The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 213: what you’re looking at

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

THE CRUISE OF THE HANDICAP. me down. I set the kaybee free so it could save itself. It darted mto the forest. We can get it again.” He then turned his attention to Donaldson. “From such an examination as I can give now, he said, “I believe his in- juries are not particularly serious, though I think two ribs are broken. He is not a young man, and they will take some time to knit, especially as we have no proper appliance. But we can invent something. The greatest loss is the house. He had so many things we could use.” Acting under his directions, we ar- ranged Donaldson on a bed of leaves, boughs of soft-tipped trees, and then stood in a@ wondering group, scarcely knowing what to say. Mary was still kneeling by her father. “It seems to me,” said Ross, who was serious enough now, “that the best thing we can do is to get after that house at once. There is no telling how long we’ll be here, and if the yacht is really lost, we may spend our lives here as Donaldson has. Let’s get what we can from the wreck anyway.” We left the professor and Marv to care for Donaldson, and, after asking the girl the direction, started off. We found along the way various ar- ticles of clothing not seen by Mary in her search, and gathered up everything. We reached the house and walked around it. Apparently the corners had all been badly strained, and it was a complete wreck. The door was open, and we managed to clamber inside. Everything was topsyturvy. Yet we found many things we could use, and to our joy, nestling on a bed that had been turned over so that now it was upright, while the house was not, we discovered a hig stone jug of the strong wine Donaldson had made from berries. This was the greatest prize of all. We hurried back with it, and the pro- fessor poured some of the wine down his patient’s throat, and some down his own as well. Soon after that Donaldson began to revive and we felt hopeful. “T think now,” I said, “that as the professor has brought Mr, Donaldson © A 209 to consciousness, and Miss Donaldson is a: good nurse, we should go back to camp and look after our own affairs. We never thought to do that, in our anxicty to get the two injured ones here. We shall have to depend on our guns for food for some time, probably. It was a most fortunate thing we brought an ample supply of ammuni- tion.” “When one goes to hunt kaybees, one takes ammunition,” remarked Ross. “Come along.” We found things at the camp in con- siderable confusion, but the main neces- sities, the guns and cartridges, were safe. With them we could furnish our- selves with food and keep off enemies if they came. We tried to make out some sign of the Siren, but there was not a sail or a bit of smoke im sight. “Tf the yacht was overtaken and went down quickly,” said Foster, “Balfe and his men wouldn’t have a chance to get to the boats.” “The boats wouldn’t live in that storm anyway, added Ross. “Iam going to continue to hope that the yacht is safe,” I said. “ Balfe is a good navigator. He would know what to do.” “ Well, things are a little different from what they were a few hours ago,” observed Ross. “ Then we expected to remain a day or so and get some kay- bees. away. We’ve got to come to some un- derstanding about our camp; this one is not fit for a permanent establishment.” “We'll build a house for Donaldson and one for ourselves,” I said. “And there’s another thing,” said Ross. “No jealousy. No fighting duels.” “What the devil is the fool talking about?” exclaimed Foster. “Do you know, Bayne?” “The hurricane blew out what little sense he had, I guess.” “No, but look here. This is honest. We are on an island now. This is not New York City. Every day we are go- ing to be in the society of the prettiest girl any of us ever saw. ‘“ Now, we are all young, vigorous, and likely to do what other men have GOI OOoO Now we'll stay till we can get © SS (COL