The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

670 in token of sealing it and with a leer of half-humorous menace whispered: ‘You remember your promise?” Not daring to speak even now, the boy nodded his agreement to the covenant be- tween them. “You want to help me some more?” she went on, still pressing her fingers against his mouth. : Again he nodded. To him it was as if those fingers were burning a brand upon him. “Vou surely do?” the seeress asked in the same frightening whisper. Once more the boy nodded, almost faint with fear. . She took her hand from his mouth to hear him declare solemnly: “T swear, I bet, I always keep my prom- ise to you.” “So you ain’t any more foolish,” she re- joined and patted his head as if she were talking to a child of seven. “Run fast as you can now, Son George, and fetch back my umbrella from the cliff. Bring it to the hut, and don’t forget to ring the ship’s bell and stand by it till you see me.” * For a moment or two the seeress eyed the boy’s fleeing figure. Then unaided she took the castaway under his arms again and dragged him close to the little wood in which her hut was hidden. Instead, however, of entering by the path at the entrance of which the ship’s bell hung, she followed a concealed opening on the seaward side that was known only to herself. Thick undergrowth, rank with moisture and clammy with threads of spider-webs, contrived to make this zigzag access to her ~ hut impossible to a person other than Mother Juliet. Even she at times was obliged to get down on her knees and drag her quarry painfully along foot by foot. At last she reached a small shed of tim- ber that lay plumb against the rear wall of the low cement structure that was now her shrine and her home. Originally the tim- ber-shed was her humble roof-tree, but with increasing influence over the more devoted natives of the Settlement she had suc- ceeded in having built for her the more commodious and comfortable building. A doorway in,the wall connected the two, because in consultation with her clients she frequently found it necessary to retire to meditate upon their problems. Actually in the timber-shed were only two THE ARGOSY. or three discarded camp-stools, a worn mat- tress, old clothes of shabby gaudiness and a fireplace long in disuse. Two windows were built on either side of the door, but they admitted no light, because they were shrouded with ferns on the outside, while inside. they were thick with smoke and grime. Yet with the eyes of a cat Mother Juliet picked her way to the mattress, on which she laid the sun-scalded, jaded body of the man from the beach, His chest heaved. A long, slow, gasping breath issued from his open, blistered mouth. He had no longer the strength even to moan in his agony. Mother juliet was all movement and ac- tion. From her flask she poured more of the white liquid into her hand, and, having rubbed both palms together~again, allowed — him to inhale the pungent gin-vapor. The man moved his head restlessly, as one in a baleful dream. Quickly the seeress went inté her living- room—which was, in fact, the whole house —and returned with water, milk and a large jar of coconut-oil. Another journey into her own abode and she brought back a lighted lantern and an armful of soft flannel cloths of all varieties of vivid color and cleanliness. Raising the man’s head on one hand, with the other she let cooling water flow slowly into his mouth from the neck of a gourd. _ The man choked—sputtered— squirmed. Mother Juliet noted his feeble energy with a glad glistening of her owl= like eyes. “Son, you'll keep some of that, I know,” she mumbled proudly as she laid the help- less, well-shaped auburn head on a faded, soiled pillow. Mother Juliet was keenly conscious of the little time she had at her disposal be- fore the return of Jolly George from the cliff. With an adroit though jerky wrench- ing of her arms she tore off the man’s rotted shirt and drenched his arms and trunk with coconut-oil. On his face and neck she applied the same soothing unguent and lastly on his feet and legs, which were blistered raw to the knees. All this time the seeress had been crouched, swerving here and there with a movement of a huge, unwieldy sea-lion in dingy yellow satin. She placed the jar of oil on the floor beside her and stretched out her arm to reach the small tin-pail which COMMICLOOOKS (C@