The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

LOOSING THE TEMPEST. The islander sat on the bench, hold- ing his craft close to the ice while we removed our goods and chattels. When we appeared with the stove he eyed it suspiciously. “What is that?’ he asked. “ That is a stove to cook food with,” I explained. “ But it will burn up.” ‘No; it 1s made of iron.” “Tron? Let me feel.” Having satisfied himself that iron was a hard substance, he relapsed into his almost saturnine silence till Ordway appeared with the guns. “What are those? ”’ he asked. “ These are guns.” “Guns? Yes, I know. They make a noise and kill men.” “They kill bears as well as men. We'll show you the next time one comes along.” Our strange host paid little attention to our furs and other clothing. He seemed to know all about them. Ord- way brought a suit-case containing our toilet articles, safety-razors, brushes, combs, and what-not, which we had not used since our despair began on the ice- field. This we did not open, or we would have spent the day answering questions. When the willow yacht- chairs were brought out the islander’s eyes opened wide. “Them chairs? ”’ know.” When Ordway had put them on the raft the islander promptly left the bench and sat down in a chair. “Very good,” he pronounced sol- emnly.. ‘The woman ‘ruler sits like this.” His remark was explained later when we discovered, among the many other things he possessed, an old print of Queen Victoria seated on the throne. Having regained all our stuff, we in- formed our host of the fact; and the crazy catamaran took us back into the little bay with as much precision as a catboat could have done. Without delay we removed all our things to the cabin. he said. “I 29 “T’m tired and hungry,” said Ord- way. “ Let’s have grub.” I was as faint from hunger as my friend. All his peculiar weakness of will had vanished now he had solid ground under his feet. He looked around for a fire. “You want to eat?” asked the is- lander. “ Come.” He did not go inside the hut, but led us some distance away. Here the land was rugged, hilly, and rocky. In the side of a rise of ground we saw the entrance to a cave. We entered this. The peculiar. pungent odor of smolder- ing birch came to us. We wasted no time in examining the place, which seemed to be a seriés of small caverns. Our first need, then, was food. Investigations could come later. In the center of the second cavern a fire burned on the floor. “You keep this fire burning all the time?” I asked. “Yes. He told me. I got—what you—oh, matches. Yes, ship matches. But must save and save, so keep fire burning. Sometimes go out, then use match.” “Well, so you have companions here,” I said. “ Com—” “You live here alone?” “Yes. He dead.” ““My friend’s name here is John Ordway,” I said, “ and mine is Homer Dagwell. What is your name? ” “T don’t know. I got no name. He called me Boy.” CHAPTER XV. A HABITATION. In a chamber of the cave that was lighted from the main opening, and also by a hole that seemed to have been ctit in the roof, we found a heavy table made of spruce. There was a bench on either side. There were curiously wrought eat- ing utensils to take the place of knife CoOMmicbook CO