The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-11-03 00:00:00

011MINNIIMMINMOMMI

see spoke, weeping- ontly the while, there ante the
low, soft; deep mo n of the sea, as the flood indeed
poured softly on the sands, now dark and hfavy,
now (rested with a faint bluish light, spangled and
scintillating with gold.
"Poor, 1 leeding hearts," muttered Deborah,
"weep—weep—Weep, for you are to be pitied, and
your troubles sore.'
Helston started, for at that moment he heard a
low, pit ous sigh, and became aware that Grace had
crept noiselessly to his side, that she was touching
him with one hand, and that hand was again with-
drawn as Deborah spoke more loudly.
"Yes, there it is again— sigh, sob, and moan--
tears—hoods of tears—the world is bathed in tears
that never cease to flow—to Cow—flow--"
Her voice trailed off into a whisper; and then she
began to mutter softly, so feebly that Helston, as ho
bent over her, barely detected his own name.
He softly lifted his hand, burning now like the
brow upon which it had been laid, and she did not
move, for she was breathing softly and regulanly
now.
Then he tried softly to remove his right hand,
which was tightly clasped in hers; but at the first
movement she clutched at it sharply, and began
muttering rapidly, so he let it rest.
It was only with a feeling of acute misery, though,
at his heart, for he knew that Grace must 11ve
heard much of what had passed; and now, though
he had not noticed her departure, she was gon-,
having glided away, as he wa- trying to remove his
hand, and disappeared in the darkness.
For quite au hour Helston stayed by Debol'ah's
side' for each time he tried to withdraw his hand,
her fingers closed upon it more tightly; but at last,
when he had as good as determined to snatch it
away, the bony fingers relaxed—Deborah's hand lay
listlessly at his Eta, and she slept the daep sleep of
utter exhaustion.
Helston rose softly, marked the place as well as
tte could where .filehorah lay, and then went hur-
ried!y over the sands in the direction where it
seemed to him that Grace must have gone.

CHAPTER XXX
MORE TROUBLES.
HELSTON walked noiselessly along the winds, expect.
ing every moment to come upon Grace, seA,d with
her face buried in her hands; but though he pet red
carefully right and left with every stop ho took, he
could see no sign of her.
He dared not call out for fear of awakening the
frantic woman, who otherwise might relieve them of
her animate presence for hours; and still his eyes
did not suffice to make known where the poor girl

had strayed.
He quickened his pace, and ran down to where
the sand was hard and the waves curled in, then
turned his back to the faint glow shed by the lumi-
nous life of the waters, and, shading his eyes, he
looked slowly and carefully ell along the sweep of
sand.
But no—not a sign; and, with a strange feeling
of trouble oppressing him, he once more began his
search—running now at random here and there over
the sands.
She had crept close to him, he remembered, and
touched him. Then she had silently crept away.
What did it mean—was it a kind of farewell after
listening to Deborah's burning words of love?
Ah, that was absurd! She knew he loved her,
and that those frantic words uttered by Deborah
were but the ravings of a madwoman. And yet,
when he came to think of it—to sit there and see
him half held in the embrace of a woman who had
openly avowed her love, and to see him lean there
by her side, one hand pi e sed upon this woman's
head, and the other tightly pinioned in her fingers—
it must have been horrible for the poor girl.
"What must she have thought and felt ?" he ex-
claimed, half aloud.
He ran on, growing each moment more excited as
he scanned the broad reach of sand, twice going
near Deborah, who was sleeping heavily.
"What should I have felt under such circum-
stances?" he asked himself. "Even knowing that
some rival was half mad—what should I have let if
I had seen Grace held in his arms, passively listen-
ing while he poured into her ears the passionate tale
of his love? Suppose it was to soothe him in a mad
paroxysm, what should I have done ? "
lielston paused in the darkness to wipe the
streaming perspiration from his brow; and then,
with a groan, he answered his own quest'on.
"I should have thought her faithless, and gone
half mad."
What should he do?
It wds a question he could not answer; for the
more he searched, the more he became convinced of
the fact that Grace had wandered right away; and
what if, in despair out there in the darkness of that
wild place, she had thrown herself into the sea!
His hair seemed as if stirred by invisisle fingers,
and, in his despair, he called to her loudly again
and again; but for answer there was the sullen wash
of the shore.
It was too horrible a thing to contemplate, and he
told himself that it was impossisle ; pres.ed his
hands to his forehead for a few moments to try and
collect himself, and then ism down to where the
waves came slowly rolling in, walked in a few yards,
stooped down, and seooping up the water, bathed his
burning forehead for a few minutes, and then 6tepl ad
forth cool and collected.
lie paused for a few minutes to think; and then,
knoe ing that south of where he stood the strip of
sand was a cal de sae formed by the lava on one
side, the sea on the other, meeting at last at the
point where the lava had poured into the sea, he
ran down there, and, easily convincing himself that
Grace was not there, commenced searching north-
ward, going to and fro, beating the ground in zig-
zags from the lava to the sea, even as a dog would
hunt a field over for birds, and thus thoroughly
covered every few yards of the sands, so that it
would have been impossible for her he sought to
escape his search.
Going over the ground like this, it was quite half
an hour before he passed and repassed. Deborah,
who still lay calmly sleeping ; and going by softly,
so that she might not be awakened, he cuntinued
his hunt, ever progressing farther and farther
north, but with a dull dread still increasing as he
went on.
All was still on the island of refuge where Lau-
rent, 'Thello and the women were; and, as he
turned his back and faced the sea, all seemed so
peaceful and calm there, that he seemed to realise
what Grace muss have felt—that all this weary care
and anxiety was so mush waste of energy—ss mush
fighting against fate and that it would be better to
walk quietly out into the p'.acid waters, now one
purple depth, spangled with stars, where he might
sleep, and be at rest.
He smiles bitterly though the not moment, as he
thought how opposed these thoughts were to the
practice of his life, which had been one .long fight
against the powers of death; and \veil renewed
energy he walked on to and fro—to and no et ve n
the lava and the sea, his eigsag approaches ts the
north growing longer at eve y turn, as the 'siva
headed off to the north-west, the sea coast ts the
north-east; and still there was no sign.
He was obliged to argue with himself that ths
poor girl had had ample time by POW to he iiii!cs
away, when he grew despondent, and felt sure tha
she was somewhere floating on the waves that I.eat
the shore.
Once he was startled by stumbling upon
some animal, which started up with a savage
squeal, alarmed a score more, and went olf
at
full gallop.
He hardly heeded the incident then, but a few
minutes after it forced itself back upon his atten-
tion, and he could not help feeling that here was a
source of future supply for them when other provi-
sions failed—that was, he said sadly, if they should
require food.
There was other life, too, left in the island; for
arther on he caught his foot against a round, yield-
ng body, which gave a snatch, and was heard
milling off directly, with a.peculiar noise, ovsr the

and.
"Serpent," he muttered to himself, passing on
still; and, to his surprise, he found that here the
sands were teeming with life—insects, reptiles, and
other small animals, that had evidently filed boron)
the lava flood towards the sea, and had been pr:soned
between the two tides.
No matter what he encountered, though, the great
horror of the past seemed upon all, and animals and
reptiles fled at his approach, leaving the path quite
free.

(To be continued).