\.?IX SYNOPSIS Palmyra Tree, aboard the yach Rainbow. is startled by seeing u ban; Thr ust through the po?t of her cabin She makes a secret investigation am discovers a stowaway. She is disap pointed in his mib.l appearance an; tells him so. Obeying his comniani t'% glance at the door?she sees : huge, fierce, copper-hued man, witl a ten-inch knife held between grin ning lips! Burke, the stowaway, e\ psu;ns that it is a joke. But Pal inyra is shaken. Next day, Burkand the I rowi! man go up on deck The stowaway entertains them witl ? .. O..- . . t:r . . unca iu an au'.tuiuirwiiiif nit: Ki'hi.h his listeners refuse t.? believe read on: Palmyra spends move and mori time with the stowaways to avoii Van and John, bin when the stow a ways are put ashoi e at llbholuh she decides she loves Van. The nigh the engagement is announced th? Rainbow hits a reef, in the excite me i which follows John rescue: hot' Van and Palmyra?but Pal my; a thinks it is Van who saves her After three days spent on the un inhabited island, a saii is sighted. 1 proves to he Ponape Burke. Burk? contrives to get Palmyra hoart his boat alone?and the boat is un der way before anything can in dpiie^* ; I \ Thurston is frantic and plans tt >av ; Palmyra. although there seem: no ;yjssibte way. Meanwhile Pona'.u toils Palmyra he is goirtg to the IsU f Fauna with her. dive marched proudK up fcj?.c sands. the girl in his arms a de.-n burden. The rifle 'ire. as was have beer v \ofwted, had brought the villagerrunning from their thatches. Scarce tin' i?iu>vu man emer&gSi out of cm* sea l,ban these Mic: onesians swarming down. Kxeited voice, liiuii tht air. "0-]>c-v-ay 0-U-? -vay (viofc-vay!". > thus, then. was where he could bring her: the home of his popple, the platv: of his ow n abode. Here Wefre people moving about: broWn men. yellow men, whlfcfe aicn.-j the last in white clothing and white .shoes, with white pith helmets pulled down over their noses to keep out the- glare of the white sand. And here was even a white woman. wh<; popped her head out a window like a euokbo oiit of a -dock. And there, most astonishing of all, not five feet away and as rea as life itself, stood .lohn Thurston. And he gazed at her sorrowfully and said, in the strangest voice: "Pjjim Tree' Oh, oh. Palm!" It was not until fifteen hours af tl:er the brown man bad l monipiii sgt- lounu no rself in her mother's arms. WhenPshi- roused again. several i ho^r? later, the Craw fords >yere at r.he bedrit'.e with her mother and father. Palmyra sat up abruptly \yith the question: "Where have they got Ponape Burke?' The four looked from cue to another. hesitated. At her first awakening the gir! had been told how the Okayama had brought her people into this harboi on the search. "You don'l mean . ." She paused, incredulous. "You don'1 mean the gunboat was right hert when I came and didn't steam out tc catch him?" She saw- that ihis urbelievabh thing was true. Unexpectedly, sh< sprang to her feet. "Where's Olive?' Her voice rang sharp, frightened. But Olive himself was asleep. Her father began to explain. "Th< Pigeon of Noah is, an American ves sei . . ." And there's been so much frictioi between Japan and America." inter jected the mother. "And Commander Sakamoto wa sure if he seized the schooner on thi hirrh aoijc if wnnlrl i/pf. infn ftii American paper's wrong anrl stir n more misunderstanding and ill will. "So, my dear," finished Constar.c Crawford, "you were sacrificed t the ends of diplomacy. The .lay finding: you safe, decided the lesse evil was to let Burke escape." "Dr. Crife's just had a long tal with Olive," said Mrs. Crawford. Di Crife of the mission was their hosl The girl exclaimed in astonishment "He can, he can talk to him? H can understand him?" She seemed hardly to believe. S utterly, with her, had the brown ma been beyond reach of words, it ha seemed no one, with Ponape Burk (tone, could ever bridge that gap be tween Babel's most diverse langri ages. "And to think," cried Constant* "they got the letter all wrong. Mad us' believe poor Olive, who was bi ing so wonderful, was a villain." ? ' ' ' ED HA1 AND LUE SE JSTRATIONS BY HENRY J COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES SCRXSNBTCJ The color flooded Palmyra* r cheeks in the intensity of her inter fi est. i. "Cut this particular pastor coul< J not explain clearly," said the father - "and the Jan. misled bv vour name 1J didn't understand at all. What 01iv? i really writes is to beseech, in Je i hovah's name, that whatever friend t get the letter hurry with arms am -; many boats to a named island, then to help him save ..." "Dr. Orite says there's absolutely ? r.o question about tnat wr ?d 'save.