Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-02-09
CHAPTER XXX.
NOT ALL 4 DREAM.

NOT ALL \ DREAM.
Fairfax had been dreaming. He stood
on a barren, rocky islet in mid-ocean. All
about him was a wild, wide waste of de-
serted, Sunlit waters-not sail, not cloud,
not q bird, nor fish, nor any living thing in
sight! Only the endless, boundless, ever
lasting stretch of sea and the solid. scorch-
ing rock beneath his feet
He knew not how he came there nor why
To him time and space had no beginning
nor end. Past and future there was none
-only one eternal nor.
Like the ancient mariner he was 'alone
on wide, wide sea- but with no other
facts, no other data, no other knowledge of
any thing save of himself, Arthur Fairfax,
and this blistering, barren rock and that
vast, silent, glazing wilderness of waters,
met on all sides by heavens of brassy hue
Here he stood, stony-hearted, passionless,
quiet as the rock itself and as motionless,
staring out over that horrible sea-salt plain,
with fixed, expressionless eyes.
There came no morn, no noon, no night;
but one never-ending, unchangins day.
Time was not.
1t might have been a day, it might have
been & month, a year, q century-he knew
not, nor cared-but at last there rose, far,
far away ON the uttermoSt, EXTREMIST verge
of the horizon, a feeble, upward-crawling
Ullc VI SIllOhe. WHICH nSttI
and grew dense and yet more dense. On it
rolled with ever-increasing rapidity, until It
rushed ahead with lightning speed.
Within, and almost hidden by this mighty,
roaring column, belching forth fire and
smoke, he detected the outlines of a vessel.
Straight toward the rocky islet, straight
towards himself it came, with unerring, I'M
swerving course.
Now he saw and recognized it.
+, 4
ing sheet of flame that shot upwards and
backwards, roaring and laundering with
terrific sound, and, high in the farthest
tip of the yet unscorched bow stood Natalie,
in speeches. horror, her snow-white arms
stretched appealingly toward him.
Nearer and swifter. yet, swept on that
frightful, rolling pillar of fire, the sea boil
ing and seething in its track and vast
clouds of white steam arising and inter-
mingling with its million blazing tongues
and smoke of inly blackness.
With an almost incredible SuddennesS it
stopped its headlong speed short distance
from the rock, and at once began quickly 70
sink.
Jump shrieked Fairfax in terror. And
back over the thunderous roar rang the
piercing cry:
'.Save me! Save me 20, Arthur, save me!''
His soul on fire, his strength nerved
to utter desperation, he leaped far out from
the crags over the sea, and struck-not
the water, but solid earth!
In an instant he had awakened from sleep
and found himself standing erect, with
nerves and muscles strained to their ut
most tension, his arms extended rigid from
his side, his head bent eagerly forward,
like one alert from fear. Every nerve
tingled with horror. And his ear could
have caught the fa1ntest possible whisper.
What was itl What did it mean. The
cold sweat stood out in great beads over
his forehead, and it seemed to him he could
vet hear that piercing cry for help ringing
far along the shore and in the woods.
If ever a man was thoroughly awake, he
now was.
He ran to the water and CHANGING up and
down heard or saw nothing, save the sui
len waves knocking angrily against the
rocks, and the shining pillows, glistentnS in
the moonlight. From the forest came no
sound, but the far-away, sea-like murmur OF
the pines.
Nothing! nothingl nothing, at all! Only
silly dreaml And, yet, that call that cry
for help! 1t wss real! 1t was no delusion
of Sleep for il rang, still, in his ears with
too true n tone to be aught else but genu-
inc!
In terror-yet he could not have said why
he stood, listening with Dated breath.
Hist harkl What was that, DOfne Dy on
the passing breeze! If there was ever wall
of woman for help that was one. Clear and
high it sounded
. Sdre mel arthur! o to die th'ts!''
Wild and mad with blindest rage and fear,
Fairfax boSnded over the rocks and fled into
the wood, like one insane, as if all hell were
pursuing him. On, on he dashed, needing
neither bush, brier nor crag. Torn and
bleeding, straight forward, towards the
cab, he pushed.
Again he heard 1t, and nearer still; and
again he paused.
40 God! have pityl Farewell, my Ar
thurT'
With demoniacal shrek of impotent
rage, Fairfax tore onward through shrub
and low-lying branches, calling out fiercely:
Hell and its torments to him who harms
her!"
Soon he sprang from the forest out into a
broad clearing where ran a narrow, quiet
cove of the sea. This time the cry soua1ed
rs if among the rocks,
Breathless, painting like wounded deer,
his garments torn to shreds, bleeding in
every limb, he dashed down the slope and