The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-08-18
81 musf bail with nv hat " he renlief

HluSI cOulo III very Slowly, IL Is 4 long
time since we left Washington street
wharf" He looked at his watch; it was
then past four and they were near Fort
Point. So far as they could see there
was not a single sail in the ofing. They
looked back at the city; there were no
out coming tugs or steamers, or schoon-
ers even. Then they looked out through
the gate. and wondered.
There is an untranslatable poetic some
thing about our Golden Gate that the
sympathetic beholder, in coming or out
going, or gazing upon it from any stand
point, never fails to realize. Something,
which, perhaps, he acknowledges, yet
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 history
or our future. Perhaps it is because in
looking at it one can never quite discern
its big beyond, of veal or of woe, of sun
shine or of tempest.
eve 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 afiame.
81 did not think before there was SO
much gold in Frisco, said Tom.
"Oh, Tom, L don't want to die and
| leave it all, )" said Laura, tremblingly.
The dallying breeze had shaken off the
| spell. The air had grown suddenly chill.
Far ahead they could see the omiuous
white Of the careening swell, and along
the shore they heard the dull boom of
the surf. Lower and lower sank the
white, electric dazzle; buff and pink, and
orange toning down into the narrow belts
of opal. Right ahead rose the black
Farallones, and, as the sun sank still
lower, they stood out in unbroken out
line 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; the cur
rent too, had carried them so gently that |
the danger of upsetting had not presened |
itself. But after they passed the fort the
motion of the waves changed, not sud-
denly, but gradually, until at last the
boat was rocking like cedar chip in the |
eddies of nnill-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
81,
splashing against the outside, and the
motion caused constant tapping of the
water within the boat. Tom made IA care
full examination, and at last found little
hole through which the water poured in
a fitful stream as 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 OBJ
iect. If there had been a ship in sight |
she could have seen it, she thought, al |
most despairingly.
She began to bail as we'll as she could |
with the felt hat, and in her cramped po-
sition. A long line of gray was coming
up from the south.
ct 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 fog. For a 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
hat. The 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 materi-
ally decreased. They had not spoken to
! each other for some moments. At last
| Laura leaned forward. Her hand touch
ed Toms, and he took it in his own.
That hand-ciasp meant to them things
unspeakable Her hand was very cold,
almost as cold as his own. La his pocket
was silk handkerchief; he handed it to
! her, and bade her to tie it about her
neck, for he dared not to rise to fasten it
there himself. Then he took both her
hands between his own, striving to keep
them warm.
Laura was first to speak, and her voice
was quite firm, scarcely even sorrowful:
'Tom, dear, l do not want to die; ard
vet death cannot take from Us the boom
of having died together
"But we shall not die now, Laura: I
krow we'll not" There was 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.
"Tm ashamed OF you," said Laura,
and she actually laughed. Tom laughed
also.
When two persons in such q position
can laugh, it is either Every brave" or
! every shocking" according to the creed
we first sucked and the $50 forth" of our
, ! salaI days