Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-04-17
BOUN D.
py ". CLARK RUSSELL,
Author Of "7ne Wreck Of tie Grosveno
"JacEs Coartsh ip,' my Watch Be-
io,c, The Lady Maud Ito.
(ooHrIHusp.)
CHAPTER XIII.
TIE ICE pREAKs AWAY.

IL was not Yet O'CLOCK. i was restless tn
my mind, under great surprise, and was
mot sleepy. filed spipe, made M = little
pannikin Of punch, and sat down before the
fire to think. II ever had suspected the
accuracy Of my conjecture that the French
mans sudden astonishing indisposition was
the effect of his extreme age coming upon
him and breaking down the artificial WEALTHY
with which he had bristled into ifs under
my hands, must have found nifty signs 70
set my misgivings at rest in his drowsinsss.
nodding, bowed form, weakness, his tottering
and trembling, and other features Of his
reason to be thankful to Almighty God for
this unparalleled and most happy dispensa-
tion; for now I should have nothing 70 fear
from the old rogueS vindictiveness and hor-
rid greed.
Thus I sat for an hour smoking and wet
ting my lips with the punch, while the fire
burned low. 90 exulting In the thought Of my
escape from the treacherous villain had re-
covered from the grave, and In the feeling
that might now be able to 60 to rest, to
move here and there, to act as / pleased
without being haunted and terrified by the
shadow Of his foul intent, that hardly gave
my mind for moment to the situation Of
the schooner nor to the barren consequences
Of my fine scheme Of mines.
The wind blew strong. I could hear the
humming Of 10 In every fber OF the vessel.
The bed on which she rested trembled to the
blows Of the seas upon the rocks. From
time to time, in tho midst Of my musing,
started to the sharp claps OF parted ice. Still
feeling sleepless threw few Goals on the
fire, and, catching sight Of the pirate flag,
opened 1t on the deck as wide as the space
would permit, and sat down to contemplate
the hideous insignia embroidered on 1t. My
mind filed with hundred fancies as my
gaze went from the skull on the black field
: TO tho deaths head pips that had fallen from
the grasp Of Tassard and lay ON the decs; decss;;
and was sitting lost in a deep dream like
contemplation, when I was startled and
shocked into instantaneous activity by
blast Of noise, louder than any thunder clap
that ever ! heard, ringing and booming
through the schooner. This was followed by
a second and then third, at intervals dur
ing which you might have counted ton, and
! became sensible Of a strange, sickening
motion, which lasted about twenty or thirty
moments such as might be experienced by
one swiftly descending in a balloon, or in
falling from height while pcnt up in
coach.
For a little while tho schooner heeled over
10 violently that the benches and oIi thinos
movable in the cook room slid as far ms thew
could GO. and I heard a great clatter and
commotion among tho freight In tho hold
She then came upripbt again and sim,,ltana.
ouslv with this n vost mass Of wnter tum.
bled ON TO the deck and washed over NV
head and then fell another nnd then an.
other, oil in such q way as to make me know
that tho ice had broken and sIinnad tba
schooner close to the ocean. where she law er.
oosed to ;ts suroas--but not free of tho Zoo
sor eho did not toSo or roiI '
T ssi,aJ the lonterr and snroro e. 81.
c.h,n ,vh.ra b,no ~ nm ond ,,,a,,,.aJ aJ .h' o
Communion stan. Rut ma + nn, nv hara AZ
rho door to th,nst ~ onen a sao 49,. o 80, ~
,ho c;do ana 1iIled tba doci,s h,,IL,;, "a
shvnSar,na nast tho % no,,nan;n, , s Ia,nL W anu
a vav NJ, TO advisa mo that naa,, h,,. s,o,, ou
The door to Srovn tbo cah;r aa;t"a opsn t.,,.
hart boating ysrv hard mad 20 so. ,hat ~
had hannened. hut NOT dor;ng 70 t,,,st r,yaa,s
m dact ioc, T should ho i,,,,,,,J,a.aI,, a,,.s".
into the sea '"'F'
Half nm bopr r,ust how, ,,s.,oa a,,u;
,vh;ch t;ra tha dac,,s ,roro Ii s,.,.Ie
hy tho COOS ;nso,,,,oh tha. r ,, %
anrst onon tha dnor a,o,, ~ i,.i, a,,. p,,t
nothing hoyino bonnorod to inouaa.o ~,
constarnot;or 2, this haIS ~. .Lsss, ny .as
,oo,,o,,o,,t T., .ha sahoana,. ,,,ao 49,. sno
nordaro,s md raiaStio,, ,aI,;n "a " -. .s,y
inr shoH-;nrr h.r "a - =, .anate - $3.50 ~. =.
And NV snirits and to listen ana y.it ,r;th
,omo Iuddings 81 bons ana oonad,noo A..
tho ern,ration of this ti,ra the saoo ha,vo, =,
fall less heavily and rso,,arIv IN ~, tbe dao,,
and nresentlv I could onIv haor ,ha,,, hrosk'
inc forwnrd bnt without n o,ortar 81 thai,
former weigbt end notbinc worso am. ~.
Chan large brisl, showers Of spray.
armed myself with additional c,otbino
for tue encounter OF the wet, cold and wind.
and then pushed open the door and stepped
forth. The sky was dark with rolling clouds,
but the ice put its own light into the air. and
could see as plain as il the first of the dawn
mad broken. 1t was as hnd supposed. the
mass of tho valley in which the schooner had
been sepulchred for ciaht and forty years
had come away from the main, and Law float
mo within a cables length of the coast
stranger. more wonderful picture human eve
never beheld. The island shore ran a ram
part Of faintness along the darkness to where
il died out in liouid dust to right and left
The schooner sat fupon a bed of ice that
showed surface of about half an acre: her
stern was close to the sea, and about six feet
above H. On her larboard quarter the slope
r shoulder of the activity had been broken
py the rupture, and you looked over the side
into the clear sea beyond the limit Of the ice
there; but abreast Of the foreshrouds the ice
rose In kind Of wall, great splinter it
looked of what was before a small broad
browed hill, and tho wind or the sea having
caused the body on which the schooner lay to
veer, this wall stood as a shield betwixt the
vessel and the surges, and was now receiving
those blows which had heretofore struck
Il