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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1928)
HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1928. PAGE THREE RED HAIK. AMD BLUE SEA STANLEY R. OSBORN niAJSTRATIONS BY HENRY JAY LEE COPYRIGHT BY CHAK.UR8 8CKIBNBRS SONS WHAT HAPPENED BEFOBE Palmyra Tree, aboard the yacht Rain- duw, discovers a stowaway. Kne la dis appointed in his mild aoDeeranca and tells him bo. Obeying his command to glance at the door, aha sees a huge, fierce, copper-hued man with a ten inch knife between his lips. The stowaway, Burke, and the brown man, Olive, go up on deck and tell stories of adventure which are not believed. Palmyra decides she loves Van. The night the engagement is announced the KainDow nits a reef. John Thurston rescues both Van and Palmyra but Palmyra thinks Van saved her. A sail is sighted after three days on an island. It la Ponape Burke, the stow away! Burke abducts Palmyra. Burke has to put her ashore on an Island, as a Japanese man-of-war is sighted and it would be dangerous to have her aboard. Olive swims to the Island and joins t-aimyra. tsne is in rear ot the brown man. Now read on CHAPTER VII At snapping tension Palmyra strained to catch the sound again. Her eyes sought to weather and to lea, And then her gaze became fixed. For there, on the crossbar where Olive had fastened the fish, sat a large bird. It was the sound of the bird's alighting that Palmyra had caught The roost was now swaying under the Impact, the newcomer shooting In and out its neck In a somewhat serpent-like concordance. The crea ture was black, Its feet dispropor tionately small and the beak, strong ly hooked at the end, a good five Inches long. The bird gazed back at the girl with some defiance of manner, as if It thought she might claim the Ash. Then it lumbered along the pole and seized the victim, which managed a final flop. Could it be that Olive had known he1 could attract a bird down by baiting such a lighting place? News of the arrival had, In some manner, communicated itself to the sleeper. prom his countenance she could not guess whether he had expected to find a bird on the cross-bar, or wHether he was pleased. Nor were his actions Illuminating. With the leisured velocity that was so dis turbing an attribute, he first cut from a small cane-like growth a section the length of a finger. Then he shaved another piece down to a point. She thought he might Intend pinning something with it But he turned to her stores and tore out some thin package paper. This he laid on a box. With the knife he pricked his left forearm so that the blood come. Then with the blood and the skewer he began to write, presumably to make some sort of hieroglyphics. While Olive finished his composi tion the girl watched in a paralyz ing anxiety. What did he write? What was In this message that meant more than life and death to her? She sprang up once to demand a sight, then remembered she could not have understood. The savage now folded his paper small, worked It into the hollow section of cane, closed the opening with a wad of leaf. He went to the bird, which seemed not to ob ject, and tied the missive under one of Its wings.. Then he lifted It from the roost and tossed it Into the air. InBtantly astonishing pinions flash ed out, a spread of six or eight feet Burke had said this strange be ing's purpose was to demonstrate to al), by his courage, that he could live down the effeminate name of Olive. In despoiling Burke of the red haired goddess, Olive but reached the climax of his demonstration. He had chosen the one thing that would most enrage the white man; was, therefore, the most dangerous to attempt and the most convinc ing. All too plainly the message the man-o'-war bird carried could have but one destination; Olive proclaim ed his daring; demanded that his clansmen come to his aid. The brown man Olive was un aware of, or unmoved by, Palmy ra's misery. As soon as he had launched the bird, he pulled down its perch. Then, with one of the uprights, he marched to the lee beach and began marking on the tidal sands. The girl watched tragically. Un til now there had seemed hardly a choice as to her fate. If she had, with the knife, succeeded In elimin ating Olive, Burke would have re turned to possess her. Or If disas ter had eliminated Burke, then ter rible solitude, with death from thirst. But now, that messenger a mere speck in the sky, the highest thing as It seemed In the world, Instinct within her had taken a stand. Beast that Burke was, he was at least better than this savage. A man of her own race, there was always the chance some appeal might reach through. When Olive, having finished his work, turned toward her, she gath ered herself for flight But he stop ped, safely distant, and she divined that he meant to attempt an ex change of Ideas. First, he pointed In the direction the Lupe-a-Noa had gone. When Pfelmyra did not understand, he picked up a piece of tha fabric, buckram-like, with which nature binds her palm leaves. He folded It, Into a form roughly