Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1875-03-06
ALLEGANy COUNTY, MARYLAND, MARCH g.

yards of it, the rope held him by only one
Of its strGnds'
This, going round and round. must part
in few seconds.
With clasped hands. and eyes cleaning
large and bright, Bertha watched Herbert,
her lips tightly compressed, as if by the
power Of her viii alone she would prevent
the rope from giving way.
The strain upon that one strand was
trcmen lous. 1t cIack4d and snapped, but
still held.
The first mate stood reaching far out
over the rail to be ready to seize Herbert
the moment he should be drawn within his
reach The captain had tlken a bowline-
hitch on the end of the main topsail hal
lizards, thus forming II rooSe, which he
stood ready to throw if the strand should
part ere Herbert WAS pulled to the ship.
To throw it now would probably be at
tended with fatal results. The moose
would strike the other rope, and not slip
down over the young man further than his
neck, thus stranglin5 h,m.
Nearer-still nearer
Bertha could now see her lover looking
up from the white, foamins vortex his
eyes bright with the hope of being saved.
He was only two yarls from the vessels
side. The first mate, leaning far over from
the outside OF the ship. to which he had
lashed himself. could almost reach him
man, hoarsely, rs he made IL clutch at Her
bert's hair.
He had just seized q few threads of those
bright lock-he was cnleavoring to obtlin
a firmer hold, when loud, swapping sound
was heard, as the rope parted
The man with the moose threw it, but il
fell short, dashed aside by n heavy se.
from Herbert, as the ship rushed past him.
With gurgling cry of despair, the young
man drifted to lcewarl
But not he alone; for Bertha, who, the
moment she saw that the strand must part
had quickly fastened the eni of the main
topgallant hallilr.ls about he waist. had
sprang bravcly into the wild sea, and,
striking bravely into the mad waves, as the
turns Of the rope which she hld thrown off
the PIN slackelel, she fast approached her
lover.
Reaching him, when he was about TWEEN
ty yards astern, she threw her white arms
about him, and held him lirlnly, while the
men on deck now hauled ON the rope.
~, !. ..,lc L
although her beautiful waist was
compressed bythestrln OF the rope upon it,
so that she could hardly brelthe-yet, with
her white teeth firmly set, her large wild
eyes cleaning like star3 through the foam,
her long wet hair sweeping the young man $
face, her warm bosom beating against his
own, the brave girl still held firmly to her
lover, determined to save his life
At last the two were drawn to the ships
side and helped aboard, amid the rim ging
cheers of sailors and officers.
Herbert then bore into the cabin the
noble girl, who, exhausted by her excr-
tions, had nearly tainted when she reached
the deck.
As he hung over her applying r2stora-
tives and kissing her again and again, she
smiled and said, gently:
Have 1 not done something at last to
prove how much love you :"
'You are a noble girl!' he answered:
"and l now understand you. Another
woman might have been want to express
her feelings to me in passionate language
and with burning checks; but she would
have stood hclplessly by and seen me
perish. You are one OF those glorious crea-
lures who are demonstrative inaction rather
than in speech %
And so he still found her, when, few
months later, he made her his wife.