The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-08-14

0A0OA IN lCAS
the rope hanging
DID the wind eyer blow it offf ?s
asked Jack.
Seldom, and never out Of reach"
said the old man. "Well, the ledge I
reached was like this" illustrating with
his hands. ut was some ten feet wide:
It stuck out maybe six feet further than
the cliff top; the rock wall went up
pretty near perpendicular, till Near the
coping at the ground, but below the
ledge the cliffs face was so scooped
away that the sea, FIVE hundred feet
below, ran in under it nigh fifty feet.
AS l went down, thousands of birds
rose from the jagged places of the preci-
pice, circling around me with harsh
screams. Soon touching the ledge, /
stepped from the loop, and drawing
down a little slack, walked off briskly.
For fully quarter of a mile the ledge
ran along the cliffs face almost as level
and even in width as that sidewalk. /
remember fancying that it sloped out
ward more than usual, but instantly
dismissed the notion, though CATER
Pentreath: the Oldest man in that couL-
tryside, used to tell us that We should
not get the use of that ledge always.
1t had been al steady in our time as in
his grandfather's and we only laughed
at his prophecies. Yet the place of an
old filed assure was marked by a line
of grass, by tufts of weeds and small
bushes, stretching almost as far as the
ledge itself, and within a foot or so Of the
cliffs face.
Eggs were not so many as usual,
and i went a long piece from my rope
before turning back. Then / noticed
the very strange conduct of the hosts of
sea-fowls below. Usually there were
hundreds, but now there were millions
on the wing, and instead of dartlng
forth in playful motions, they seemed
to be wildly excited, screaming shrilly,
rushing out in terror, and returning in
masses as though to alight, only to
wheel in dread, and keep the air in vast
clouds.
"The weather was beautiful, the sea
like glass. At no great distance two
large briggs, and nearer a small yacht,
lay becalmed, heaving on the long bill
lows. / could look down her cabin
stairway almost, and it seemed scarcely
more than along leap to her deck.
Puzzled by the singular conduct Of
the sea-birds, / Don stopped and set
my back against the cliff to rest while
Watching them. The day was deadly
still and very warm.
81 remember taking off my hat and
wiping the sweat from my face and fore
head with my sleeve. While doing this,
/ looked down invcluntarily to the fis-
sure at my feet. Instantly my blood
almost froze with horrorl There was a
distinct crack between the inner edge of
the fissure and the hard-packed, root
threaded soil with which it was filed
Foreibly / pressed back, and in a flash
looked along the edge. The assure
was widening under my eyes, the rock
before me seemed sinking outward, and
with q shudder and q groan and q roar,
the whole long platform fell crashing
to the sea below I stood on a margin
of rock scarce a foot wide, at my back a
perpendicular cliff, and five hundred
feet below the ocean, now almost hidden
by the vast concourse of wheeling and
aftghted birds.
"Can you believe that uay first sensa-
tioa was one of relief? / stood safe!
Even a feeling OF interest held me for
some moments. Almost coolly / OBJ
served a long and mighty wave roll out
from beneath. 1t went forth with a
high, curling crest-a solid wall of
water! 1t struck the yacht stern on,
plunged down on her deck, smashed
through her swell of sail, and swept her
out of sight forever.
"Not till then did my thoughts dwell
entirely on my own position; not till
then did Iccmprehend its hopelessness
row my eyes closed convulsively, to
shut out the abyss down which my
glance had fallen shuddering, / pressed
hard against the solid wall at my back;
an appalling cold slowly crept through
me! My reason struggled against a
wild desire to leap; all the demons OF
despair whispered to me to make an in
slant end. In imagination had leaped!
r felt the swooning helplessness of fall
ing. and the cold, upward rush of airl
"Still I pressed hard back against the
wall Of rock, and, though nearly faint
from terror, never forgot for an instant
the death at my feet, nor the utter
danger OF the slightest motion. How
long this weakness lasted | know not; /
only know that the u~nspeakable horror
Of that first period has come to me in
waxing dreams many and many a day
since: that I have long nights of that
deadly fear that to think of the past is
to stand again onthat narrow foothold,
and to look around on the earth is often
to CRY suit with JOY that it widens away
from my feet.
The old man paused long. CHANGING
sidewise at Jack, / saw that his face
was pallid. I myself had shuddered
and grown cold-so strongly had my
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