The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1882-08-31

presently Duncan hay looked around.
Where's Octavia ?" he asked.
Everybody hsd some answer to make.
Auriette Hall had seen her not five
minutes before Helen Ray was quite
certain that she was hiding behind the
ruined boat.house on the edge of the
beach Lois Fielding suggested that
she lad probably gone back to the
steamer for a scent-bottle or hand
kerchief, or some such trife.
"She'll be here presently, said they.
"In the meantime, let us get the lunch
ready, for there's dark little edge OF
cloud down in the west that the cap
tain says he don't half-like the looksof "
And where all this time was Oc-
tavia GLAND?
She was springing up the steep and
winding ledge of the rock, quicker and
lighter than any mountain chamois, her
veil floating back like white wreath Of
mist, an exquisite scarlet dyeing her
cheek.
eff otherpeople can climb to Mother
Carey's Cushion, SO can T." said daunt-
ess Octavia, keeping her face reso-
utely away from the furious waves
that boiled and ragged below, lest, per.
chance, it should render her giddy.
And how astonished they will bell
when they see me waving my hand
kerchief to them from that dizzy
peak |"
Long before the cold fowls, chicken
salad and sandwiches were spread upon
the grass the captain came up from the
steamer.
"Ladies and gentlemen said he,
"rm sorry to spoil sport, but there's a
squall brewin', if ever there was one,
and we'll all be safer we'll out at sea
than on these ragged points OF rock
especially as the tide is comm in a deaf
faster than we'd calculated on. So il
you'll all step lively I shall be partic-
ularly obliged"
The ladies began hurriedly to pack
the as yet incomplete repast, and 70
gather up their hats, wells, parasols and
gloves-the gentlemen looked around
for shawl-straps, books and baskets;
and once again ran the question:
"But Octavia! Where is Octavia?'
And Dorsey Wheeler, straining his
eyes through the gray mist which was
already beginning to gather over the
landscape, exclaimed:
"Who has an opera-glass ? I see
something on that tall rock that seems
to lean toward the understanding, I
an quite certain, which moves!"
The captain produced his glass.
"Though, to be sure," said he,
"glasses amt much use in such a
plaguey Scotch mist as this. But I de;
clare, there is something up there Aut.
tering in the wind, like some one waving
a signal of distress p
Io2saa snatched the glass from the
'vetefan's hand and Viurriedly adjusted
it to his own eyes. :, 49,
"It is Octsvia's VEIL" he said. i
can see the pink flowers like little dots
of color on her head. Good heavens
and she has been mad enough to climb
that rock, all for a spirit Of crazy ad-
venture !"
cts bad job for her, then" said
the old fisherman, who, having left his
nets to take care of themselves, had
mingled, black pipe and all, in the gen.
eral confusion. "For now the tide is
in, there amt nobody nor nothin' can
get near Mother Carey's Rocks; and if
the wind rises, as it's goin' to do, she'll
be blowed into kingdom come at the
very first puffr'
"Can nobody help her?" cried the
Mortified group.
The old salt shook his head.
"You'd only come to your own
DEATH" said he, "witho ut helpin' her
mite. There was a man killed there
twenty. one year ago come October.
He"
"We are losing time," said the cap.
tain, inipatiently. "There's black
squall driving up on the wind, and I'd
not give much for our lives if We don't
get clear of them confounde1 rocks.
Of course we're all sorry for the young
lady; but 30 far as I can see she'll have
to take the consequences of her own
folly. It's impossible to risk whole
barge-load for her. Ladies and gen
tlemen, all forward now, if you pleased
But Duncan Ray stepped out from
the ranks.
"Bolton |" said he. "McDowell
Christian men, all of you! Are you
going deliberately off to leave the
sweetest and most precious of our
number to perish in the winds and
waves ?"
ell don't see that We can do any
thing!" stammered Bolton. "This
good man says that We should not risk