The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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68 laughed and said they would tickle me till I got accustomed to them.” “But that man speaks French! ” “So do I,” said our lonely islander quietly. ‘ Mr. Donaldson taught me.” I began to feel my own littleness. “What else did he teach you? ” “Only English and French; but the boatswain taught me his language and some German.”’ A linguist! We had been with him for weeks and had not discovered this. But we had used only English in speak- ing to him. He certainly was a mar- velous proposition, When coffee was served, he turned to me again. “This is better than ours.” I laughed, and the captain shot an interrogative look sidewise at me. Donaldson was at his right. “Donaldson says your coffee is bet- ter than his,” I said. ‘On the island there is a berry which, when dried and roasted, serves as a substitute.” “He has, I imagine, never tasted Wine.” Here was a poser. Was it wise, I wondered, to let him taste liquor, With his strength, with his natural in- stincts born of his savage life, where, as he had said, when he wanted a thing he went and got it, what might the result be if alcohol got the better of him, as well it might. But he was not my’guest, nor was I his keeper. He tasted the wine. He noted that we drank ours, and did the same. But he left the second glass half filled. “You don’t like wine? ’ I asked. 66 No.”’ I was glad of that, though Ordway and I were not temperance advocates. But my head was filled—crammed to the aching point—with the future of this remarkable man. All through the dinner Inspector Ravary was glum, eating little, but drinking much. This I knew was the result of his long hours without sleep since the beginning of the aeronautic exhibition. THE ARGOSY. “A toast was drunk to the “ King of Orsgov.”’ | I could see that Ravary was begin- ning to grow weary of the affair, and he proved it. “Well,” he said gruffly to Dela- touche, “all this is very pretty, but it adds none to the population of the conciergeric. I did not come to the Arctic Circle to feast and be merry. Your men must have whipped the for- est by now.” . A shade of annoyance crossed the .face of the commander of the Vigi- lante. He rose. This was the signal, and the dinner party broke up. We followed Delatouche to the deck. I heard an exclamation from Ord- way, who was just ahead of me. “Dag,” he said, almost with sobs in his voice, “it’s coming—trouble in bunches and stacks and bales. Orsgov has suddenly risen to international im- portance, and is now a summer resort. Look—for Heaven’s sake, look! ” I looked, and cold chills almost stopped the digestion of my good din- ner, Not very far from the Vigilante was a magnificent white steam-yacht flying the Stars and Stripes, and on her bridge were women with glasses lev- eled at the wrecked air-ship in the trees. “That’s Gordon Morley’s Elvira,” I said. “Yes, yes, it’s the Elvira, all right, and Morley always has a gang of pretty girls. Well, it had to come. Better here, perhaps, than in New York.” I wasn’t so sure. I felt a dismal longing for the big city on the Hudson. There we might control the islander. Here he was supreme. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ISLANDER OBJECTS. “You have more visitors,” said De- latouche to Donaldson. The islander was studying the big oO cComicbooks CO