The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1875-11-10

1 Ndrueu nlui uOb 10 pTONOht 81
Bree,H he said, long afterwards, foI
that Pen was too ready with his fist
and had the strength of bullock
knowed he'd kill that little chap if b.
ever hlt hlm straight-out blow.
guessed the boys had no liking for
each other; bu: never suspected
how it would turn out"
L. was Dan who with some vagu,
notion Of clearing away McNulty',
dislike of Pen, told him how, wheL
Capt. Bree died, Pen and bis brother
Jem had left school, and gone tc
hard work to pay debt which theil
father owed, and had paid every dol
lar of it.
at went hard with Jem, for be
was the scholar of the two said
Dan. But he got chance up ia
Trenton, as Office boy, and there be
picked up an idea or two, aud
studied a-nights aHd SO when Hall
& Stopple wanted bookkeeper in
their big house q month ago, it was
Jem Bree as got the place The
widow must have told you of it
she's mighty proud of that boy, an
SOS Pen of his brother"
"She did tell me, but | did not
know what hard work the poor fel-
low had to teach himself" said Nc
Nulty, his thin face reddening.
He listened after that to all the
discussions between Mrs. Bree and
Pen Of Jem's chance of q holiday
this August, and was almost as
pleased as they, when be found that
Hall Il Stopple would allow him to
come tie next week.
On the afternoon of the day when
he was expected, the men completed d
the trench, with a fall of six feet from
river to sea, but erected bulwark to
keep the trench closed until the sea
should be ''out" at low tide, when,
the barrier being removed, the river
would force a 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 10 be done till nine to-
night" Dan called to him Then
We'll take away the barrier and
theB,-you'll :nink old arth has
broken up"
Il should not think the river would
wait SO long, said McNulty, looking
down at the stagnant black water
which had gorged every pond and
marsh. 1T is oozing now through
the sand aud bulwark."
"Oh, safe enough" cried Dan; and
with the other men be pushed on to
the village, leaving MeNulty alone
on tie beach.
No sound was heard but the sullen
beat of the surf on the ocean shore,
and the piping cry of fsh-hawk
eircling over the inlet McNulty saw
q boat crossing to the opposite shore
That is Pen," he said, going to
meet Jem aud bring him over in that
leaky cockle-shell. He had better
have let him go round by the bridge,
if it is an hour later"
He looked uneasily at the sheet
of water before him. 1t was deep
and black, and had a treacherous ap-
pearance to the faneiful boy. The
trench cut for it to the ocean was not
more than forty feet wide, and the
water already filed it up to the bull
wark, which the men had thought so
impregnable.
BUTT is not impregnable, thought
McNulty. The water will under
mine it in half en- 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, be remembered after
ward, to see whether be had been
right in setting half "a hour as the
time In less than twenty minutes,
however, the oozing drops became a
tiny black stream, which gradually
widened and widened, until the
whelc body of water in the inlet,
pressing down into the trench, urged
its way vita a resistless force through
the barricade.
"No boat would be mad enough to
venture out" he said, scanning the
dark inlet anziously.
But several hundred yards from
the trench, he saw small dark OBJ
ject washed furionsly to and fro by
the swift, terrible current. MeNulty
yelled, threw up bis cap, ran to the
edge of the whirlpool, and waved
them wildly away.
Back! back Penl for your liresl''
be cried. "The water is running :
out!"
II knew it." be heard Pen say,
sullenly, to the other man in the beat.
Il thought We could get over in time.
But I'ye done for you, Jem."
Jem, who was as powerfully built
cs hia brother, and as mueh at home
in the water, stood up and looked up
and down. They had no oars on
board; 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 o speed like the
wind
The young men with one accord
turned from the toas in which was no
hoEe, to the sea which waited for
them. The heavy waters Of the inlet,
after passing through the tEeEch, had
cut for themselves path into the
ocean a mile from the shore. No
man could have stemmed the current,
or kept himself aaoat il il,
The TWO brothers both expert
swimmers, scanned iffor 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 begone before they could
reach the smoother waters Of the
ocean.
There's q man ashore" said Jem,
hoarsely.
"a hundred men could do no.Ain' y
said Pen.
H. 90 ,.- 80 thot tho man ua. tho