The cave girl

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

On board the Sally Corwith,
San Francisco, California.
Mr. John Alden Smith-Jones,
Boston, Mass.

Dear Sir: Just reached port and hasten to forward letter your son gave me for his mother. He wouldn't come with us. We found him on —— ——Island, Lat. 10° —" South, Long. 150° —" West. He seemed in good health and able to look out for himself. Didn't want anything, he said, except a razor, so we gave him that and one of the men gave him a plug of chewing tobacco. Urged him to come, but he wouldn't. The enclosed letter will doubtless tell you all about him.

Yours truly,
Henry Dobbs, Master.

"Ten south, a hundred and fifty west," mused Captain Burlinghame. "That's the same island we searched. Where could he have been!"

Mrs. Smith-Jones had opened the letter addressed to her, and was reading it breathlessly.

My dear Mother: I feel rather selfish in remaining and possibly causing you further anxiety, but I have certain duties to perform to several of the inhabitants which I feel obligated to fulfill before I depart.

My treatment here has been all that anyone might desire—even more, I might say.

The climate is delightful. My cough has left me, and I am entirely a well man—more robust than I ever recall having been in the past.

At present I am sojourning in the mountains, having but run down to the sea shore today, where, happily, I chanced to find the Sally Corwith in the harbor, and am taking advantage of Captain Dobbs' kindness to forward this letter to you.

Do not worry, dearest mother; my obligations will soon be fulfilled and then I shall hasten to take the first steamer for Boston.

I have met a number of interesting people here—the most interesting people I have ever met. They quite overwhelm one with their attentions.

And now, as Captain Dobbs is anxious to be away, I will close, with every assurance of my deepest love for you and father.

Ever affectionately your son,
Waldo.

Mrs. Smith-Jones' eyes were dim with tears—tears of thanksgiving and happiness.

"And to think," she exclaimed, "that after all he is alive and well—quite well. His cough has left him—that is the best part of it, and he is surrounded by interesting people—just what Waldo needed. For some time I feared, before he sailed, that he was devoting himself too closely to his studies and to the little coterie of our own set which surrounded him. This experience will be broadening. Of course these people may be slightly provincial, but it is evident that they possess a certain culture and refinement—otherwise my Waldo would never have described them as 'interesting.' The coarse, illiterate, or vulgar could never prove 'interesting' to a Smith-Jones."

Captain Cecil Burlinghame nodded politely—he was thinking of the naked, hairy man-brutes he had seen within the interior of the island.

"It is evident, Burlinghame," said Mr. Smith-Jones, "that you overlooked a portion of this island. It would seem, from Waldo's letter, that there must be a colony of civilized men and women somewhere upon it. Of course it is possible that it may be further inland than you penetrated."