The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-03-17
Miscellaneous.
TON HAYwARD'S PROSERPlvE.

TOM HAYwARD'S PROSERPlvE.
'Lower the boat and let her drift !" This
was the order given by the captain of the
brig Levant, t,coasting one cloudy midsummer
night along the western shore of V.
The incredulous sailor hestated to obey. A
second order, brutally made explicit, left
him no choice!
Into the boat the enraged captain had
flung rather than lifted woman and a
child.
"What do you say now ?" he asked, as
the hastily lowered boat''rocked giddly be-
twixt sea and deck. "Do you repent your
rash oath Y'
Never!" answered firmly and fear
lessly q woman's calm voice. II prefer
this"
"Cut her looscr' cried the master to the
subaltern, who of all his crew was, morally
as well as physically, his Save while, livd
with rage, his face glarcd upon the woman
one parting look.
The boat was cut loose. The brig
Levant vecred on its tack; the boat with
silent burden, fell hopelessy astcrn
the rolling waves, the darkness fell be-
tween.
The woman, hardly more than a child in
years-sixteen she might have been ut the
most-remained passively unobservant, in
stinctively hugging her child to her breast.
One wild scene had revealed to her the ter
rors of life, and oblitcrated forever the ter
rors of death.
The boat bounded along not urgently.
The sea was not running high, and the night
air was not chilling. The clouds, lowering
closely against the face of the waters, so as
eaectually to shut away all light from the
sky, were surcharged, it seemed, with
gentlest rain Death was inevitable, but it
was not harsh.
To go down in..the bearing em-
brace of the sea, to sink deep into the bosom
of the never-ceasing sleep-what were the
few pangs that might mark against the heart
the edge Of this engulGng? Were they any.
thing to be feared after that? All terrible
aspects of destruction had passed in the
parting glare of one human face.
"My baby, too~ contentedly sighed the
girl
What was It, then, that made her suddenly
start and quake? Nothing but a sensation
of cold against the palm of her left hand
that had lovingly lain dormant beside the
babes toot-a sensation Of strange cold
startling her nerves, piercing her heart, from
the little pahy's foot.
BY one of those singular transitions tha
only the most subtitle analysis of mechanism
can unveil, a sudden change occurred in the
outcast'g girl ,arousing her from stupid apathy
to eager life.
"The land-where is the land ?" her lip
gasped, while her eyes, grown suddenly in
tense, peered through the glooming space
Surely they were drifting shoreward Surely
she saw the looming of great rocks. Yes
and now the flashing of light.
They were borne in bravely on the up
bearing surf. One great wave, and nov
another, friendly and gigantic, lifted tn,
boat upon its shoulders and urged it on
Only the rocks were opposing bars. Or
each bar the pillows broke with a shock
On these bars the boat was stricken planl
from plank but the girl, with voc
rendered keen by the motherly pang at he
breast, sent shrek apd scream through tn
night, with her eyes fixed on the light, cry
ing, Help! help! help!"
Tom Hayward, one Of the most matter-ot
fact men among mortals, had--what he di
not believe in at ala preSentiment tina
night, He was sitting idly smoking ciga
in the seaward verandah of his hotel with
few lourging companions, who had bee
persuading him, forbdding as the weathe
was, to go to the theatre of an adjacent tow
to see star actress in provincial cast; an
he had been lazily considering whether
accept the proposition, when sudden in
pulse, strong enough to impel him from h
nonchalant attitude resolutely to his fee
struck him with this clearly expressed il
tent;
"Excuse me, for / must go down to N
cave. have left D--'s manuscript al
Rs packet of African rough damon,
upon my escrtoire shelf, and the poster
gate unlocked
He declined the proposal for the evenir
in town peremptorily, and went towards Il
cliffs. "Confound my culpable inertia !"
muttered to himself; sit has bred these il
coherent vagaries of the brain. What mac
sea gate tonight, knocking and crying f
help? Not an ocular illusion, certainl!
an aurcular illusion have never heard {
| suppose such complaint may exist.
nervous irritation of the tympanum this u
doubtedly is. The sounds were low, but
distinct. At any rate, am on 4
track"
Walking at brisk pace, Tom Haywa
turned from paved causeway of hi
road that stretched over the bluffs a mile
more beyond the hotel, strobe across Il su
burned moorland into devious seawa
path, and, leaping down sharp-hewn ste
in the rock, encountered door formidat
constructed of iron, the 'postern gate
left this night accidentally unlocked
that opened into masonried passage &C
Meeting the beetling crags with the st
| terranean vault known as Hayward's Cav