The Other Woman's Hand

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 450, 1 December 1904, Page 8

The Other Woman's Hand

i A atodl<d Ottentl tmA Urn * By CWZIf DOUCN OVStrVOM, THE youciT man who would make for himself a name and fame goes •aat. By the same token, he who would hide those both betakea himself west. Heattly went west because the girl he waa in love with Jilt<d him, out of hand, for a richer fellow, and he waa very hard hit. He went west and wai lost to aight, and the places where he had been knew him no more. If anyone chanced to meution him to ths girl, she smiled the smile of pitying eontempt, which is most women's tribute to the memory of a man they have treated abominably, and said: "Poor Dick." She was aa mean as ahe was beautiful—which is not the fairy-tale formula; but ahe got her punishment is the end—which it. This ia how it came about: Circumstances and physicians over which she had no control sent the rich man she had married—whose name was Kent —to spend a season on the Pacific coast. Kent's f aney lighted upon a seaport town, the only objects of interest in which were a braak-water, in course of sonstruetlon, and a spit of land upon which, tourists were assured, the skeletons of dead aad gone pirates might yet be dug up. Neither these nor the adjoining chipping Tillage, which only awaited the appropriation of a delinquent congress to become the harbor of the Pacific slop*, offered to Mrs. Kent that , variety and exdtemeat which alone - could make existence palatable to her. 80 ahe decided that if there were to be any sueh, they must come from within hereelf. Therefore, aa the moat unlikely thing that ahe could happen upon, ahe determined to try what it might be like to lead that which ia known aa a normal and healthy lifey-going to bed when the frogs began to sing in the dismal marshes •bout, and getting up with the sun. "I will take plenty of exercise," she explained to her husband; "I will row for e couple of hours before breakfast, on the lagoon. I think." ..She experienced some real enthusiasm aboat it at this point. Kent did not. He foreeew the disturbance of his own comfort, which was not greatly considered at the beet of times, and he tried to discourage her; but without sueeeee.

At daybreak ahe made her war across the strip of land that divided the lagoon and tba see. Tht hotels and ootUru faoad ih« it a, but tba lagoon was tba inner narbor, and there were upon it only whar*es and riekaty boathocHi and fishermen's hats. It wn not exactly a picturesque outlook, ordinarily, bat tba sunrise llfbta oaat a aort of glamour over H now. Breathe deep, looaa aaci was aool and tinttd, and all traced orar with Ana cabalistic lint a whtre tkc liaards bad dragged. tbair tails and no one bad at yet atepped. Latar on, it would be buttering bot and tha marah waada would give out a aholdng amall; but tbia early, their atunted yellow and pink bloaaoma bad a freah and pungent aoent. Sat followed a path thatk>tf t-o a rough board ahaek, atandiag on atilta over the ebb-tide mad, where a sign advertiaad that boat* ware builded and for rent. When aha atopped in the amall doorway, bar figure ahut out moat of the light, and aha eould barely discern the man who waa mo ring about inatde. Be tame toward her. Her back waa to the low raya of the tun, ao her fact waa In the blackness, and only her form waa as gliatening white aa tha Angel of Apoeelypee. 0 Had be a row-boat, ahe aeked; one not too heavy, and witb oara of a moderate sweep? He waa taciturn—a long-chore character, probably—for be did not even anawer, only took a pair of apoon oar* from tbair rack on the wall, and led the way out to the landing pier. She followed, running against atrange shape* of wood, and stumbling orar piles of lumber in the gloom, whan they ware out on the landing, be turned about and faced her suddenly. She waa quite eloae behind him, and ahe garc a quick start back. "I thought ao," he aaid, steadily; "I thought the roiee waa like yours." Ha bad had that much warning, but •he had had none at all, and it might bare been a full two seconds before •he got control of heraelf. Then the beauty of the situation and all ita posBlbifcHiea floated upon her suddenly, euad aba decided that her movement of impulse had been the beat she could hare made. 80 ahe followed it up. She shrank back into the doorway farther still. "Btehardl" ahe said, •owering. ** He atood reating upon the oars and •erutiaitdng her stolidly. He flattered himself that he waa calm, not to •*** aool, but Mm. Sent had a das*"- . 3 surface eight. Ska ew*~ than peared aool aW- tw that he ap••a**" ** ~»• yery much the aame „ that a circular saw appears atill when it is going fait enough. Tor beraclf and for tba major part of mankind ahe waa a vary light scoffer at lore; but ahe waa no euch fool aa not to know that tha heart which has truly loTed and never forget* doea have Ita existence in the flesh aa well aa in the Una* of Krin'a bard. So, summing up the situation with the aid of obser rations upon his character, made rath •r exhaustively some Ave years gon« by, ahe came to the conclusion that when ahe should be ready, it wouk take perhape half an hour at the out aide to have him at her feet as a tigei |a at the feet of a trainer with a whip Hanaaiy spoke at lest. "You di< your work prettywtborottghly whilyou were about it, you »ee,"' he said •1 went to tba devil and to bed-rock ia something lata than a year. Then ; anarried a Portuguese, fisher gjaj wh*