triangular and smaller end up. He held It out, blew at It, moved it slowly from him as he did so. He represented a sail ; he referred to the schooner Itself. jNext, Olive, grinning successfully at her perception, marked a semi circle on his forehead. She was puzzled until she recalled the Bear on Burke's forehead. Again she nodded. Once more Olive pointed to the sdat to Indicate that tha white man was now the actor. As Burke, he yawned drowsily, lay down and be gan to snore. The girl took it that Ponape had gone to sleep for the night. The islander next got up, pointed to the place he had lain as the white man, and then to six other places In a row, snoring reinforc ingly as he made an inclusive ges ture. All, she saw, had been asleep. Olive now indicated himself as the actor, by tapping his breast with a square forefinger. Cautiously, peering to this side and that, paus ing to look back and listen, he tip toed away. With a final furtive glance, he raised himself, jumped as one going over the vessel's side Into the water, simulated the movements of a swimmer. Palmyra read that as soon as Burke and the crew had turned in last night Olive had elud ed tne vigilance or the man on duty, dropped overboard and swam back to her. He went on with his drama. Mak ing again the sign of the scar, he pretended to awake. He looked around, said. 'Olive?"; depicted sur prise, anger. Drawing his knife ferociously, he kicked the Imagin ary sleepers into life, bellowed an order. He blew into his cupped hand, which was now sufficient to indicate the sail, performed the evo lution of coming about; walked to ward the girl, blowing into his hand and brandishing the knife. She held her ground, understand ing that the enraged pursuit re turned to her. Olive stopped, point ed to the sun and then to a spot somewhat further along In the lu minary's course. A sweeping ges ture, a grimace, a stamping of the foot upon the sand, and he had said as plain as words, that here Burke would step within an Interval appal lingly brief. A Burke, far away and beyond call, might seem the lesser of two evils. But a Burke, rising over the horizon, as fast as a storm, regained an nis vile significance. This much was nlain: here stood Olive and here, within two hours, would stand Burke. And that be ing bo, what about the bird and Its message ! Again, all was inexplicable. With the white brute hot upon the heels of the brown brute, there could be no such waiting as she had assumed, while a bird Irresponsibly delivered Its summons and rescuing tribesmen came across the sea. Then, why the message at all? He had sent that message as a forlorn hope. Yet he was showing none of the strain which should have gone with so desperate a race. Indeed, his very calm frightened her. It was unnatural. He must expect, with a knife, to fight for her possession against Burke, with the deadly revolvers, and backed by the crew. Facing such terrible odds, no white man could have been so unemotional. Could it be that he had come here to await Burke's arrival and then, almost within Ponape's grasp, to plunge the knife Into her breast and himself die? Was there that in his dark beliefs, traditions, to make such an act exquisitely worth the sacrifice; a supreme manifestation, say, of hate for his tyrant; a degra dation in this Island world eternally to make of the white man a mock? Olive thrust out the square fore finger toward the quarter whence the Pigeon of Noah would descend upon them, and then toward the sun to indicate the flight of time. Following which he crossed to the beach and stood in the brine. He beckoned to her. He pointed to himself and to her, and then off across the water, with the motions of one who swims. The girl stared. For the first time she was utterly at fault By his Indication he and she were to swim away together into the thou sand miles of ocean. That, how ever, could not be. He must have some other meaning. But the savage made plain he did mean Just that. He held out his hand toward her invitingly. He waved her at once an appeal and command Into the sea. Palmyra cowered before Olive. His meaning was plain, all too plain. But his purpose? There lay the terror. 'I tell you I can't swim," she cried out at last "I can't swim. Don't you understand? I can't swim!" For the first time his features of fered a readable significance. He was perplexed. He fetched his co coanutB. He sat down before her, indicated that she was the object of the p!ay. He bound two of the dry nuts by their thong of husk to his ankle. Also others, as he show ed, about his waist And then, she understood. The girl saw that Olive thus was saying "life preserver." He meant to make her Into a sort of raft. Her agitation diminished. This bespoke life, not death. The fan atic, about to drown one, did not provide a float With six of the nuts he buoyed her hips and with four her shoul ders. With a length of fibre he wound hor skirt tight round her knees. Then he fastened his knife securely but Immediately at hand, in the thongs that bound her waist. For an Interval he