Nedra

by George Barr McCutcheon

  CHAPTER XIX

  THE FIRST DAY IN THE WILDS

  The sun was up hours before Ridgeway stretched his stiff arms, blinkedhis sleepy eyes and peered wonderingly about his strange apartment.Another and more rapid glance failed to reveal Lady Tennys. His jacketwas still there, and a round depression showed that her head had restedupon it all night. The packed sand denoted the once present body ofthe sleeper.

  "Good-morning," came a sweet, clear voice from somewhere.

  "Hello! Where are you?" he called, greatly relieved.

  "In the kitchen, of course, getting breakfast for you. The kitchen isdown at the spring, you know. Come down."

  He hurried down the path, and found her standing beside the boundinglittle stream. Her wavy black hair was no longer matted and wild, for,with the water in the cove as a mirror and her big hair comb as thenecessary toilet article, she had "done it up" in quite a presentablefashion. Her face was bright and pure in its freshness, her hands werewhite and immaculately clean; her eyes sparkled with a deeper, clearerblue than ever. She wore an air of resolute confidence in herself.

  "I have been up for two hours or more. See how nice and clean I am. Godown there and wash your hands and face and I will comb your hair." Sheproduced an improvised clothes broom, a stout leafy branch from acocoanut-tree, and swished the sand from his clothing as he turned aboutfor her obediently.

  "These clothes of mine are full of sand and scum from the sea, butbefore the day is over I intend to give them a good scrubbing anddrying. Then I'll feel like a new man. But wait! This may be Sunday, notMonday. Can't wash on Sunday, can I? Let's see, the wreck was onThursday night, yesterday was Friday and--"

  "And to-day is Saturday naturally. We must have clean clothes forSunday. Our parlor, kitchen, and laundry are in the same room, it wouldseem. Here's a pile of cocoanuts I collected while you slept, and thereare some plums or fruit of some kind. They grow back there in the wood ashort distance. I saw some gorgeous birds out there, and they wereeating the fruit, so it must be wholesome. And those dear, saucy littlemonkeys! I could watch them for hours."

  "Did you run across any boa constrictors or anacondas?" asked heserenely.

  "Good Heavens! I never thought of snakes. There may be dreadful serpentsin that forest, Hugh." Her eyes were full of alarm.

  "I merely asked your Ladyship in order to keep the cook in herkitchen," laughed he.

  "An afternoon out is not a luxury in this land, even for the most coopedup of cooks. Snakes! Ugh!" Hugh thought she shuddered very prettily.

  "Breakfast will be cold if I don't hurry," he observed. He made his wayaround the rocky bend to the point where the rivulet emptied into thecove. When he returned to the shady spot he was put to work openingcocoanuts and pouring the milk into the shells of others. She hadcleaned the flat surface of a large rock which stood well out from thelower edge of the cliff, and signified her intention to use it as adining table. He became enthusiastic and, by the exertion of all thestrength he could muster, succeeded in rolling two boulders down theincline, placing them in position as stools beside the queer table. Thenthey stood off and laughed at the remarkable set of furniture.

  "I wonder what time it is?" she said as they began to eat. He pulled hisforgotten repeater from his watch pocket and opened it with considerableapprehension. It was not running, nor did it appear as if it would everbe of service again.

  "How are we ever to know the time of day?" she cried.

  "I'll try to fix it. It is only water-clogged. My little compass on thecharm is all right and it will give us our bearings, north and south, sothat I can get the time by the sun. I'll drive a little stake out thereon the level, and when the shadow is precisely north and south, then itis noon. It's all very simple, Lady Tennyson."

  "I'm only the cook, Hugh. Won't you please call me Tennys?"

  "Thank you; it's such a waste of time to say Lady Tennyson. Shall Iorder dinner, cook?"

  "We'll have a ten-course dinner, sir, of cocoanuts and plums, sir, ifyou please, sir."

  "Breakfast warmed over, I see," he murmured, gazing resignedly towardthe trees. Later on he managed to get some life into his watch andeventually it gave promise of faithful work. He set the hands at twelveo'clock. It was broiling hot by this time, and he was thoughtful enoughto construct a poke-bonnet for her, utilizing a huge palm leaf. Proudlyhe placed the green protector upon her black hair. Then, looking intoher smiling eyes, he tied the grass cord under her up-tilted chin.

  "Perfect!" she cried, with genuine pleasure. "You must make another foryourself." Whether he took it as a command or as a request matters not.Suffice it to say, he soon produced another palm-leaf hat, and she tiedit under his chin a great deal more deftly than he had performed thesame service for her, consequently with a speed that disappointed him.

  He decided to make a short tour of the wood during the afternoon. Atfirst he argued it would be wise to walk far down the coast, in the hopeof finding a village of some description along the water front. Then hedecided that a trip to the north, through the wood, would be better, asthe lower coast could be surveyed from the summit of the great rock.

