The Skeletons of Paradise

NE of them we found in a mound on the island shore. The second we found on a mound in the centre of the island; there were green vines laced through and through the bleached white bones, and its fingers were lying pressed close to its downturned eyesockets. The third one we found buried a foot below the second, and between the ribs of the left side, there was a rusted hunting-knife.

My name is William North, and I am a lawyer. I was to Weydman Nokes, best friend, chief counsellor, and manager of affairs. Nokes was young, slender—almost fragile, dyspeptic, and a millionaire without relatives. He had run the gamut of luxuries rapidly. First had come the passion for popular sports; after that had come a mania for aeroplanes; then there followed in quick succession, relic-hunting, racing automobiles, fine horses, gambling, and yachting. I was just beginning to wonder what Nokes would do next, when my office door opened, and in stepped Nokes, to answer for himself.

He dropped into a chair, drew off his gloves, placed his cane across his knees, and lit a cigarette before he spoke. Then he said to me boldly:

“North, don’t call me a fool. It won’t do any good. I can’t help it any more than I can help my hair being black or my eyes brown. I’m tired of everything, North. I’ve got to have something new. I’m going back a thousand years, North—I’m going to be a savage for five years.”

“Delightful!” I sneered. I liked the boy. My patience with him was well nigh exhausted.

“Yes,” smiled Nokes—“very. During my last winter’s cruise in the tropics, I found a small and uninhabited island which is a paradise. I named it that—Paradise. Just that one word, and not Paradise Island, understand—Paradise.” He rolled the word on his tongue as though it were a bit of honey. I stared, and he continued: “I can’t go alone. I should lose my mind in the silences. I offered the sum of a hundred thousand to one of my friends after another, in the effort to get a companion. Nothing doing—until Elva McEnnis found out. She agreed to marry me and go with me. It was a sacrifice. Her brother’s in bad over somebody else’s money—”

“Elva McEnnis!” I broke in, amazed. I knew her. A slim, reed-like creature with golden hair and sea-blue eyes and a sweet, pale, hyacinthine beauty. “Elva McEnnis savage? Rot! She’d wilt like a violet. Mentally, a Brobdingnagian; physically, a Lilliputian. If you accept the sacrifice, you’re”

“Who asked for advice, North?” He spoke almost angrily. “Now listen. Take good care of my affairs. You see, I trust you, North. Five years from today, you must come for me. My yacht, the Ringdove, will take us down, and then be returned to you. Sell it, or keep it for your own use, as you like—I’m giving it to you.”

He left a paper telling me of the location of his Paradise, forced from me my word that I would say nothing of the affair, shook hands with me warmly, and departed. The next day he was quietly married. The morning following that, saw the Ringdove sail from the harbor, headed south.

A few weeks later, the yacht returned. I sold it, and added the proceeds to Nokes’s already magnificent fortune. Then I settled myself to wait five of the longest years of my life; for, as I have said before, I liked Weydman Nokes immensely.

When the time was come, I gathered four of my friends, all of them trustworthy men, chartered a small steamer, and set sail for Paradise. We arrived in due time. A mound on the beach caught my attention the moment I had put my feet on the shore, and I was afraid. But the person who had been buried there was certainly neither Nokes nor his wife, for the skeleton was more than six feet in length. We left it, and made haste toward the center of the island.

It was, in all truth, a Paradise. It was a place of flowers and palms, sweet odors and ripening fruits. Soon we came upon a hut built of brush and covered with rotting tarpaulin. Inside we found a pile of rotting boughs, a mildewed skirt, a ragged yachting coat, and a strip of white cloth of very fine texture, the latter-named being covered with writing and dark-red spots.

Then my friend Jamieson gave a startled cry and dashed from the hut. We followed him to a mound a few yards off, a mound that had at its head a crude wooden cross. Lying on this mound, with green vines twining about its bleached white bones, with its fingers pressed close to its downturned eyesockets, we found the second skeleton.

“She has died,” said Jamieson, huskily, “and he has grieved himself to death here in the silence. There is no doubt that he came to love her. She was worth it.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “she was worth it.”

When we disinterred the third skeleton, beneath the cross, we found a rusted hunting-knife between the ribs of its left side. It had been a thrust that had reached the heart. We viewed the thing with horror. John Sayler voiced the sentiments of us all when he finally said:

“He has killed her. Indeed he did become a savage. The brute! He was my friend; but I say, ‘damn a man who could do it.’”

I said very angrily, “Amen!”

Perhaps Jamieson had the best head of us all. He put forth a hand and took from me the strip of bloodstained cloth.

“Wait!” he protested. “Don’t condemn Nokes yet. There is a message here—and then the thing we found on the beach is to be reckoned with. Shall I read this, North?”

"If you please,” I answered.

The message was addressed to me. It follows:

(Here the message ran into one of the dark-red spots on the strip of cloth, and the writing became illegible. Jamieson took up the thread below the spot.)

(Again did the message run into one of the dark-red spots on the cloth. Jamieson passed over it nervously).

(Here another blood-spot interrupted.)

Thus ended the message. There was no bloodstain there. Jamieson looked up and spoke to me:

“She killed him while he was writing that he loved her! The spots on the cloth—she wiped her hands—”

“I understand,” I interrupted.

But did I understand? Can any man understand? I have wondered and wondered since about the bone-fingers that were pressed closed to the downturned eyesockets.