I was drunk, and she and I are livin.~ j together in that shanty over there. | He nodded in the direction of a litti impair, ted board shack some 50 ynrt; off the sands. Mrs. Kent covered her face with he palms while she gained time to tr; and think of something as drama t: and conoise. But her own appearanc did not lend itself to narrative of tb' kind. She made a broken murmur, vague with hinte of her own dee}wretchedness, do instead. Henesh -lid not answer; only turned on hi heel and led the way to the landing steps. He waa there to help her out wh»v «he came beck. When ahe aeked if sh> might use the boat next morning hj told her yea. He explained it to him *elf as being proper pride, and tha she should not fancy him afraid. Af te- \ day or two he altered the explain ;ion to that it couldn't matter an? way, and often that he did not try (• explain. He let things go. At tb ! point she lingered, sitting upon thkeel of a yawl up for repairs, ai talked about herself in hopelem ve:r.. The ensuing atepe were talk abou: himself. He responded fairly easily. *nd showed hie drawings, hi* tools -Mid the new gasoline engine band saw which waa his especial pride. H> taught her how to start the engine up. and to cut along traced lines through the hardest wood with the toothed band of steel. It waa inevitable, thereafter, that they should —having had herself an:' himself—come to themselves. An-: when that happened—it waa abmr the tenth day of her "normal am: healthy" life —much more did as well So that when she started to go .at lest and stood, beautiful, in the midst «>•? all the roughness around, hie bead went completely, and he caught her hand against hie lips and held it there. It was delight and bliss and temporary oblivion to him. It was the success of an experiment with her, and the point beyond which she did not mean to go. for her wisdom was of this world.ee But to Maria, Henesly'e Portuguese wife—who was under the boathouse. peering up through a knothole—it was rage and jealousy of a very savage kind. She had had her suspicions of the woman who came so often and for so long at break of day, and now ahe was verifying them. As for what,they said, the two, she could neither hear Dor understand all of that. Her English waa limited. But she saw Hencsly kissing the-shapely hand, and there was nothing incomprehensible about that. If Henedy had had the slightest idea of what Maria had seen, he would have been justified in being uneasy and in recalling the warning of one of those poets of his better days, anent mute natures which punish you in deeds. For Maria made no sign at all. She only waited her time. It came very soon. That seme night Hencaiy was called upon to repair the hull of a launch, and he had to be up until long Kit midnight, working with lanterns, take advantage of the tide. The consequence was that he overslept himself the next day. Maria, however, I did not. She arose early and went out. When Mrs. Kent came, humming a snatch of song that ahe knew would be calculated to awaken memories in Henesly, Maria was hidden behind a pile of lumber in tha dark corner where the gaeoline engine was, lying in wait, with a big knife up her sleeve. Mrs. Kent had no suspicion of that. She wandered around the boathouse, playing with various things, and finally,- ae the time grew long, ahe went.. over to the corner and amused herself by starting the band-saw up, as Hencaiy had shown her how to do. The gaeoline engine began to rpit and hiss, and* the shiny contrivances, whoec names ahe did not know, to clatter aad turn. The eaw-edged band *sdf began to whir so very fact that it seemed to be quite still. She held a serap of wood against it and watched it cut smoothly in two without a jar. When che looked up she could see Henesly hurry over along the path through the dunet from his shack She stopped playing with the aaw, an<J stood waiting for him, beginning the strain of song again. • Her hand was lying eloce "to the moving band. Maria raised herself up in the shadow and looked at it. It was so white, e-o small, so near the turning caw. It was the came hand that Henesly had kissed the day before. The whir of the machinery wai in Mrs. Kent's ears. The light of the low rays falling through the open door was in her eyes. She did not hear th* bonrda behind her creek. She did not see that some one wa* coming nearer and nearer, with hot eyes watching that white and careleaa hand. The engine was spitting and clattering unconoernedly when Henesly stepped into the place, and in th« gloomy corner near it, aptta*** white and huddled waa*"* uing I was a wo*»*»*- " ' -the floor. It 1 feci* •""-"" • * figure fallen on the *nd with artne thrown out. On the end of one arm there wa* a hand. On that of the other—there was none. Mrs. Kent'e tale, to Henesly and to her husband, was never quite dear. Perhaps ahe had moved; perhaps she had swayed; perhaps some one had puehed her arm against the saw. She had thought that some one had gone past her, yeet as she reeled and fell—and. besides, the hand, cut dean at the wrist, was gone. And Maria, too, waa gone. Henedy never saw her again. But that night -.% he set alone in his cabin, his head dropped en his folded arms, a voice 'nine ia at the window above his head —came in with the croaking song of he frog* in the swamp outside and with f he drifts of the thick, gray fog. "Kess it," It said from vacancy, al-mo-t in his ear; "kest it, of you like [ o. ;>w." And sorr 'h'vgr !>:] on the ! tab; near his forciiend, with a thud. He groped RDd touched It. !■ rns soft 1 and "old. He felt it c=v«r. : '. was ?. [ im?!', stiff band.—Pan F>i:<-Uco Art COI..Jt.