Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
CHAPTER XIV,
DOWN TO THE BURIED RIVER.


Farla listened; the last faint football Of
her father had died away. There was no
sound of any life; no sound save the sharp
cry Of the little brown wolf, calling his
shaggy companions down from the crags Of
Mount Diablo to the smell of blood.
She looked at the pale, thin face that lay
there on the soft, white gunwsle of the boat
in the full and flowing Indian we'll. 1t is
hard saying which were the whittier, the
white face of the stricken man or the soft,
white and shaggy skin on which it rested as
it lay there reaching up out of the boat.
Soon the tide began to recede. The boat
began to settle down in its bed of lilies. Ii
began to sink slowly, surely out of sight.
She leaned over, reached far down and cast
lose the anchor that had always chained the
boat to the confines of the we'll.
And whittier now with its precious freight?
Where would the little bullhide boat drift
and drive 10 now, with its speechless cap
tain, its single, silent passenger? She did
not know. She did not even
going away; going away from her forever;
and going away alone, helpless, dying!
She clasped her hands in her despair and
pity. She leaned over and locked down at
the dim and fast fading white object below.
Oh how she repented that she had in that
moment of sudden impulse cast loose the
anchorage. Now he could never never
come back to her any more. The boat would
be borne far away under the earth; to where?
. She did not even dream where.
She sprang to her feet, pressed her two
hands an instant to her throbbing heart, and
then, like panther, she gprang through the
ali 20 he o,,I
walls of the well, descended with swijtness
and precision that startled and astonished
even herself
She overlook the descending boat as it
bumped and thumped with hollow thuds
against the iutting crags. and setting foot in
the prov, settled down to the shoulders in
the softest of skin cushions. She adjusted
the rudder, laying the rope ready to hand,
and then rested. And as she rested her eyes
fell upon the helpless and pitiful face before
her. There was danger from the rocks. She
put out her long, strong arms and drew the
unconscious form softly to herself. She felt
that his heart still beat. 1t beat very faint
ly; but it was not so far from her own now.
She reached her right hand over the side
of the boat bathed the white face in the
cool, deep water, and wiped itwith her hair.
Then she drew the wster-tight sealskin and
sea lion skins close up about their shoulders
down there in the deeps of the earth, and
rested. She really rested it seemed for the
first time in her hard, desperate life. How
little indeed had life been to her! How
little had she had of life, of love, if this,
with death so close at hand, was so delicious
to heri Bumpl and thumpi The light was
bright enough; the boat was strong and Sc
cure. But oh! how long and continual this
perpendicular voyage! Where and when
the bottom? the end?
But even as she mentally spoke thus there
was gasp, great strong breath, as If the
boat had caught in its breast for desperate
dash forward; and then, onl onI oni She
felt that the world was behind her now.
She caught the cord of the helm firmly in
hand, and then proceeded to tighten the
skins close about herself and her helpless
charge. This drew them closer still to-
gether. Her strong and healthful body
warmed his helpless form. Her sweet breath
was in his face. Why should the man die
now? 1t was surely not the time TO die now.
Suddenly there was a check in the forward
flight OF the boat. The waters doomed to-
gether and recoiled back. The boat whirled
about and for a moment was beyond con-
troll. Then she gave the keel up to the eddy,
and they spun about in a circle under the
lofty arches of an immense cavern. But
this cavern was filling, fast filling up with
the booming, eddying, infowing waters of
the ocean. She cofld not see now, as they
whirled about, the Liace by which they had
entered. In little kIne all would be over.
True, the water-tigN covering could be
closed; but they could Ngot live long thus.
he would surely die; ancl then she would
not care to live.
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