Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 113: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

slumber which is absolute oblivion—the oblivion that comes to the utterly ex- hausted. Crawsen was aroused some hours later by the lapping of cool water about his body. The waves had actually reached the height of his neck. It was high tide. He crawled out of the thin sheet of rising and receding water and stood up, once more fresh, in- vigorated, hungry, ready for the eggs. He scooped out a slight depression in the sand, placed in it half a dozen eggs and covered them with more sand. Then he ripped a plank from the old wreck and with a heavy chunk of coral broke it into fine splinters and piled them over the eggs ready to fire. But, when he drew from his pocket a supposedly waterproof match-box, he found that his matches were totally disselved by water. However, this did not daunt Crawson, nor did he mean that he would eat his eggs raw. He looked around for a while and found some dry grass, a few scrawny turfs of which grew on the island. He took some of the grass between his hands and ground it into fine chaff. Then over the chaff he held two stones and struck them together. A spark fell; the chaff ignited. This he set to the splinters, and soon the eggs were roasted. When Crawson finished eating, it was about an hour before sunset, and the day _ was exceptionally clear. Looking off to the east, in the hazy distance he could distin- guish the dim shape of a great mountain. This, he knew, was on the Island of Jolo; no other island so near lifted its peak to that height. And by his proximity to Jolo Crawson knew that he was marooned on one of the many nameless, uncharted islands that are a part of the Sulu Archipelago. To the west of him he could see another island, which was, apparently, about five milesaway. This island was larger and had a much greater elevation than the one on which he was located. Also, it appeared to have a considerable growth of coco-palms. These trees interested Crawson a great deal. If he could only get to the other island, he would find some way of making these tall, ‘straight spires into a raft. He knew that ships never came into that labyrinth of coral reefs; so his one hope of getting to the mainland was a raft of some sort. At first Crawson had thought to con- _ Struct a raft out of timber from the old _ wreck, but half an hour’s considdration of Rescued 103 this project proved it impractical, Any raft that he could rig out with boards and cross-beams would be too light and too frail for a hundred-mile sea voyage. On the other hand, a raft of heavy logs would not be so easily capsized. As Crawson sat thinking these things over, twilight effaced the gold of the sunset; a myriad stars dotted the sky; cold, pale moonbeams fell like shattered lances on the dark bosom of the ocean; a mating bird called sleepily to its loved one, and the sound blended and harmonized with the dull boom of the waves on the distant reef. Then at last the castaway, lulled by the balmy, salt air, threw aside his’ problems and fell asleep. Crawson spent the next morning working the roof off the galley of the old hull. He had nothing but a chunk of coral and a length of cross-beam to work with, and it was a tedious job. But he finally pried the thing off in good condition. It made a flimsy raft, one that he would never dare the sea with, but he thought he could get to “qj the other island on it. However, he de- cided not to make the trip for several days to come. If there were any Moros—his late pursuers—marooned over there, they would probably rig up a rait and either start for Tawi Tawi or come looking for him in the next day or two. Ie IT WAS noon when Crawson com- Pe se ‘ Sor, eek ae pleted his task with the galley roof, and he was again hungry. He roasted more eggs and was much annoyed to find, upon peeling the shells off, that two of them were exceedingly strong and that one had in it a half-hatched bird. He was al- ready beginning to feel the want of variety in food, and the sight of a half-hatched bird in his dinner did not increase his relish for a straight egg diet. Crawson determined that it should not happen again. He found a piece of board, the one he had used to dig the well, and with it drew a large circle in the sand and moved every egg out of the circle. He knew then that the eggs he would find in this circle for the next “few days would be fresh. Three days passed. No Moros showed, and Crawson decided that he would risk a trip to the other island. He buried hisbox of jewels deep under the lee of the old hull. - If the Moros were on the other island, he _ had no intention of carrying the treasure ; mee, = te Se a US ee oe De — . books-com