left her, lying with upturned face, hor eyes closed against the glare. He threw Into the sea, so It would drift clear or sink, the food and cask of water, the several leaves, the opened nuts; everything that spoke of his activ ity. Then, pausing for a last care ful Inspection, his glance lighted on the pink silk parasol. He examined it thoughtfully, raised it; offered it, with pleased look, to the tug of the wind. Olive had a sail. Thus did they depart Into the thousand miles of empty ocean. Olive swam briskly forward with her now. Exulting, she discovered that the sound which had mocked her, this time at last, was no cruel deception. It was the trample of surf upon a reef. One sharp struggle and those splendid muscles had carried them, buffeted and breathless, through a cauldron of a cleft in the outer bar rier. They came to rest In a shal low of spent surf on the reef be tween its higher rim and the nearby snore. At first Palmyra was aware of nothing beyond the fact that she was once more on land. That was all-sufficing. The Island, by reason of her hours In the water, seemed to rise and fall as giddily as the sea itself. But she could cling to a pandanus and feel safe. How many, many miles had they come? She recollected men had tried to swim the English channel. Was the channel twelve or twenty miles across? Something like that But It was cold northern water and the swimmers merely European. Olive must have brought her Infin itely further. The island, plainly, was Inhabited. As Olive had written, why could not she? But what of paper? She paused, confronted by the stonewall of cir cumstance. No need to cut her hand as the brown man had done, for bright drop3 of the pirate gore were already available. As she sat, the mosquitoes had been swarming round her. While she puzzled, she felt recon noiteringly for the hostile foliage. It proved to be a Btiff, sword-like leaf that thrust at her from the shadows. The leaf, she found, was surfaced by a thin, transparent film. I he appeal grew with tragic slowness. The pin work could not be hurried, the condensation of wording took thought! Help! Abducted by Ponape Lupe- a-Noa, from wrecked Yacht Rain bow, 4 days sail. His man Olive now steals me. Whichever gets me death or worse. Miss Palmyra Tree, Boston, U. S. A. She must make the leaf notice able. Nothing else at hand, she drew off one of her wet stockings. She smiled drearily. Silken hosiery where hosiery was unknown. That should attract attention. With the stocking she bound a fragment of coral to the leaf. Then, gazing apprehensively about, she began to crawl forward. She must not try to go too far. And at the slightest sound she must drop the missive before Olive could see. Within five or six yards the cov er ended. Beyond in the moonlight lay barren sand, foot trampled, a place in frequent visitation. She would have liked to go further. But the danger was tremendous, the gain uncertain. She paused breath lessly to listen. Then she flung the weighted leaf. From out there a clink of sound reached back, brazen loud to her straining senses as a gong. It seem ed Impossible that Olive should not hear; should not spring grinning from the thicket; should not unerr ingly as a dog, nose up, snatch that precious message, her only hope. For an interval she hung on, wait ing. Then, in the v.uexpe-ti d silence, body and mind collapsed. She drag ged herself back to the waiting place, but she was unaware of It The sand warmed her, the earth rocked her as In a cradle, but she was asleep. For ages she must have laid in torpor. Then, suddenly, she awoke with a cry. She was clasped tight in a pair of great arms; held close against a naked breast No noed for her to see that grinning face. It was the beast! Desperately she put all her strength Into s lunge. So unexpect ed this effort to get free that suc cess was hers. Surprisingly, Indeed, she flung herself quite clear of those arms and fell, with a strangling gasp, Into the water that rose above her bead. When Palmyra Tree thus flung herself out of the arms of Olive, the brown man had been carrying her again down Into the sea. The strong arms rescued her, yet she fought desperately. Ashore, she had been slow to trust those half seen figures bout the fires. Having trusted, she could not bear to be snatched away before her appeal had been found. The moon was gone in a down pour of rain. Sky and sea and land had lost form dissolved. And yet In this melting world something had remained solid, for presently the girl received a smart bump between the shoulders. Twisting, she found an unstable shape that intuition, ra ther than sight, Identified as a canoe. Olive sat her on the canoe, stead ied her there, pointed. His hand seemed to fade into nothingness. He raised her own arm so she could feel the direction. No need for Olive to thrust his face close to hers and make the sign of the scar. It was the pursuing Burke. She had just been struggling to free herself of the brown man, yet now, when she saw that success would have thro vn her at once into the hands of the white, she was aghast For with Burke present his timid creatures ceased to offer any chance; It was again with Olive's clansmen she felt her hope to lie. But there was the leaf letter! She strove to make Olive under stand they must go back. She pointed landward, gesticulated.