Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

= 504 Will you wait here for 2 sunt?” he ‘asked, and, as she nodded, went into his sleeping room, closed shutters, lit a lamp, ferreted out a big towel, caught up his dressing gown, shabby but clean, and took them back to her. “Tf you'll dry off and slip this on—in there,” he said, “I'll hop down to my store and get you something to wear. Got some muslin goods in there. I won’t show any light. Know just where to find them.” She took the things from him, still a bit doubtful, he fancied, as he hurried to the store and gathered some garments original- ly destined for native trade, simple enough, selecting what he thought would fit her from his orderly shelves. Coming back, he knocked at the inner door. She showed herself wrapped in his gown. Her hair was short and curly, he noticed. “Stockings, but no shoes,” he said. “Sorry. I can have the natives make you a pair of sandals to-morrow. to turn in—it’s all right.” “T don’t know how to thank you,” she said. ‘“ For the clothes—for taking me on trust. I’m coming out again—to explain.” It was on the tip of Jimmy’s tongue to be fatuous,. to tell her that she didn’t need to explain anything. He had put strong restraint on himself in not questioning her, and he patted himself on the back for it. --* Great Scott!” he said to himself. “She’s only a kid. And that bunch of snobs. Drinking and pestering her. Well, she’s safe here, if the whole crowd comes after her.” | Already he had declared himself her champion. It was born of the night adven- ture, their youth, his chivalry, strengthened by his resentment against the yacht. © “ Tt’s you who are taking me on trust,” he said aloud. “ Don’t you worry. It ‘ll be all right.” — He found Faata’s stove alight, a kettle hot, and he made two cups of powdered cofiee, poured some canned milk into a pitcher, put out. some crackers and a pot of jam. She might be hungry. Anyway, ‘the coffee would do her good after the ~ swim. Gad, she was plucky! Didn’t even ~ seem nervous. If you want ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ““ And she didn’t know what she was ‘coming ashore to,” he added to himself, thinking of some storekeepers he knew, the _ general run of them gin swiggers, with na- tive beachwives. Of course she might have heard from the mate what he looked like. But he did not fancy the man’s description would have been flattering. She came out in a short sleeved slip of lilac print, looking hardly more than eight- een, exclaiming at sight and smell of coffee. “That was good of you,” she said. “Thanks.” She held out her hand to him. “ She trusts me,” Jimmy said to himself. ~“She’s a good sport. The right sort.” Her hands were well kept. Her accent was refined. There was nothing artificial about her, he decided, while he tried to place her with the crowd he imagined on the yacht. She didn’t seem to fit in with them. But he held in his question till she had drunk the coffee. | ‘“‘ My name is Jimmy Thorpe,” he said then. “I’m storekeeper here. Trade with the natives for copra.” “You live alone?” “‘Vep. Got a housekeeper. Native woman. Sleeps out back with her husband, who’s my man Friday. Ill have her in presently. “Now ”—he could keep in no longer— ‘“‘ what have they been doing to you on that ~ yacht? I heard some one call out a while Was that you?” Her color slowly mounted, but she kept her eyes on his. * "Yes. I—they made it impossible for me to stay any longer. I had to come some- where. It couldn’t be worse—even on a savage island. I knew there was a white man ashore. They are—they are a rotten lot,” she went on with a passionate flash in her eyes. “ All the men and most of the women. One or two of them are just— silly. I can’t go back.” * You don’t have to.” “They'll know I’ve come ashore, of course. I dodged the watch after I had put on my swimming things. I went over the bowsprit.” « : “ Didn’t think about the sharks?” “There are worse things than sharks,” she said. oO Eomichbooks.co