Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-21
FOLLOWING THE SEA.
4 STORY OF ADVENTURE.

London Figaro: AT the time of "the
great earthquake OF IS, u was at Africa,
Peru. have not map by me, and am
not certain that Africa is not in Chill
but it can { make much difference: there
was an earthquake all along there.
Sam Baxter was with me: | think we
had gone to make a railway, or some
thing. On the morning of the quake"
Sam and had gone down to the beach
to bathe. We had shed our boots and
begun to moult, when there was slight
tremor Of the earth, asst the elephant
who supports it was pushing upward, or
lying down and getting up,again. Next
the surges, which We're tiattening them
selves upon the sands and dragging away
such small trifles AS they could lay hold
Of. began racing out seaward, as if they
had received Il telegraphic dispatch
that somebody was not expected to live.
When the sea had receded entirely
out of sight, we started after it; for, it
will be remembered, we had come to
bathe; and bathing without some kind
of water is not refreshing in a hot eli
mate. For the first four or five miles
the walking was was very difficult.
The ground was soft. there were tan
gled forests OF Seaweed, old rotting g
ships. rusty anchors, human skeletons,
and multitude of things to impede
the pedestrian. The tloundering sharks
bit our legs as we toiled past them. and
we were constantly slipping down on
the fiat fish strewn about like orange
peel on sidewalk. Sam, too, had
stuffed his shirt front with such a
weight Of Spanish dOubloons from the
wreck of an old galloon that / had to
was very dispiriting.
Presently. away on the western hOri-
zon. saw the sea coming back. 1t Oc
Cured to me then that | did not wish
it to come back. A tidal wave is nearly
ALWAYS wet, and | was now good way
from home.
The same was true of Sam, but he did
not appear to think of it in that way.
He stood quite still a moment with his
eyes fixed an the advancing line Of
water: then turned to me, saying very
earnestly:
Tell YOU what. William; l never
wanted a ship so bad from the cradle to
the grave. l would give more for a
ship.-more than for all the railways
| and turnpikes you could scare up. ia
million dollars. | would-Id give all
I'm worth for-iust- ne-little-ship''
To show how rightly he could part
with his wealth. he lifted his shirt out
of his trousers. unbOsoming himself OF
his dOubloons. which tumbled about in
| n golden storm.
By this time the tidal wave was close
upon us. Call that a wave. 1t was one
| solid green wall Of water. higher than
| Niagara Falls, stretching as far as we
| could see to the right and left, without
| break in its towering front. IL was by
no means clear what we ought to do.
| The moving wall showed no projections
| by means OF which the most daring
| climber could hope to reach the top.
| There was no ivy; there were no win
| dow-ledges. Stay. there was the light
| ming rod. No, there wasn't any light
| ming rod! OF course not.
| Looking despairingly npward, made
a tolerably good beginning at thinking
| of all the mean actions ! had wrought
| in the flesh, when | saw projecting be-
yond the crest of the, wave a ships bow
| spirit, with a man sitting upon IT, read
ing Il newspaper! Thank fortune, we
| were saved. .u..t
Falling upon our knees with fearful
| gratitude, we got up again and ran-ran
| DIS luSU tS VIC tOuIus
the whole fore-part of the ship bulged
through the water directly above our
heads, and might lose its balance any
moment. II we had only brought along
our umbrellas ..
shouted to the man on the bowsprit
| to drop us n line. He merely replied
that his correspondence was already
| very onerous, aud he hadn't any pen
and ink. Then | told him l wanted to
get aboard. He said l would hnd one
on the be tch, about three leagues 10 the
south ard, where the Nancy tucker
went ashore. At these replles ! M wa'
disheartened. 1t was not so much thai
the man withheld assistance, as that ne
made puns. Remember we were run
ming like the very devil all this tune
Presently, however, he. folded M M
newspaper put it carefully away II
his, pocket, went and got a l,nr er,
and let it down to us just as we wer'
| about to give up the race. Sam ma0ea