San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-06-30

! Anne, Lawn help um. Lawn hevp uui
FROM tur reach o. Wy hands"
I As looked into his face. could not help
echomg the prayer felt certain at the
! same time, that his fears and suspicious had
/ shot greatly in excess Of the truth I knew
4 that scandal was busy with poor Annie's
name, and that much OF the scandal must
Z have reached his ears; but | could not vet
/ bring myself to believe that Annies flight
beiOkened anything seriously wrong. or
one thing | felt nevertheless, certain-that
! II wrong had been done, George Redruth
was In some way responsible.
I stood and watched my uncle as he wan
dered away in the direction of our home I;
then turned my face again toward the sea,
and wandered on. As | went, the moor
grew opener and wilder, Strewn with great
stones and powders like fragments of the
wreck of some past world; some huge as
menhirs translated thither in some prehis-
toric period of wOndrous flOOds.when the
aid waste on which trod was the OOZy bot
tom of a troubled sea.
Here and there fed wild cattle. black and
horned, like Those that haunted the woods
Of ancient Britain. In solitary places the
buzZard lowered, and by the brink Of lonely
tarnS the heron waded, rising up as ap-
preached, with sleepy wait of wing.
At last, after a Tamble of several miles, l
approached the sea margin. My path was
now on the stony edge OF lOw-lying cliffs, at
the base Of which the waters Numbered for
ever. Here found a lonely prOmOntOry Of
black granite, stretching out into the sea, and
whitened at its limits by the chalky drop
pings of innumeTable Sea-birdS. On a rocky
island few yards from the extreme point of
the prOmOntOry, sat a flock Of cOrmOrants;
as | approached they turned their snake
like pecks, but did not rise.
The sun was warm and bright, the sea calm
and shimmering like steel | threw myself
down on the rocks, and, with face-uptumed
to the clear skies closed my eyes A large
black winged gull wheeled, screaming, over
me, and then sailed slowly away. All |
heard was the low murmur of the pillows
breaking sadly on the rocks beneath me
that sound which ''dreprns silence" and has
such solemn meanings for the troubled hui
man soul.
Suddenly another sound broke upon my
ear. | started, and listened. The sound
seemed to come from the sea itself, and was
like merpaid singing. rose quickly, and
crossing the rocks, walked in tho direction
from which the voice came.
Approaching the edge of the crags, look
ed down, and saw beneath Ire, in the very
shadow of the prOmOntOry, a quiet creek.
The rocks fell asunder, leaving a space of
sandy beach, some twenty yards broad, and
closed by the still waters of the sea, which
broke in thin fringe of white foam on
sunny slope of white pebble and golden
sand
1t was nook just such as the tabled mer
women or sirens might have chosen when
the world was haunted, and such fair crea-
tiOns frightened the sunshine. But what am
rSaying? 1t was haunted still, and by one
far sweeter and more wns0me than any
mere creation of a poets fancy!
Lying like a baskng seal on the loose
shingle just under the rocks, and looking up
at me with sparkling eyes, was the cOlOred
girl from Demerara; and standing on the
waters, edge, with her face looking seward,
was Madeline Graham.