The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-02-26

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main fife-rail, stood Herbert, watching the
men who were furling the jib.
Suddenly the ship made mad plunge;
great torrent of water came sweeping,
like huge, moving wall, over the weather.
rail. T
Ere the young officer could avoid it by
running aft. it struck his form, washing
slender, half rotten rope hanging from the
waist, attached to rail. Herbert seized
this as he went, with ready self possession,
twisting it around his waist.
The wild mass of water swept over and
past him; there he was, hanging by the
end of the rope, about ten yards from the
ships side.
Bertha, who had come on deck just as her
lover was swept over the rail, now ran
amidships, with pale cheeks and wild eyes,
calling on the ships officers to save the
young man.
No boat could be lowered in such a gale
The officers ran to the rail, however, and
commenced hauling on the rope, to which
the imperiled one, half-hidden by the rag
ing, foaming waters and the flying spray,
was still clinging.
As they continued to haul, an ominous,
swapping sound was heard. The strands of
the rotten rope were giving away!
He must go!" cried the captain, de-
spairingly. 'No earthly power can save
him now! The rope will part ere we get
him alongside!''
Nedrer-nearer to the ship was The young
officer drawn. When he was within five
yards of it, the rope held him by only one
Of its strands
This, going round and round, must par.
in a 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 Will alone she would prevent
the rope from giving way.
The strain upon that one strand was
tremendous. 1t cracked 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 en- bowline-
hitch on the end of the main topsail hall
lizards, thus forming a moose, 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 str,nolin him
Ncarer-still nearer
Bertha could now see her lover looking
up from the white, foaming vortex, his
eyes bright with the hope of being saved
He was only two yards 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.
THANK God he is saved .'' cried the
man, hoarsely, as he made clutch at Her.
bert's hair.
He had just seized a few threads os those
bright lock-he was endeavoring to obtain
tirmer hold, when a loud, swapping sound
was heard, as the rope parted
The man with the moose threw il, but it
fell short, dashed aside by a heavy sea,
H..
With a gurglng cry of despair, the young
man drifted to leeward
But not he alone; for Bertha, who, the
moment she saw that the strand must part
had quickly fastened the end of the main
topgallant halliards about he waist, had
sprang bravely into the wild sea, and,
striking bravely into the mad waves, as the
turns of the rope which she had thrown off
the pin slackened, she fast approached her
lover.
Reaching him, when he was about twen-
ty yards astern, she threw her white arms
about him, and held him firmly, while the
men on deck now hauled on the rope
Although half sufocated by the raging
waters her beautiful waist was
compressed blythe strain of the rope upon it,
so that she could hardly breathe-yet, with
her white teeth firmly set, her large wild
eyes cleaning like tars through the foam,
her long wet hair sweeping the young man s
face, her warm bosom beating against his
own, the brave girl still held firmly TO hel
lover, determined to save his life
At last the two were drawn to the sk;p's
side and helped aboard, amid the ringing
cheers of sailors and officers
Herbert then bore into the cabin the
noble girl, who, exhausted by her exer
tions, had nearly tainted when she reached
the deck.
AS he hung over her applying restora-
/ tyes and kissing her again and az ain, she
smiled and said, gently:
"Have not done something at last to
prove how much l love you ?''
"You are noble girl 20 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 helplessly by and seen me
perish. You are one of those glorious crea-
lures who are demonstrative in action rathe,
than in speech 70
And so he still found her, when, a few