walked majestically towards Jim, who at her unexpected exit had suddenly
thrown himself upon the sand, in utterly abject terror and supplication.
She approached him slowly, with one small hand uplifted in a menacing
gesture. The man writhed and squirmed before her. Then she turned,
caught sight of Pomfrey standing in the doorway, and walked quietly
away. Amazed, yet gratified with this new assertion of herself, Pomfrey
respectfully, but alas! incautiously, called after her. In an instant,
at the sound of his voice, she dropped again into her slouching Indian
trot and glided away over the sandhills.
Pomfrey did not add any reproof of his own to the discomfiture of his
Indian retainer. Neither did he attempt to inquire the secret of this
savage girl's power over him. It was evident he had spoken truly when he
told his master that she was of a superior caste. Pomfrey recalled her
erect and indignant figure standing over the prostrate Jim, and was
again perplexed and disappointed at her sudden lapse into the timid
savage at the sound of his voice. Would not this well-meant but
miserable trick of Jim's have the effect of increasing her unreasoning
animal-like distrust of him? A few days later brought an unexpected
answer to his question.
It was the hottest hour of the day. He had been fishing off the reef
of rocks where he had first seen her, and had taken in his line and was
leisurely pulling for the lighthouse. Suddenly a little musical cry not
unlike a bird's struck his ear. He lay on his oars and listened. It was
repeated; but this time it was unmistakably recognizable as the voice of
the Indian girl, although he had heard it but once. He turned eagerly
to the rock, but it was empty; he pulled around it, but saw nothing.
He looked towards the shore, and swung his boat in that direction,
when again the cry was repeated with the faintest quaver of a laugh,
apparently on the level of the sea before him. For the first time he
looked down, and there on the crest of a wave not a dozen yards ahead,
danced the yellow hair and laughing eyes of the girl. The frightened
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