After a silence, she lay back among her cushions and glanced at us with
a faint smile.
"One day last winter," she said, "after the last client had gone and
office hours were over, I sat here thinking, wondering what in the world
could be worse for a girl than to have no parents.... And I happened to
glance into my crystal, and saw there an incident beginning to evolve
that cheered me up, because it was a parody on my more morbid train of
thought. After all, the same Chance that gives a child to its parents
gives the parents to that child. You may think this is Tupper," she
added, "but it is Athalie. And that being the case, nobody will laugh."
Nobody did laugh.
"Thank you," she said sweetly. "Now I will tell you what I saw in my
crystal when I happened to be feeling unusually alone in the world." And
with a pretty nod to us, collectively, she began.
* * * * *
The bulk of the cargo and a few bodies were coming ashore at the eastern
end of the island, and that is where the throngs were--people from the
Light House, fishermen from the inlet, and hundreds of winter tourists
from St. Augustine, in white flannels and summer gowns, all attracted to
Ibis Island by the grewsome spectacle of the wreck.
The West Indian hurricane had done its terrific business and had gone,
leaving a turquoise sky untroubled by a cloud, and a sea of snow and
cobalt.
Nothing living had been washed ashore from the wreck. As for the brig,
she had vanished--if there had been anything left of her to disappear
except the wreckage, human and otherwise, that had come tumbling ashore
through the surf all night long.
So young Gray, seeing that there was nothing for him to do, and not
caring for the spectacle at the eastern end of the island, turned on his
heel and walked west through thickets of sweet bay, palmetto, and
beach-grape.
He wore the lightest weight solaro, with a helmet and close-fitting
puttees of the same. Two straps crossed his breast, the one supporting a
well filled haversack, the other a water bottle. Except for fire arms he
was equipped for darkest Africa, or for anything else on earth--at least
he supposed so. He was wrong; he was not equipped for what he was about
to encounter on Ibis Island.
It happened in this manner: traversing the seaward dunes, because the
beach no longer afforded him even a narrow margin for a footing,
shoulder deep in a tangle of beach-grapes, he chanced to glance at the
little sandy cove which he was skirting, and saw there an empty fruit
crate tumbling in the smother of foam, and a very small setter puppy
clinging to it frantically, with every claw clutching, and his drenched
tail between his legs.
Even while Gray was forcing his eager way through the tangle, he was
aware of somebody else moving forward through the high scrub just west
of him; and as he sprang out onto the beach and laid his hand on the
stranded fruit crate, another hand, slimmer and whiter than his, fell
on the crate as he dragged it out of the foamy shallows and up across
the dry sand, just as a tremendous roller smashed into clouds of foam
behind it.
"I beg your pardon," said a breathless voice at his elbow, "but I think
I saw this little dog first."
Gray already was reaching for the shivering little thing, but two other
hands deprived him of the puppy; and he looked up, impatient and
annoyed, into the excited brown eyes of a young girl.
She had taken the dripping, clawing little creature to her breast, where
it shivered and moaned and whined, shoving its cold nose up under her
chin.
"I beg your pardon," said Gray, firmly, "but I am really very certain
that I first discovered that dog."
"I am sorry you think so," she said, clasping the creature all the
tighter.
"I _do_ think so," insisted Gray. "I _know_ it!"
"I am very sorry," she repeated. Over the puppy's shivering back her
brown eyes gazed upon Gray. They were very pretty, but hostile.
"There can be no question about the ownership of this pup," persisted
Gray. "Of course, I am sorry if you really think you discovered the
dog. Because you didn't."
"I _did_ discover him," she said, calmly.
"I beg your pardon. I was walking through the beach-grapes----"
"I beg yours! I also was crossing the sweet-bay scrub when I happened to
glance down at the cove and saw this poor little dog in the water."
"That is exactly what _I_ did! I happened to glance down, and there I
saw this little dog. Instantly I sprang----"
"So did I!--I _beg_ your pardon for interrupting you!"
"I was merely explaining that I first saw the dog, and next I noticed
you. But first of all I saw the dog."
"That is the exact sequence in my own observations," she rejoined
calmly. "First of all I saw the dog in the water, then I heard a crash
in the bush, and saw something floundering about in the tangle."
"And," continued Gray, much annoyed by her persistency, "no sooner had I
caught hold of the crate than _you_ came up and laid _your_ hand on it,
also. You surely must remember that I had my hand on the crate before
you did!"
"I am very sorry you think so. The contrary was the case. _I_ took firm
hold of the crate, and then you aided me to draw it up out of the
water."
"It is extraordinary," he said, "how mistaken you are concerning the
actual sequence of events. Not that I doubt for a moment that you really
suppose you discovered the dog. Probably you were a little excited----"
"I was perfectly cool. Possibly _you_ were a trifle excited."
"Not in the least," he retorted with calm exasperation. "I never become
agitated."
The puppy continued to shiver and drive its nose up under the girl's
chin.
"Poor little thing! Poor little shipwrecked baby!" she crooned. And, to
Gray: "I don't know why this puppy should be so cold. The water is warm
enough."
"Put it in the hot sand," he said. "We can rub it dry."
She hesitated, flushing perhaps at her own suspicions; but nevertheless
she said:
"You would not attempt to take it if I put it down, would you?"
"I don't intend to snatch it," he said with dignity. "_Men_ don't
snatch."
So they went inland a few paces where the sand was hot and loose and
deep; and there they knelt down and put the puppy on the sand.
[Illustration: "'I am in possession of the dog and you merely claim
possession.'"]
"Scrub him thoroughly," she suggested, pouring heaping handfuls of hot,
silvery sand over the little creature.
Gray did likewise, and together they rubbed and scrubbed and rolled the
puppy about until the dog began to roll on his back all by himself,
twisting and wriggling and waving his big, padded paws.
"What he wants is water," asserted Gray, unstrapping his haversack and
bottle. From the one he produced an aluminum pannikin; from the other he
filled it with water. The puppy drank it all while Gray and the
brown-eyed girl looked on intently.
Then Gray produced some beef sandwiches, and the famished little
creature leaped and whirled and danced as Gray fed him cautiously, bit
by bit.
"Do you think that is perfectly fair?" asked the girl gravely.
"Fair?" repeated Gray guiltily.
"Yes. Who first feeds a strange dog is recognised as the reigning
authority."
"Very well, you may feed him, too. But that does not alter the facts in
the case."
"The facts," said the girl, taking a sandwich from Gray, "are that I am
in possession of the dog and you merely claim possession."
They fed him alternately and in silence--until their opinion became
unanimous that it was dangerous, for the present, to feed him any more.
The puppy begged and pleaded and cajoled and danced--a most appealing
and bewitching little creature, silvery white and blue-ticked, with a
tiny tan point over each eye and a black and tan saddle.
"Lavarack," observed Gray.
"English," she nodded.
It wagged not only its little, whippy tail, but in doing so wriggled its
entire hind quarters, showing no preference for either of its rescuers,
but bestowing winning and engaging favours impartially.
The girl could endure it no longer, but snatched the puppy to her with a
soft little cry, and cuddled it tight. Gray looked on gloomily. Then,
when she released it, he took it and caressed it in masculine fashion.
There was no discernible difference in its affectionate responses.
After the dog had lavished enthusiasm and affection on its saviours to
the point of physical exhaustion, it curled up on the hot sand between
them. At first, when they moved or spoke, the little, silky head was
quickly lifted, and the brown eyes turned alertly from one to the other
of the two beings most beloved on earth. But presently only the whippy
tail stirred in recognition of their voices. And finally the little dog
slept in the hot sunshine.