat boat to the room I found myself in?" "We carried you," answered Captain Scott. "All that distance!" I cried. "And you, madam, with your delicate frame I" The warmth of a grateful heart was in my speech. I had no words to express my thanks to them; for 'tis certain that they had not only carried me from the boat to the house, they had also kept watch over me during the many hours I lay insensible, as I knew by having found them at my side when my mind returned. "You were alive. We could not allow you to perish here," says Captain Scott. "You are not very heavy," says Eulalie. "Not the part she bore," said Captain Scott. "I had your shoulders, and give me leave to say you are no mean weight. Let us remove your stores. Many years have passed since I tasted cheese."

As his fare consisted of dishes made from cocoanut and fruit; and fish, and such "fowls of the air as could be snared and were good to eat, I could not wonder that his Scotch palate yearned towards tht flavour of English cheese, nor wnuM he be insensible to the appeal of the several hams and pieces of salt beef with which we had filled the iocier in the stern sheets. We had not been able to lay in much provisions owing to the posture of the drunken scoundrels who threatened in the cabin of the Bedford to send a bullet through my head; and the stuff, being uncooked, was untasted except by Jonah, who ate raw ham with his biscuit. But when it came to the fresh water failing us, the very idea of these salt provisions grew frightful; our swelled throats could not more have swallowed the brine-toughened, beef and the ham, that for want of soaking was as hard as timber, than a man without legs could leap a gate. Therefore much of the stock we had shipped remained. When my eye went to the scuttle-butt it sank from it as from some loathsome skull or tremendous spectre. Oh, what a bitter spirit and anguish of death had lurked within those staves. Some large mats were in the canoe. With them We made parcels of the hams and other stuffs, and slung the whole to the boat's mast, together with the demijohns, one of which was three-quarters full of rum, for convenience of carriage. Captain Scott bore one end of the most on his shoulder, and I the other end, and Eulalie trod by my side. It was extremely hot. The fine white light of the sun stung like fire itself. Eulalie's face was well shaded by her hat, which I have described; but I wondered that she should leave her beautiful arms exposed to be burnt by the glare, When by protecting she could have kept them of the soft hue of her throat. In that short walk she asked many questions; her eyes often met mine, and shall you be surprised if I say that, though I had not been many hours arrived in that island and in the company of the beautiful, halfwild creature whom her father called a princess, I was as much in love with her as a young man can be at first sight, who is taken not by beauty alone, but by appeals of a subtler and more drawing sweetness? And again, and yet again, as we walked, ere we reached the house I said to myself, "What is to become of this young girl should her father die and leave her alone upon this island?" And before we reached the building my resolution to stay for her sake was firmly fixed, let Captain Scott do what he might to get quit of me.

(To be continued)'.