* . put in Constance. 1 . ."Help him save the higl chief vounj? lady Ralmtree.*' The girls settled back among hei pillows. Tears welled into her eyes - "It was enough that 1 should havt 1 wronged him,".she said. "It is an thinkable you all should have beer guilty of 'his crowning mi.-concep * Hon." ~ i She shifted uneasily, lay for soim I vime in silence, gazing through tn* a window. "If they hadn't bungled the let ter." she said at last wearily. "1 should have been spared much. Am if you hadn't let Ponapc Burke es cane. I >h uldn't now b,- in danefe ! stiik" I At last Palmyra could talk t? "| Olive After all these days and years ] and centuries silence, they t\u? by the intervention of Or. < rile, had been made articulate. Sh't learned that the f rown mar served Pouape Burke in a debt of i gratitude; the saving of his life. He nail for this while i .isral n vc, hut iio sort pf respect. Great souls must, of their nature, suffer ; petty tyrahuv. And Olive I'ften, . according to his lights regretting:. .! disapproving. always pa!i?|m\g-t; follow.*d the despicable, little l*on5) -*?Pe. ij i>he learned that Oliw had :io: known llurko tneurit v> abduct her. . And she found that in the beginning I he had thought it. J? an abduction, 1 hut an elopement. t'tny when the se hooper got under , way (lid he perceive that this was no ; adventure of Palmyra's own choice. Only when .she did tint jsoo'h begin ti? smile through her tears as many a native girl might have donei did he !' realize how terrible to her the situs., Li oh. Olive's fifi-i thought was that the girl would fee! safer with a weapon; also thai she might possibly need one. As he dared not givt; her the knife In daytime. ho dropped it through the skylight. U hv'n the Japanese gunboat pissed them so cruelly hy. Olive had been as eager as she i?? attract atj lention. But he had known the disi lar.ee too great. As. regarded JaUi't he had not i jitim- there because it was co obviously the; place he should have gone. Biufke was sure to try that lagoon first. This niuoh Dr. Crife could redd air her. incarnate there before this isiandI ci's eves on the Rainbow, she pad j been not unlike a goddess; a being ; ?l&s indeed she was?from another world. A high white princess, called for the statc-ly life-giving paim and crowned with hair of fiame, she had condescended to him with blankets I when a brown creature was in mis1 cry with that most terrible of things ?cold. Olive was not in love with Palm ? Tree. One does not consider oneself t privileged to tall in love with a t goddess. > But from the deck at her feet, intimately yet afar, he had gazed up } at her?fascinated. If Palmyra now knew how Olive ' felt toward her, she was far from knowing how she felt toward Olive. And if her oply difficulty witV a Van Bur en Rutger had been a re - luctance to give him pain, she fount every difficulty with John Thurs i ton. Van himself had made things easy Returning to the mission at a l?t< s hour the third night he had conic e upon Olive prowling about with : e rifle. "Ponape is not dead," th< p brown man had explained simply " But that which others look upon a: e a touching manifestation of deyo o tion. Van chose to regard with sus >, picion "Sakamoto shall know o r this," was his comment. Palmyra had been so incensed tha k there and then, she had broken th< r. engagement. t. Van's dismissal placed him in tha position wherein h weak man not in e frequently lacks moral courage. t< turn upon his real rival. He mus o find an easier target for his resent n ment. Thus Van. without in ih< d least perceiving why, remaine* e amiable toward Thurston, but dc veloped an ugly spite against thi i- man of darker skin. But if Palmyra had freed hersel j, of Van, she could not free herself o e that which withheld her frori - j Thurston. Back there in the canoe, in he THE WATAUGA DEMOCRAT??V1 [R^l^ It. OSBORN [AY LEE > SONS . i > .'Moment of revelation, she had yearn-! ed to mee thin once more, face toI face, that she might tell mm the j J j truth i.ut now that, astonishingly, j . j she had awakened into the old life.! j .j she found herself' quite unready to .?j step up to him with any such con. i fession. j She willed to io'vc John ThuBlton; | t.u.. .j;.i tl.. ?. ^ILV l.lll V -ItFlllI J IIUI MUI.. I'Ul . between them was the brown nuui j Olive, and# leering from behind his? .'elbow, the face of IV-nape Burke. Concerning Olivt she tried to justify herself on the gvbund of grati-1 i tude Never had a girl move reason' to he grateful. Was it not naturalj she should be eager to take himj . presents, to sit ir. his house question- i ing. to find herself hour hv hour' .j more curious concerning him. more' i interested in him than in any other . living being? Oddiy enough-?or rather, natural-j ly enough?it dk'. not come to her ? for some tim t whether slie! nilght he in love with this brown -! man. Then the i?ca struck like an! r unexpcctcd blow .She was stunned, i At first she pu* the thought from . he in abhorrence. Hut in the still j hours of the night it came hack i again and again. Could she indeed! . ho it", love with. Olive? Was it pos-; si Me for an American girl, under! , any circumstances whatever, to fall j in iov< with a mao of darker race? i She shuddered to think others might jjfelievo this thing o " her. She avoided Olive, kept to her room. She t niggled to analyst her' emotions, to v.