Adventure stories; Islands -- Fiction; Love stories; Shipwrecks -- Fiction
Six savages lying on the sand far above them saw the strange scene down
near the splashing surf and looked blankly at each other. They had never
known their Izors to act in that manner, and their benighted minds
were troubled.
"Oh, Hugh, those men are looking at us," she protested, after the first
moments of joy.
"Let them look," he cried. "You should pity them, dear, for until a few
moments ago you were as much in the dark as to the meaning of love as
they are now. You were a perfect heathen."
"You are no longer the harlequin. You have become the wizard."
"But it isn't a pantomine," he said.
The shadows were falling and darkness was settling about them as they
passed between the giant rocks and into Velvet Valley, his arm around
her waist. This new emotion deprived them of the desire to talk. There
was a conscious flush in her cheeks, a queer restraint in her voice, a
curious timidity in her manner when they sat before the rude table in
the temple and partook of food that had never tasted so sweet before;
though neither could eat of it. Something had satisfied the grosser
appetite; something was tugging and choking the old into submission
while the new was crowding into its realm, buoyantly, inflatingly.
They sat in front of the temple until far in the night, revelling in the
beauty of the new nature. The whole world seemed different to them as
they regarded it through the eyes of love; the moonlit sky was more
glorious than ever before; the sombre stillness of the night was more
restful; the atmosphere was sweet with the breath of passion; the sports
of the savages had a fresh novelty; the torches in front of the king's
home flickered with a merrier brilliancy.
All Ridgehunt was awake and celebrating, for it was a festal night. King
Pootoo had taken unto himself a new wife, adding one more to the
household of his heart. There were dances and sports and all manner of
festivities in honor of the event, for it was not oftener than twice a
year that the king took a new wife unto his bosom. The white people
never knew where the ceremony began. They only knew that on this night
of all nights the father of the bride had led her to the king and had
drawn with his spear a circle in the soft earth.
Inside of this circle the girl prostrated herself before the groom-elect
and the marriage was complete when the royal giant stepped into the
wedding ring and lifted her to her feet, leading her to a place among
her predecessors, who sat on the ground near by. Then the celebration
ran to its highest pitch. Late in the night the weird revelry ceased and
the two spectators entered the temple, her hand in his. He led her to
the curtained door of her apartment.
"Good-night, dear one," he said softly. She turned her face to his and
he held her for an instant to his heart, their lips meeting in a long
thrill of ecstasy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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