"Your husband!" I shouted. "Then, by the living G.o.d, he or I shall never leave this place alive."
He saw me coming as I bounded down the rocks. In an instant he had sprung to his feet. He gave no cry. He asked no question. He stood erect as a cave man would, waiting for his enemy.
And there upon the sands beside the sea we fought, barehanded and weaponless. We fought as cave men fight.
For a while we circled round one another, growling. We circled four times, each watching for an opportunity. Then I picked up a great handful of sand and threw it flap into his face. He grabbed a coco-nut and hit me with it in the stomach. Then I seized a twisted strand of wet seaweed and landed him with it behind the ear. For a moment he staggered. Before he could recover I jumped forward, seized him by the hair, slapped his face twice and then leaped behind a rock. Looking from the side I could see that Croyden, though half dazed, was feeling round for something to throw. To my horror I saw a great stone lying ready to his hand. Beside me was nothing. I gave myself up for lost, when at that very moment I heard Edith"s voice behind me saying, "The shovel, quick, the shovel!" The n.o.ble girl had rushed back to our encampment and had fetched me the shovel. "Swat him with that," she cried. I seized the shovel, and with the roar of a wounded bull--or as near as I could make it--I rushed out from the rock, the shovel swung over my head.
But the fight was all out of Croyden.
"Don"t strike," he said, "I"m all in. I couldn"t stand a crack with that kind of thing."
He sat down upon the sand, limp. Seen thus, he somehow seemed to be quite a small man, not a cave man at all. His goatskin suit shrunk in on him. I could hear his pants as he sat.
"I surrender," he said. "Take both the women. They are yours."
I stood over him leaning upon the shovel. The two women had closed in near to us.
"I suppose you are _her_ husband, are you?" Croyden went on.
I nodded.
"I thought you were. Take her."
Meantime Clara had drawn nearer to me. She looked somehow very beautiful with her golden hair in the sunlight, and the white furs draped about her.
"Harold!" she exclaimed. "Harold, is it you? How strange and masterful you look. I didn"t know you were so strong."
I turned sternly towards her.
"When I was alone," I said, "on the Himalayas hunting the humpo or humped buffalo----"
Clara clasped her hands, looking into my face.
"Yes," she said, "tell me about it."
Meantime I could see that Edith had gone over to John Croyden.
"John," she said, "you shouldn"t sit on the wet sand like that. You will get a chill. Let me help you to get up."
I looked at Clara and at Croyden.
"How has this happened?" I asked. "Tell me."
"We were on the same ship," Croyden said. "There came a great storm.
Even the Captain had never seen----"
"I know," I interrupted, "so had ours."
"The ship struck a rock, and blew out her four funnels----"
"Ours did too," I nodded.
"The bowsprit was broken, and the steward"s pantry was carried away. The Captain gave orders to leave the ship----"
"It is enough, Croyden," I said, "I see it all now. You were left behind when the boats cleared, by what accident you don"t know----"
"I don"t," said Croyden.
"As best you could, you constructed a raft, and with such haste as you might you placed on it such few things----"
"Exactly," he said, "a chronometer, a s.e.xtant----"
"I know," I continued, "two quadrants, a bucket of water, and a lightning rod. I presume you picked up Clara floating in the sea."
"I did," Croyden said; "she was unconscious when I got her, but by rubbing----"
"Croyden," I said, raising the shovel again, "cut that out."
"I"m sorry," he said.
"It"s all right. But you needn"t go on. I see all the rest of your adventures plainly enough."
"Well, I"m done with it all anyway," said Croyden gloomily. "You can do what you like. As for me, I"ve got a decent suit back there at our camp, and I"ve got it dried and pressed and I"m going to put it on."
He rose wearily, Edith standing beside him.
"What"s more, Borus," he said, "I"ll tell you something. This island is not uninhabited at all."
"Not uninhabited!" exclaimed Clara and Edith together. I saw each of them give a rapid look at her goatskin suit.
"Nonsense, Croyden," I said, "this island is one of the West Indian keys. On such a key as this the pirates used to land. Here they careened their ships----"
"Did what to them?" asked Croyden.
"Careened them all over from one end to the other," I said. "Here they got water and buried treasure; but beyond that the island was, and remained, only the home of the wild gull and the sea-mews----"
"All right," said Croyden, "only it doesn"t happen to be that kind of key. It"s a West Indian island all right, but there"s a summer hotel on the other end of it not two miles away."
"A summer hotel!" we exclaimed.
"Yes, a hotel. I suspected it all along. I picked up a tennis racket on the beach the first day; and after that I walked over the ridge and through the jungle and I could see the roof of the hotel. Only," he added rather shamefacedly, "I didn"t like to tell her."
"Oh, you coward!" cried Clara. "I could slap you."
"Don"t you dare," said Edith. "I"m sure you knew it as well as he did.
And anyway, I was certain of it myself. I picked up a copy of last week"s paper in a lunch-basket on the beach, and hid it from Mr. Borus.
I didn"t want to hurt his feelings."
At that moment Croyden pointed with a cry towards the sea.