- It was inevitable he should think she continued In resistance. He took her firmly, laid her prone, made her grip the framework. With the paddle, strong, noise less, Olive drove the canoe out into the world of waters. Relieved of her apprehension, she began to patch together the inci dents of their flight, into a reveal ing film. When the wind had re vived to let Ponape Burke beat back to the first Island in pursuit of Olive (could It really be little more than twenty-four hours since the white man had Imprisoned her there?) he found the place aban doned. He had also found her sup plies gone, a thing Implying a boat and Olive's forgery of a boat's im print on the sand, a counterfeit sof tened into greater verisimilitude by the placid tide. Burke must either detect the fraud, or believe some vessel, al most certainly the Japanese gun boat, had sighted her distress sig nals. In that event, he was free to assume Olive had drowned in his effort to reach land, had arrived too late and then swum away, or had been taken off with the girl, presum ably against his will. She had no knowledge where Ja- lult lay, or how far. But It was within reach; her only hope. As the former German base, there must yet be four or five white men and a dozen or so of Japs; and If this one of the two American mis sion centers was closed, still native Christians. She so wanted to go to Jaluit that And All the Goodies that Spring Provides in Fresh Vegetables LETTUCE - ONIONS - RADISHES RHUBARB - ASPARAGUS CARROTS - SPINACH - CABBAGE TOMATOES Vegetables are Health Builders. HERE FRESH DAILY PHELPS Grocery Co. "THE HOME OF GOOD EATS" Phone Main 53 We Del wer she could not fail to endow this savage with the grace of taking her there. Absurd though the Idea, it gripped her till she could not, for the moment believe It true. After all, though, what could it serve? She tried to rise for a view astern, but dared not stand. She saw no sail, yet knew her letter, the canoe theft, had made a chase cer tain. Their flying start would save them from other canoes but not from the swift Pigeon of Noah. Now and then her companion himself would rouse to stand with ease on the jumping canoe and scan the sea for an enemy. In one of these wakeful intervals she made, Interrogatively, the sign of the scar which had come, In their conversations, to signify the white man. Passing at once from his Buddha-like repose Into the anima tion of discourse, Olive pointed to the sun and then to a spot consider ably further on in its line of march. Pursuit, it seemed, must be expec ted, out not as yet. Now followed a long pantomime, at times unintelligible. The brown man, in his explanation, was ham pered by the limit of action possi ble in a canoe. His story included himself and Burke, the island, the knife, what seemed to be a gun the canoe, the Pigeon of Noah. Much of it, as it came, was mean ingless because she did not grasp other parts upon which the mean ing depended. There was a point which baffled her, where Olive went through the motions of binding hands and feet, and forced something, crosswise, in to his mouth. At first she thought he himself had been tied and gag ged, then that it must have been Burke. But long afterwards, when the savage had again sunk Into stu por, the explanation flashed Into her mind. She could now recon struct the scene ashore, in part from what Olive had made clear, in part from what her intelligence told her must have occurred. Ponape Burke, then, had felt that, if they had not been rescued by some vessel, they must have a can oe. And to make sure they should not get one in the dark hours, he had had all the canoes on the island brought together and had set over these a guard of two men with ri fles, himself waiting near. Olive, she surmised, had expected secretly to obtain a canoe from a friend and so sail without destroy ing Burke's possible belief in the fictitious ship. But the brown man, to his dismay, had found this im possible. As daylight must not dis cover them ashore, he had had no alternative save to take a canoe by force. Under cover of the rain he had somehow managed to surprise, had bound the guards and got away without an alarm. He had hoped to prevent the chase thus made cer tain, by cutting rigging on the schooner; but, for some reason, had had to desist with little more than an hour or so of delay ensured. One detail of Olive's pantomime explained perhaps why Burke had trusted the canoes to any guard but his own. He had been drinking heavily. And so it was ahe responded with a cry when Olive, at last clicking his tongue in chagrin, pointed as tern. No need for her eyes to seek out a tiny something against the sky to know that the Lupe-a-Noa was come. (Continued next week.) 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