Adventure stories; Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Ship captains -- Fiction
May 14th.--Three days have passed in the shelter, and Clair-de-Lune,
who comes to me every day, brings no good news of Jasper. "He is on
the heights," he says; "if food were there he might live through the
sleep-time." My husband knows that he is there, but does not speak of
it. Yesterday, about sunset, I went up to the gallery on the reef,
where the island is visible, and I saw the fog lying about it like a
pall. It is an agony to know that those dear to you are suffering,
perhaps dying, there! I cannot hide my eyes from others; they read my
story truly. "Your friends will be clever if they come to Ken's Island
again," my husband says. I do not answer him. I shall never answer him
again.
May 15th.--There was a terrible storm on the island last night, and we
all went up to the gallery to see the lightning play about the heights
and run in rivulets of fire through the dark clouds above the woods. A
weird spectacle, but one I shall never forget. The very sky seemed to
burn at times. We could distinguish the heart of the thicket clearly,
and poor people running madly to and fro there as though vainly seeking
a shelter from the fire. They tell me to-day that the bungalow is
burnt; I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. I am thinking of my
friends. I am thinking of Jasper, thinking of him always.
May 16th.--I learn that there was a stranger left behind in the
bungalow, a Doctor Gray, of San Francisco. He landed with Edmond last
week, and is here for scientific reasons. My husband says that he does
not like him; but allowed him, nevertheless, to come. He was in the
bungalow making experiments when the lightning struck the house and
destroyed it. It is feared that he must have perished in the fire. My
husband tells me this to-night and is pleased to say it. But what of
Jasper, my friend; what of him?
May 16th.--I was passing through the great hall of the house to-night,
going to my bed-room, when something happened which made my very heart
stand still. I thought that I heard a sound in the shadows, and
imagining it to be one of the servants, I asked, "Who is there?" No one
answered me; and, becoming frightened, I was about to run on, when a
hand touched my own, and, turning round quickly, I found myself face to
face with Jasper himself, and knew that he had come to save me!
CHAPTER XVI
ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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