The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-08-15
CONTINUED.
CHAPTER ".

ence CT her artist friend, walked rapidly along
the sand-incumbered road in the direction of
the sea.
Skirting the lake upon the lett hand, and
still having the ocean OF sandhiis upon her
right, she gradually siackered her pace. A
spectator, had lie been by, would have doubt
less observed that the change was owing TO
| maiden meditation: that, in other words,
Matt had fallen into brown study.
Presently che sat down upon a convenient
| Stone, rpieceof rock, and, resting her elbows
on her kneeDher chin in her hands, looked
| for so1,e riinuteS at vacancy. AT last she
! rosa, finishing warmly, and murmuring SOME
| hing to herself.
| Tho something was to this effect:
ellis hands ere as white rs u lady's, when
he pulls of them gloves and he said was as
pretty as my picture
| | can only gees at the train Of reasoning
which Led To this solio4ur, and express my
opinion tina, Matt had ucll-leveloped IDEAS on
| the subject cf The scye; True, she was not
| above sixteen, and had little or no experience
| of men, none at all Of men who were both
| young and good looking. Nevertheless, she
was not ms nsible of the charms Of a w,.ite
| hand, and other tokens of masculine refine
| mont and le1Utv.
| b. naaa 81 sequence of ideas. she was led
to stret j ont hsr own ri-,l5 Eonl ard look at
| itcrttcallY. 7 Was very brown, and covered
VIII HUGO golden fTec,-eS The inspection
uoo being a.,agg her satt a-tarv, she TRUST
| both her hands ir.'....,., into the pockets of
her Jacket, and wa.,-e1e ca.
leaving tie lake belt..l her she followed
| the road aj'.g swam,Y hollow. DOWN
., sl,.
b. he sea, nov losing i;self altogether in
mos ratcho; Of s,i7.;y;ogs greenncsS, as.ain
e1ner; my IN tric',, ~ With fan5lc g,iamers
over pebble a,d aaad. Presently She left the
road AMI cqma uom q primitive wooden
bridge, consisting If ouly one plauA, sup
ported on two earns Of stone. Here she
paused, end saoiag a red-k ,-ed sand-piper
running about On tie edge Of the water just
below, her, Iua. e Il ggst,re like bows throw
ing a stone, whsroon the saad-p;per sprang
up chir9.ng, and few along ont of sight.
| BY this time she was in full sight of tie
sea. Dead calm, and covered with rain-aol-
ored shadows, it touched the edges of the fat
sands about mile away, and left one long
| creamy line Of clangpleSs foam. The sands
| themselves stretched away to the westward
far as eve could see. But to the left and east
ward, that is IT, say, il the direction toward
which she was gong, there was long, roclzy
promontory, with signs of human habt3,-
ton Breaking into a swinglike trot, Matt
FASTENED thitAer, following a footpath across
maTshy fields.
In due time she came ont upon a narrow
and Tu,lely made road which wound along he
rocky promontory, at low water skirtiry the
sand, at hiCh water, the sea. The first house
she reached was wooden life-boat house "
inc down in a creek; and it being then low
tide, at some d stance from the waters edge
On the roadside above the house was a flag
staff, and beneath the flagstaff wooden SCAT
All was very still and desolate, without a
SIGN of Lie: but a little farther along the
road was q row of cottages which seemed III
habited, and were in fact the aboaeS Of The
coastguard. Instead Of lingering here Matt
proceeded on her way until she req, he'd
, what at first sight looked like the beginning
, of a village or small town. There We're
houses on each Si,la Of the road. some of them
} | several stories higa; bat close inspection
showed that most Of them were rootleSS, that
few Of them possessed any windows or doors,
| and that nearly al were deCayed and dilapi-
, dated from long disuse, while not few had
} blasted and sinister appearance, as il black
ened by fire. And still there was no sign of
any human soul. Suddenly, however, the street
came to an end, and Matt found herself on a
' sort Of rocky platform overlooking the sea;
and on this platform, shading his eyes from
the blazing sun and looking out sedward, was
a solitary man.
SO intent was he on his occupation, that hG
was unconscious Of Mats approach till she
was standing by lis side. He turned his eyes
upon her for a moment, and then once more
ga2ad out to sea.
A short, plump tlickset man. with {
, round. wcotuer-beaten face, which would
j. have been good hUmored but fur lis expires
3 sion Of cztreme watchfulnesS ald greed. tn,
. | eyes were b5uc, but very small and keen; Tia,
forehead low and harrow; the hair coarsC
and sandy; the beard coarscr AID san'iel
; still hc might have been about 30 years o.
age. lis dress was curious consisting Of {
t. yellow son -vGsscr, a pair of saauan's coars'
r cauyas u.ua, rs and blue pilot jacket, orna
mened Wrh brass buttons which bore the N
sigma of Har Majesty S naval service.
Presently, without turning his eyes again
: | from the far distance, the man spoke in
p | husky. iar.awav whisper:
, Matt, do yon sac sumnat out yonderI'
/ Matt strained her gaze through the daz
ding sunlight, Int failed to discern any Oh
jet on tIa Ii-ht c~panse of water
look We now continued the man; Il
a may be drifting weed, or it may be WRECK
bat it's .umnat. Look again"
.'f}ummaJ black, William Jones'"
:, "Ics. Coming and going. Now it comes
; a..I its black; now it goes, and the wate
q | locks white where it YVES If it isn't wrecl,