Mexico weekly ledger., 1889-09-12
CHAPTER xxx.

NO ALL A DREAM.
Fairfax had been dreaming. He stood
on o barren, rocky islet in mid-ocean. All
about him was a wild, wide waste of de-
serted, sunlit waters-not a sail, not a cloud,
not o bird, nor fish, nor any living thing in
sightl Only the endless, ~boundless, evsr-
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 n space had no beginning
nor end. Past and future there was non
only one eternal nor.
Like the ancient mariner, he was ''alone
on o wide, wide sea- but with no other
facts, no other data, no other knowledge at
any thing save of himself, Arthur Fairfax,
q this blistering, barren rock and that
vast, silent, glaring 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 neverending, unehanging day.
Time was not.
1t might have been a day, it might have
been o month, q 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-crawlipg
line Of smoke, which came near and nearer,
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
tsmoke, he detected the outlines of a vessel.
Straight toward the rocky islet, straight
towards himself it came, with unerring, IN
swerving course.
Now he saw and recognized il.
II was the "Namovna,' enveloped in a rag
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 appeaiingly toward him.
Nearer and swifter, yet, swept on that
frightfuI, rolling pillar of fire, the sea boil
f9g and seething in its track and vast
clouds Of white steam arising and inter-
minGling with its million blazing tongues
and smoke Of fnky blackness.
With an almost incredible s~uddenness it
stopped its headlong speed a short distance
from the rock, and at once began quickly to
sink.
slump, ;, shrleked Fairfax, in terror. And
back over the thunderous roar rang the
Piercing cry:
"Save mel Save melO, Arthur, save meis
His soul on fire, his strength nerved
70 utter desperation, he leaped far out from
the cfags over the sea, and struck-not
the water. but solid EARTH
In an instant he had awakened from sleep
apd 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,
Ike one alert from fear. Every nerve
ttrgied with horror. And his ear could
have caught this faintest possible whisper.
What was III What did it meant The
cold sweat stood out in great beads over
h{s forehead, and it seemed to him he could
yet hear that piercing cry for help ringing
,far along the shore and in the woods.
II ever q mar was thoroughly awake, he
now was.
BE ran to the water and CHANGING up and
gown heard or saw nothing, save the sui
Inu waves knocking angriIy against the
fockS. and the shining pillows, glistening in
Iye moonlight, From the forest came no
f6ppa, but the far-away, sea-like murmur of
0Aftnes.
N8thingi nothing! nothing, at all! Only
afQ1y dreami Ard. yet, hat call that CRY
tnt helpl 1t WIS reali Il was no delusion
g ateeps for it rang, still, in his ears with
incl
n t~error-yet he could not have said why
-he stood. listening with pated breath.
Histi harki What was that, borne by on
tbe passing breezel II there was ever wall
g woman for help that was one. Clear and
ADhi II sounded
7 Eass mai drfasri O 70 die tlasfs
INA and Eiad with biindest rage and fear,