The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-07-26

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they went, Nellie ever clinging to the rope,
and O'biore guiding her descent with q success
which he had hardly looked for, and which he
beat high with hope; for he saw by the distance
which they had descended that they must be
nearing sort of shelf or platform formed by a
| sudden bullying out of the lower strata of the
cliffs, and he knew that they were safe if they
could only reach that spot, the rest of the path
being so well marked that, even without his aid
Nellie could easily have found her way from
thence to the sands beneath.
But the surge of the sea doomed louder and
louder as she approached it, and at last, fairly
forgetting Rogers caution, she turned her head
little, and glanced downward. Then for
the first time, she became fully conscious of the
terrible position she occupied, suspended as it
seemed by q very thread between earth and sky,
hundreds Of feet below R Fer. " Her head swami,
her eyesight failed her, she had just enough
presence Of mind left to grasp the rope firmly
were utterly DESERVING her, she cried out
80 my God! I am gOingf Save me, Roger, 1
am going! !"
only too well the danger of the thought Hold
fast-hold on for Christ's dear sake, hold on !!
One step,-two steps more, and you are safe
There " he cried, in q voice hoarse with emo
ton, rs he felt his own foot touch the platform;
and Selling Nellie by the waist, he drew her,
hardly conscious of what he was doing, by main
strength to his side. "There oh thank God
thank God, you are safe at lastw
He was just in time Nellie had that very
moment let go the rope, and if he had not
caught her, would inevitably have been dashed
| landed her safely and gently on the ledge where
he himself was standing, and without ventur-
ing to loose her entirely from his grasp, laid
nervous panic.
"You are safe," he kept repeating, as if it
required the assurance of his own voice to make
certain of the fact. " You safe ~ and then
with an instructive yet entirely unacknowl-
edged consciousness on his part, that his own
her care, se added: s We W. are safe now. You
can stay here until you are quite yourself again
only do not look up or down-at least not just
yet, not until the giddiness is gone. You forgot
Lots wife, OF this never would have happened"
Nellie was not insensible, though she looked
SO. She only felt as if she were in a dream.
She understood perfectly all that Roger said !;
the shadow even of q smile seemed to pass over
| her white lips as he alluded to Lots wife; but
his voice fell with muffied sound, as if it came
| from q great distance, on her ear; and earth,
ing and floating in q wild fantasy through her
| brain. By degrees, however, sort of awaken
ing seemed to creep over her, but she did not
use it at first either to look up or speak. Pos
sibly she felt that words would be powerless to
express her thoughts, and was glad of any ex-
cuse for silence. &e6cr did not like to hurry
minutes in scannine the SEA in search of Hem
rietta. She was there, exactly i'll the place in
| which he had hidden her to wait for him; but
| she was watching the burning tower overhead,
and had evidently very little notion that any
of it's victims had escaped From the spot where
he was standing, he could easily have made her
hear INN; but tearing that ms voice might
rouse up some hidden foe. he turned to Nellie
for assistance.
"Have you n handkerchief,n he asked, " or
anything of that kind, which you could give
me for signal
Without answering, without even looking up,
| ESQ obedient had she grown, poor Nellie0 she
united the scarlet kerchief, which, in her harm
| less vanity, she had that morning thrown over
| her head and knotted beneath her chin as the
last thing wanting to her costume of n native
girl, and gave it into Rogers hand. He waved
it for some time without success but at last
Henrietta saw it, and began to row vigorously
| into shore. ,.-..-
"Now you may look; y. cried Roger joyfully,
| helping Nellie to stand up; "now you may
look, for You will see nothing but what it is
| good for you to see Henrietta Hewitson is
waiting for us in the boat below and the sooner
| we leave his-Festing- place the BETTER
"Henrietta Hewits0n ~ cried Nellie reused
effectually to life again by the mention of her
name. His daughter! How kind! how noble I!
Shall we not go to her at once?"
off you are able" he answered. The rest of the
| way is easy-easier far than the cliffs of Clare
Island which you climbed with me yesterday. y
Easy! oh! yes, surely it is easy" cried Nellie,
wildly. So my mother-my mother !" she sob
bed, with little gasp; al shall see her once
again-and my grandfather! the poor old man
| will not be left desolate, after ALL"
Roger saw that she was growing every mo-
ment more and more excited and he cut the
| matter short by carrying her down to the beach
and laying her in the boat, as if she had been a
| baby. Henrietta received her with a look of
remorse, as if she felt that she herself must
seem, somehow or other, responsible in Nellie,s
eyes for the pain and misery she had been en-
during for the last few hours; and while she
wrapt her tenderly and affectionately in a cloak
taken from her own shoulders, Roger sent the
boat, by few vigorous strokes of the oar,
to safe distance from the rocks near which
| they had embarked. This vancouver placed
them full in view of the burning tower, and he
dropped his oar and gazed upon it as if ire
sistibly attracted by the spectacle. The body
of the church was by this time smouldering
heap of ruins, but the tower, wrapt in its ter