Angel Island

"Right!" exclaimed Billy hotly. "What are you talking about? Those are

the principles of an Apache or a Hottentot."

"Or a cave-man," Pete added.

"Well, what are we under our skins but Hottentots and Apaches and

cave-men?" said Ralph. "Now, I leave it to you. Look facts in the face.

Use your common sense. Count out civilization and all its artificial

rules. Think of our situation on this island, if we don't capture these

women soon. We can't tell when they'll stop coming. We don't know what

the conditions of their life may be. The caprice may strike them

to-morrow to cut us out for good. Maybe their men will discover it - and

prevent them from coming. A lot of things may happen to keep them away.

What's to become of us in that case? We'll go mad, five men alone here.

It isn't as though we could tame them by any gentle methods. You can't

catch eagles by putting salt on their tails. In the first place, we

can't get close enough to them, because of their accursed wings, to

prove that we wouldn't harm them. They've sent us a challenge - it's a

magnificent one. They've thrown down the gage. And how have we

responded? I bet they think we're a precious lot of molly-coddles! I bet

they're laughing in their sleeves all the time. I'd hate to hear what

they say about us. But the point I'm trying to make is not that. It's

this: we can't afford to lose them. This place is a prison now. It will

be worse than that if this keeps up - it'll be a madhouse."

"Do you mean to tell me that you're advocating marriage by capture?"

Billy asked in an incredulous voice.

"I mean to tell you I'm arguing capture," Ralph said with emphasis.

"After that, you, can trust the marriage question to take care of

itself."

Argument broke out hydra-headed. They wrangled the whole evening. Theory

at first guided them. In the beginning, names like Plato, Nietzsche,

Schopenhauer preceded quotation; then, came Shaw, Havelock-Ellis,

Kraft-Ebing, Weininger. Sleep deadened their discussion temporarily but

it burst out at intervals all the next day. In fact, it seemed to

possess eternal vitality, eternal fascination. Leaving theory, they went

for parallels of their strange situation, to history, to the Scriptures,

to fiction, to drama, to poetry.

Honey ended every discussion with a philosophic, "Aside from the

question of brutality, this marriage by capture isn't a sporting

proposition. It's like jacking deer. I'm not for it. And, O Lord, what's

the use of chewing the rag so much about it? Wait a while. We'll get

them yet, I betchu!"