The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-03-16


narrative Tregarthen shone as a
rowdy, and traducer of the sex, a roue, a
boaster, and a blackguard.
The necessary documents We're drawn nm
and signed, the advertisement was pre-
pared and inserted, and Tregarthen went
back to his island, Before he left town he
was asked one question by the lawyer.
DO you desire to intrust me with any
message to Mrs Tregarthen in case the
advertisement should reach her, and she
should apply to usi"
None," said Tregarthen His heart
was sore, and he was weary of the world
! There was no man in England more I'M
happy, and the very necessity of the case
forbade him to repose confidence in any
man.
He went back and lived almost alone
and loathed the world There was no
honor In man and no truth in woman. and
he had learned this bitter creed by expert
ence. To uplift voice for honor was TO
call down ruin; to love was to be BETRAYED
to be blameless meant that the human rar-
ity who dared it should be Stunned and
hated.
For long time his books were charm
less, and day by day his hearts auditor
added despite to hatred, and found the sum
total to be misery. After a pause he
learned that the lawyers had by
chance discovered Mrs. Tregarthen, and
that she had refused to touch q penny
of the money from his hands. This might
have puzzled him if he had been in the bu-
NOR TO be puzzled by anything. As it was,
| he wrote Jelly back that the money was
| none of his, but hers, and that she might
| please herself about accepting or refusing
it. He at least had no claim upon it, The
uen OF law wrote once more, saying that
Mrs. Tregarthen had again disappeared,
and asking for instructions. He had
none to give, and Miss Farmers fortune
lay at interest, therefore, and remained
unclaimed.
The clustering spring was back again
and March was wilder than it had been
for many year For three DAYS
one tremendous gale blew from the west.
and, gathering strength in the great ocean
spaces, poured such a tide upon the coast
as had scarcely been matched within the
memory of living men. Storms of sleet
and rain swept over the island, and COM
munication with the mainland was impos-
sible, 1t pleased Tregarthen to be thus
shut out from the world, and the savage
isolation the tempest brought him was in
rare consonance with his mood. The
milder aspects of nature had ceased to at
tract him, but this mad mingling of the
elements drew him continuously abroad
and he spent hours upon the western rocks
when he could hardly stand against the
wind, and could not look to windward for
an instant
On the last night of this prolonged
TEMPEST the Atlantic rollers fell with
such force and volume that they cast
stones as large as mans head forty or
fifty yards inland. The east was as black
as ink already, and the west was grew
some gray when Tregarthen (clinging with
both hands to the wet surface of a bowl
der which lay three PAGES from the tidal
line, and taking his last look at the sea-
race as it went foaming back from the
crags upon his right saw a sudden tongue
Of light flash out from the darkness, and
heard or thought he heard, second or
two later, the heavy boom of a gun.
Crouching behind the bowlder, and so shell
tering his eyes from the wind, he
could dimly make out the form of great
vessel and just as he was sure of her he
saw second tongue of light flame out
from her; but this time, though he listened
with all his soul, the gun was dumb in the
prOdigious noises of the sea. Next, he
lost her for a minute in the gloom, and
found her again by third tongue of
flame. Every second of that dreadful
minute had brought the fancied sound of
the guns voice to his ears.
Each flash was nearer than the last, and
he could see that the ship was sweeping
helplessly on shore He made his difficult
and dangerous way toward her, sometimes
sheltered by the broken ground, but oftener
so beaten by the wind that he could but
crawl upon his hands and knees. All the
time, at intervals which seemed incredibly
apart from each other the noiseless light
ming shot from the vessels side When
ever the inequalities Of the ground hid her
| from him he fancied he could hear the gun
boom and boom and boom; but whenever
he saw the flash the gun was dumb. He
came breathless and painting upon the
northern rocks, and could make out the
lines of the hapless ship more clearly. |
There was no shelter for her on the lee side
of the island, for, as Tregarthen knew,
the sea was running there like a
nill-race magnified a myriad times. She
drifted with huge lurches toward this chan
mel, and Tregarthen, raging with pity and |
helplessness, tore along the rocks. If he
could he would have cast himself upon the
ground and have seen no more until all
was over, but the fascination of horror
was upon him, and he was as powerless to
resist it as he was to save life aboard the
vessel She was in sight now continually,
and he ran down the broad grass platform
with the wind at his back, and kept along
side at distance of little more than three
hundred yards What with the dashing spray
and the wind and the gloom he could not
make out soul on board, but the flash
spoke twice more to his helpless
heart and then the great craft
seemed resigned to die in dark
ness, and even to leap at her doom, as
desparing men have been known to do.
The score of men, women, and children
who, apart from Tregarthen's household,
made up the sole population of the island,
were clustered on the northern rock above
the Sea-gate. Tregarthens housekeeper,
maid and man-servant were there also,
and when he came among them they were
all staring at the fated ship. Against the
opposite rocks she scarcely showed Mt all,
and she was as often fancied as
seen; but now, in a strange way,
the gloom began to tighten, as