-i.-igir thenv disp r sio.i-! a tel.v. And honestly striving sue v as at :..st aide to say of herself that: it; no sense could she be accused ofi loving him. Not for long did sh? find the answer. Then it came, like release from I a prison cell. She was in love, not I v ith himself, hut with his attributes. She tvapied '.?? love? John for the ! true manliness that was his. But, l alas, iho-r >plcnhe remembered how he had u!>no after the shark with the knife . . ami conquered. The >un was less than an hour ' , high when Palmyra, as she had done I : for several mottling now. descended' ' the winding- stairway hewn in the I hillside from the mission direct to ' the street of the town. Island life was already astir. j * The girl was addressed by an "id. woman. 1 ** PI easy you." said this crdnt in'5 ; Knglish, " you come for look for see 5 j veV tine I'inpvlap mat. Vou like too : ~ ' much for buy." ; * She would have refused, but now N 1 she caught a glimpse of Van ap ' j preaching. Several times he had ; trapped her into painful interviews. N But this morning she could use the 2 ancient dame, as a gaping listener, * : i.. keep Van silent. ; f "Where is your ouse?" the girl ! asked tentatively. The thatch toward which the crone 1 j pointed stood coiVspicuoulsly. ln>- ' ' mediately against one side was the water and a small wharf of coral 5 fragments by which the traffic of U. ... ... i . *1. _ ,L ? uie.iDw ii wf.H. to CfTf uiicnurage. as I close- on the island side was the road ! and. opposite, the trading estahlishj meitt of a white man and the high concrete of the Japanese police ! compound. The house was quite by ' itself on the water side of the high- , j way, yet immediately in the center ' of village life. Van now came sauntering up and 1 j Palmyra indicated this place. II "Come on," she invited. "My old i lady is taking- ine for look-see for j ve'y line Pingey-something mat." i 11 Several drops of rain fell. 1 j Van agreed. "But there's a squall 1 coming." he said. "I'll run back first for umbrellas." I! As he turned away she hesitated, - unexpectedly afraid at being left alone. . But as she moved forward a Japi anese policeman, saluting benignly; i reassured her. And she saw every i step brought her nearer those two j representatives of the civil and the . moral law, which lay at anchor be5 yond the wharf, the Okayama and - that Iju Ram which is the latest, - perhaps the last, of the Morning f Stars in which the American missionaries have carried the Word. t The old woman's house was not e onlv f'onsrtiriirmti ir? !?>?* appearance. The thatches of this ist land were rectangular, sharp roofed, - sided with woven tat, narrow doored. 3 But this hut was oval and open? t vaguely the architecture of central - Polynesia. e The girl stooped to enter, then \ drew back in one of those sudden - apprehensions that still beset her. s Who knew where Ponape Burke would strike? This house seemed f safe; might indeed he safer than the f mission. But yet . .. . ri She peered in; saw only three old women. No one could be in hiding, r none approach without being seen. WBCSHW BE I .' ,. - -' ' ', ' ' ' ' J V 2RY THURSDAY?ROON Ei, N. C. | Palmyra entered, advanced toward I the central posts, glancing interesti ediy around. Suddenly, something: dropped past her eyes, and the three old women hurled themselves at her. So unexpected the attack flora I such as these, in an open shed sueh| j as this, at almost the settlement's! busiest and most public spot, that! the girl was caught unready. And before she could move a muscle, cry out. her throat was compressed?a terrible, choking pressure. Shej fought for breath. Then, her arms pinioned, came relief and a fierce warning:: 'No 'poakey. no 'peakeyf At the content <>i* the onfall her guide, still behind her, had dropped round her throat a fibre loop, a brutal tourniquet with which she could, instantly, be strangled into silence?or death The woman, fearing Van might ...? i *-< *1.-:.. ?i n "v. IU i.