The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-11-24

chap If he ever hit him = straight out blow.
| guess the boys had no liking for each other,
but never suspected how it would turn
out
It was Dan, who with some vague notion Of
clearing away McNulty's dislike Of Pen,. told
him how, when captain Breed died, Pen and
his brother Jem had left school, and gone to
hard work to pay debt which their father
owed, and had paid every dollar of it.
g It went hard with Jem, for he was the
scholar Of the Two, said Dan. "But he got
a chance up in Trenton, as Office boy, and
there he picked up an idea or two, and studi-
ed a-rights, and so when Hall s. Stopple want
ed a bookkeeper IN their big house month
ago, 1t was Jim Hree as got the place. The
widow must have told you of it-she's NIGH
" proud Of that boy, an SOS Pen Of his
brother"
She did tell mo, bStsI did not know what.
hard work the poor fellow had to teach him.
SELF" said McNulty, his thin face reddening.
He listened after that TO all the discussions be-
tween Mrs. Bree and Pen, of Jem's chance of
a holiday this August and was almost AZ
pleased as they, when he found that Hall &
Stopple would allow him to come the next
week.
On the afternoon of the day when he was
expected, the men completed the trench, with
a fall of six feet from river TO sea, but erected
bulwark to keep the trench closed until she
sea should be out" at low tide, when, the
barrier being removed the river would force
deep, strong outlet for itself, much deeper and
wider than the trench. McNulty, going down
to the beach, met the men returning with their
spades and teams.
Nothing to be done till nine tonight"
Dan called to him. "Then we'd take away
the barrier, and whew you'll think old arth
has broken up!"
al should not think the river would wait so
long" said McNulty, looking down at the
stagnant black water which had gorgcd every
pond and marsh. i" IL is oozing now through
the sand and bulwark.'
"Oh, safe enough" cried Dan and with
the other men he pushed on to the village,
leaving McNulty alone on the beach.
No sound was heard but the sullen beat Of
the surf ON the ocean shore, and the piping
cry of fish-hawk circling over the inlet. Nc
Nulty saw a boat crossing to the opposite
shore.
"That is Pen," he said, "going to meet
Jem and bring him over in that leaky cookie
shell. He had better have let him 90 round
by the bridge, II 1t is an hour later"
He looked uncasily at the sheet of water be-
fore him. 1t was deep aud black, and had
treachcrous appearance to the fanciful boy
The trench cut for it to the ocean was not
more than forty feet, wide, and the water al
ready filed it up to the bulwark, which the
men had thought so impregnable.
But it is not SO impregnable," thought
McNulty. The water will undermine it in
half an hour, and as soon as the breach is
made, nothing will restrain this tremendous
volume of water from going out to sea-"
He seated himself quietly, taking out his
watch, he rendered afterward, to see whether
he had been right in setting half an hour as
the time. In less than twenty minutes, how
ever, the oozing drops became tiny black
stream, which gradually widened and WIDEN
ed, until the whole body of water in the inlet
DTcSSt18 uOWh IubO tHC tiCuCiy utSihS tto Woy
with a resistless force through the barricade.
.No boat would be mad enough to venture
out" he said, scanning the dark inlet anx-
iously.
But several hundred yards from the trench,
he saw small dark object washed furiously
to and fro by the swift, terrible current Nc
Nulty yelled, threw up his cap ran to the edge
Of the whirlpool, and waved them wildly away.
"Back back Pen for your lives -
ssI knew it," he heard Pen say, sullenly, to
the other man in the boat. Z" l thought We
could get over in time. But I've done for
you, Jem."
Jem, who was as powerfully built as his
brother, and as much at home In the water
stood up and looked up and down. They had
no oars on board I; the mast of the boat, with
its dirty little sail, lay almost level with the
water, and they and the boat and sail were
sweeping down the swift black torrent with
speed like the wind.
The young men with one accord turned from
the boat in which was no hope, to the sea
which waited for them. The heavy waters Of
the inlet, after passing through tho trench,
had cut for themselves path into the ocean
mile from the shore. No man could have
stemmed the current, Or kept himself afloat
In it,"
The two brothers, both expert swimmers,
scanned it for full minute, weighing their
chance of life. They saw there was none |;
for the fierce waters rolling over the beach in
their madness would ingulf them, and life
would be gone before they could reach the
smoother waters of the ocean.
"There's man ashore" said Jem, hoarsc-
ly.
"a hundred men could do nothin',' said
Pen.
He saw, too, that the man was the girl-baby
McNulty, and that Instead of coming down to
this awful shore of death, he was ster ping
carefully and cody up the bank. Pen, even
in that last moment sneered at him for cow
ard.
"There is Dan Sutphen on the other bank
said Pen. " What's McNulty doing 2" he
shrieked, suddenly. "He--he's throwing
rn~lt WA a. ~