Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1881-10-06

"No, it is a good Joke, he replied.
'HOnly we will be out rather late. When
the the tide turns we will go back boom
ing"
Really he had very little hope. His
| Judgment told him that the tide had not
yet turned, and unless it did turn almost
instantly. the swift current would carry
them out into the offing, and amid the
breakers ut the bar, where their frail
boat would not live an instant And
then. He could not swim n stroke.
If he could, the distance to the shore
was too far To make that of any use. If
only they had IA rudder they might run
the boat ashore; hut, unfortunately, they
had been in time to secure only the very
last, rudderless skiff. ''Thank the fates
it does not leak. "Does not leak ?" He
looked down, and, and saw that the If
regular bottom of the boat was covered
with water to the depth of almost half II
toot. When they had started away from
the pier landing Tom had braced his
feet against broad cross-cleet, and
and Laura's stout boot rested on the
same dry foothold. Until then neither
had noticed the water.
Tom had searched the bottom of the
boat for bailing-can. He could not
find one. Laura moved so as to look
in the little locker under the stern seat.
There was no can there.
"What shall we 90 :" she said
II must bail with my hat, p" he replied
slowly, ms if thinking it out; "the water
must come in very slowly, it is long
time since we left Washington street
wharf" He looked ut his watch; it was
then past four and they were nearly OPP
posite Fort Point. So far as they could
see there was not single sail in the
offiing: They looked back at the city;
there were no out-coming tugs or steam
ers, or schooners even. Then they look
ed out through the gate and wondered.
There is an untranslatable poetic some
thing about our Golden Gate that the
sympathetic beholder, incoming or out
going, or gazing upon it from any stand
point, never fails to realize-something
which, perhaps, he acknowledges, but
may never put into fitting phrases. Per-
haps it is because it seems so to hold
the keys of our California life, that we
may not dissociate it from either our his
tory or our future. Perhaps it is because
in looking at it one can never quite dis
Germ its big beyond, of veal or of woe,
of sunshine or of tempest.
owe should never have had this sun
set anywhere else, Laura" and Tom
pointed to the declining sun, hanging
without cloud above the wilderness of
waves. They looked back at the city,
and all the western windows were
afame.
II did not think there was so much
gold in Frisco" said Tom.
"Oh, Tom, | don't want to die and
leave it all, said Laura, trembllngly.
The dallying breeze had shaken offthe
spell. The air had grown suddenly chill.
Far ahead they could see the ominous
white of the careening swell, and long
the shore they heard the dull boom of
the surf. Lower and lower sank the
white, electric dazzle; buff and pink, and
orange toning into narrow belts of opal
Right ahead rose the black Farallones,
and as the sun still sank lower, they
stood out in unkroken outline against
the disk
With his soft hat Tom made slow
progress in bailing. Until then the
water had oozed in so slowly that danger
from leakage had not alarmed him until
then; the current, too, had carried them
along so gently that the danger of upset
ting had not presented itself. But after
they passed the fort the motion of the
waves changed, net suddenly but gradu
ally, until at last the boat was rocking
like cedar chip in the eddies of mill
race. And still the tide had not turned
Ceasing his bailing for an instant, Tom
thought he heard the sound of water
trickling into the boat. Perhaps it was
his instinct of danger and not his ears
that warned him, for the waves were
splashing against the outside, and the
motion caused constant tapping of the
water within the boat. Tom made
careful examination, and at last found
hole through which the water poured in
q fitful stream as to the boat rocked from
side to side.
81 must stop that Leak" he said.
"Can you bail ?"
The sun had set, and the flush was
fading out of the western sky. Laura
took one long look around. In all the
waste of waters there was no moving
object. If there had been ship in sight
she could have seen it, she thought, al
most despairingly.
She began to bail as well as she could,
with the felt hat, and i'll her cramped
position. A long line of gray was COM
ing up from the south.
cit is fog," said Tom, whisper.
Untilh said, sit is fog" she did not
realize the almost utter hopelessness of
their position. Even if the bar. it