  "You are not afraid to stay here alone for a couple of hours, are you,Tennys?" he asked, discerning solicitude in her face.

  "I am not afraid for myself, but for you. You must be very careful,Hugh, and come back to me safely. What can I do? What shall I do if younever come back?" she cried.

  "Nothing can happen to me--nothing in the world. See, it's nearly oneo'clock now. I'll be back by five. And I'll be careful, so do not betroubled. We must find the way out of this wilderness. Be brave and I'llsoon be with you again."

  He was soon in the depths of the forest, skirting the little bay towardthe north. She stood beside their stone festal board, watching himthrough uneasy eyes till he disappeared completely from view. A sense ofloneliness so overpowering that it almost crushed her fell upon thisfrail, tender woman as she stood there on the edge of the South Seajungle, the boundless sea at her back. The luxuries and joys of a lifeto which she had been accustomed came up in a great flash before hermemory's eye, almost maddening in their seductiveness. She glanced atthe dress she wore, and a faint, weary smile came to her eyes and lips.Instead of the white, perfect yachting costume, she saw the wretched,shrunken, stained, shapeless garment that to her eyes would have lookedappalling on the frame of a mendicant. Her costly shoes, once small andexquisitely moulded to her aristocratic feet, were now soiled and ugly.

  From the palace to the jungle! From the wealth of fashion to the povertyof nature! From the scores of titled admirers to the single braveAmerican who shared life with her on the bleak rock, mourning for a lovethat might never be restored by the unkind depths. A vision of yesterdayand to-day! Turning to the sea, she breathed a prayer for the salvationof Grace Vernon, her eyes dimming as she thought of the blithe, cheerygirl who had become so dear to her, and who was all the world toHugh Ridgeway.

  Her thoughts went then to Lord Huntingford, her husband. There was scantregret in her heart over the fate of the old nobleman. She was not cruelenough to rejoice, but there was a certain feeling of relief which shecould not quell, try as she would, in the belief that he had gone downto death and a younger, nobler man spared. The last she saw of herhusband was when he broke past the officers and plunged out upon thedeck, leaving her to her fate. That he had been instantly sweptoverboard she had no doubt. All she could remember of her thoughts atthat thrilling moment was the brief, womanly cry for mercy to his soul.After that came the lurch which prostrated her, and then Ridgeway's cry,"Be brave, dearest!"

  Bitter tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of thestrong-hearted Veath and the forsaken American girl--and all of theothers in that merry company. It was not in such anguish as this thatshe summed up her individual loss.

  Ridgeway was soon in the thick of the jungle. For two or three hours heplunged through beautiful glades, over swelling knolls, across tinystreams, but always through a waste of nature that, to all appeara
nce,had never been touched by a human being save himself.

  At last he dropped wearily upon a grassy mound and resigned himself tothe conviction that they had been swept upon an absolutely unexplored,perhaps undiscovered, portion of the globe. It did not occur to hisdiscouraged mind that he had covered less than five miles of what mightbe a comparatively small piece of uninhabited land and that somewherenot far distant lay the civilization for which he sought. His despairingmind magnified the horrors of their position to such an extent that heactually wondered how long it would be before death broke down theirfeeble resistance. Arising despondently, he turned his steps in thedirection of the little cave.

  It was not long before he reached a small sandy stretch about fivehundred yards from the spot where he had left Lady Tennys. Little waveslicked the short strip of sand lazily, seeming to invite him down tomeet them on their approach from the big sea whose tidings of woe theybore. High, dark and ominous loomed the great rock on the south. Hecould not see the cave or the rivulet on account of obstructing treesand a curve in the shore, so he walked down to the very edge of thewater, expecting to obtain a view from that point.

  A startling discovery flashed upon him as he strode upon the beach.There, in the white, soft sand were plainly revealed the footprints of abare human foot. He rubbed his eyes and gazed again. Before him were anumber of small footprints, running to and from the water. In a dazed,wondering way he sought to follow them, eventually finding where asingle line of tracks led directly toward a clump of trees to his left.At the edge of this he found a confusion of bewildering barefoot moulds,mixed with others unquestionably made by a shoe on the foot of acivilized person. Hurrying through the trees, fearful that savages hadattacked Lady Tennys at this place, he was suddenly confronted by aspectacle that made him gasp. Down at the water's edge, over near theplace where he had left her, he saw white garments spread upon therocks. She was nowhere to be seen. Like a flash the truth came to him,and he looked at his watch in consternation. It was but three-thirtyo'clock. He had told her he would be away until five or after.

  Turning about, he dashed back into the depths of the wood. It was afterfive when he again approached the rendezvous, carrying a quantity ofplums and other fruits and a number of gaudy feathers that he hadfound. Away back in the wood he began to shout to her, long before hewas in sight of the hill. She answered cheerily, venturing into the woodto meet him. Her clothes were white, clean, even shapely.