The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 106: what you’re looking at

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

672 any more, but George, son of Mother Juliet, a fine, rich young man, and you'll marry a lady.” “But I ain’t your son, am 1?” the boy queried, bewildered by the dazzling picture of the future Mother Juliet drew. “My mother died here when { was a baby, they all says, and my father he sneaked on a steamer and run away.” “Oh, I'll fix all that,” Mother Juliet re- sponded. ‘You jess run as fast as you can to the Settlement and get hold of the over- seer, William Ransom. Tell him to come here right away.” By way of farewell she pressed her fat fingers over the boy’s mouth and mumbled some words that were all the more impres- sive because they were wholly beyond any ability of his to understand. Her eyes were closed; her head, thrown back on her short neck, swayed from side to side, balancing the rhythm of. the words she uttered. Suddenly, on the light breeze, the boy’s sharp ears caught a different, fainter sound. He ventured to turn his head a little to the left and glanced between the branches of the trees all about them toward the meadow and upland that faced Mother Juliet’s grove. Each second the sound grew more dis- tinct. “Mother Juliet! Quick! See! He’s coming! Overseer Ransom!” suddenly he cried as he pulled her hand away from his mouth. The seeress blinked her eyes and looked here and there as one aroused from sleep, be- fore she ascertained whither the boy was pointing. “Then you don’t need to see him at all, son,” said Mother Juliet. ‘““Go on along like I told you.” Swift as a rabbit Jolly George darted inte the undergrowth and vanished amid a rustling of fern-leaves. The seeress, leaning on her umbrella, ap- peared on the path and walked out to the end of it, peering on all sides as if-she were seeking some one. A very giant of a man, moving with rapid, heavy strides, came up with her al- most immediately. He wore a spick-and- span khaki suit. From polished puttees to speckless white sun-helmet there breathed about him an air of military trimness and order. His close-growing, eeky hair was glossy THE ARGOSY. black with oil; his square, shaven facé light chocolate in color and not unhandsome. Only in his narrow-framed, small, restless, reddish-brown eyes lurked an indefinable something that was discordant with his gen- eral make- -up—a something part BaVEEENY, part shiftiness. He stood at attention and saluted the seeress by touching his hand to the rim of his helmet, which he then took off and held at his side. Despite his powerful, jutting jaw, his round, close-cropped head was al- most grotesquely small for his huge height and breadth of figure. ‘“Y wanted you to come, William Ran- som, before this evening,” Mother Juliet began in singsong, ‘“‘and so you came. See!” She brushed aside the bushes with her umbrella. - William saw his offering of a pair of dead pigeons on the pedestal. “YT was afraid I could not come to-night,” he observed in a high voice of marked Eng- lish intonation. “YT knew—I knew you were coming,” Mother Juliet said, watching him as if read- ing his soul with her sleepy eyes. The man shook his head and braced his shoulders, startled by her uncanny powers. Yet he had no stomach to resist or question them. “We must go into the house,” she re- sumed soberly. ‘You fetch the pigeons.” Having come in quest of her counsel, the overseer picked up the birds readily. But his stride had lost its spring as he followed the seeress. He sensed portents of ill tid- ings in her manner, when he had until this moment been looking forward to good with the utmost confidence. Mother Juliet bade him wait outside her closed door, which William did obediently, holding the pigeons in one hand and his helmet in the other. The door was locked merely with an oak bar or bolt on the inner side; but even if the seeress had left it open the man would not have had the audacity to steal a look within against her knowledge. Yet by his supporters of the Settlement he was rated the _ boldest, shrewdest man on the island. Mother Juliet had passed into the tim- ber shed at the back of her hut to make in- spection of the castaway. He lay as she had left him—flat on his back on the soiled mattress, breathing heav- ily in the sleep of utter exhaustion. ECORNICLOOOKS . (C@)