The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1881-09-07

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 sank
still lower they stood out in unbroken
outline against its disk.
With his soft hat Tom made slow pro-
gress 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 up
setting had not presented itself. But
after they passed the fort the motion of
the waves changed, not suddenlysbut
gradually, until at last the boat was
rocking like a 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
little hole through which the water
poured in fitful stream as the boat
rocked from side to side.
"I must stop that Leak" he said.
"Can you bail ?"
The sun had set and the flush was
fading out of the western sky. 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,
almost despairingly.
She began to bail as we'll as she could,
with the felt hat, and in her cramped
position. A long line of gray was com
ing up from the south.
1t is fog" said Tom, in a whisper.
Until he said cit is fog" she did not
realize the almost utter hopelessness of
their position. Even if the tide should
turn before they reached the bar it
would be impossible to protect them
selves in a fog. For moment she
thought she should quite break down,
the fate before them seemed so terrible.
Tom had succeeded in stopping the
leak and had resumed bailing. To
make that task easier he had cut the
brim from his bat. Fhe fog was now
all around them, and it was quite dark.
They thought they heard the surf more
distinctly.
"The tide has turned" said Tom.
And so it had, but Just how they
would be affected by the change they
could not tell. Tom kept on bailing
until the amount of water in the boat
had materially decreased. They had
not spoken to each other for some mo-
ments. At last Laura leaned forward.
Her hand touched Toms, and he took it
in his own. That hand-clasp meant to
them things unspeakable. Her hand
was very cold, almost as cold as his own.
In his pocket was q silk handkerchief;
he handed it to her and bade her tie it
about her neck, for he dared not rise to
fasten it there himself. Then he took
both her hands between his own, striv-
ing to keep them warm.
Laura was the first to speak, and her
voice was quite firm, scarcely even sor-
rowful: "Tom, dear, I do not want to
die; and yet death cannot take from us
the boon of having died together"
But we shall not die now, Laura; I
know we'll not" There was the ring of
conviction in his tones. The profound
resignation underlying her words had
struck the right key in his own nature,
and the thought of his first despairing
mood made him almost angry. "But
it's awfully hungry we are, my dear, "
were his next words.
"Im ashamed of you," said Laura,
and she actually laughed. Tom laughed
also.
When two persons in such a position
can laugh, it is either every brave" of
every shocking" according TO the creed
we first sucked and the $50 forth of
our salad days.
The fog was all around them, and
neither could see the others face. The
fog was cold, and from time to time
Laura had shivered once or twice, audi
bly,, though quite involuntarily, for she
was brave little woman. When the
ripple of the young girls laughter rang
out amid the fog (above Nthe boom of
the surf, the far-away barking of the sea
lions on Seal rocks, and the near, yet
distant, scream of the fog signal), and
when his own laughter was smothered
in the fog folds, Tom repeated: b" But /
am hungry, awfully-"
What he might have gone on to say is
forever sealed. The next moment the
boat struck something with great mo-
nentum, and that is all Laura remem-
bered till she.awoke in the queer little
cabin of the Sarah Emma, brigantine,
inbound from Australia.
A woman's gentle face bent above her
own in anxious, motherly regard, and
dear Tom sat on locker behind the
gangway, with glad tears in his eyes to
see the color steal back to her cold
cheeks.
And now you must have a bit to
eat, said the captains wife, in hospita-
BILE accents.
But Laura shut her eyes, half mali
ciously, and murmured: "Give il 10
him, please; he's always hungry"
"That's what you'll not dare say when
Won becOnae Mrs Tom /" said the VOunor