The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

ae A SECRET OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC. 431 He removed his coat and pushed up the shirt. sleeve beneath. The injured member was black. from shoulder to elbow. ‘“‘Oh!’’ she cried, ‘‘it must pain you cruelly—and you never said a word !”’ | ; She seized the empty soup tin and ran out of the cave. Ina moment she returned with a quantity of sea water, and set it over the fire to boil. Thorne leaned against the wall of the cave with his eyes closed. She got her scissors from the drenched workbox and ripped off the sleeve of his shirt. Then, when the water was hot, she used her own handkerchief to bathe his arm and finally bound it up tightly in the shirt sleeve. “You must not try to use it for a long time,’’ she said. ‘‘I wish I had some liniment to put on it.’’ ‘‘That’s one of the things I forgot to put in the valise,’’ he rejoined with a smile, - But he disobeyed her injunction, for he roused himself sufficiently to go outside and gather a quantity of drift wood and pile it up near at hand, that . he might feed the firé during the night without being obliged to move far. He begged her to take some rest, for it was then past midnight. At first she refused; but at length tired nature asserted itself and.she began to nod. They sat side by side upon the plank and soon her head dropped upon. his shoulder. He put his good arm about her waist and eased her into a more comfertable position, and she slept on like a child. He did not sleep himself. His injured arm prevented that. But he kept the fire burning brightly and by its light watched the color come and go in the face lying on his breast in its frame of tangled hair. ‘Toward dawn the booming of the surf grew less harsh. The storm was subsiding and the troubled seas beat upon the rocks with a rhythmic sound like the lower notes of a great organ. ‘Through the opening of the cave he could see the light in the sky grow strouger. , The fire died down to a bed of glowing coals. ‘The fresh morning air swept into the cave, and Sydney awoke. Thorne’s face bending over her was. the first thing her eyes rested upon. Perhaps she was not quite awake, for she smiled up at him and did. not seek to move her head from his arm for a moment. Her eyes.closed drowsily, and then she suddenly started up with a full realization of her position. The rich color mounted into her face in an instant; but her eyes expressed nothing but gratitude to him. ‘““Why, Mr. Thorne, I have slept !’’ she said. ‘All night, Miss Latimer,’’ he replied huskily. ‘‘ See—the morning is breaking.’’ ‘“And your poor arm—how is it ?’’ she asked, as he assisted her to rise. ‘Well, it is still with me,’’ he returned, trying to smile. They walked to the mouth of the cave. ‘There was already light enough upon the sea for them to distinguish-objects quite clearly. A long way out from the shore the waves broke in foam over the reef on which the Naida had beencast. But the brig had disappeared.. Her wreckage strewed the beach and rolled in the surf as far as they could see in either direction. Conmiclooolks