The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1890-09-19
CAPTAIN BRAND
THE PIRATE SCHOONER.
ATALEoFTHEsEA.
PART I.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE HURRICANE,

Past q September noon. The great can
opy Of dark, murky clouds fell lower aud
lower, until they nearly touched the earth,
Wrapping as in a blanket the single COCOA
nut tree on tho crag. and shutting out the
light aud air Of heaven as they settled over
the noxious lagoon, the mangrove thickets,
and pure inlet. The sea birds came scream
ing in from seward, autterng their wide
spread wings in the sultry atmosphere aud
alighting on the smooth rocks, where they
furled their pinions and put their he,ds to-
gether. The flying fish no longer skinned
over the waves, and the dolphin aud shark
sank deep down in the blue water, or lay
still aud quiet beside the coral groves.
The rolling, swelling ocean of the tropic,
with its CLASSY. greasy surface unruffied by
the faintest air. rolled heavily OH until it
struck the coral ledge, when, with dull,
heavy roar, it broke over in creamy foam
and came s!uggishly in to tho sandy beach.
There the tiny waves lashet the shelly
strand, and all was still again. No sun, no
air; and even the birds. and serpen,s. and
insects gasped for breath. The fish below
the sea, the animated nature above, and the
very leaves and vines of the forests and
thickets knew what was brewing in the
great vacuum around.
Slowly and painfully the man in the
chapel regained his feet, and with the child
by the hand, moved on to the farthest cor
ner by the rude altar, where he sank
down again, and clasping the boy to his
heart, waited in breathless awe, As il the
powder and flames had not done their de-
stzactive work, the wrath of Heaven was
to be poured out over the devoted dens of
the pirates.
Then came believing roar as a current
OF wind swept over the sea, cutting q path
way in the blue water and scooping it up in
an impalpable mist, hurrying on to the low
beach of the island. and tearing the sand
and shells up in heaps-and then lull.
Now, as if all the demons of winds had let
loose their cavernous lungs from the four
quarters of the earth, aud, like the shocks
OF artillery, volley upon volley, came the
hurricane. The sea became ono boiling,
Missing, surface of foam, pressed as fiat MS
marble 10y the weight of the tempest which
laid the blnck rocks bnre on the ledge, and
drove the water into both mouths Of the
inlet. until, with a crushing shock, it met in
the basin, and broke over and over the cove,
and high up the wall of rocks on the other
side. Two or three streams of whirlwind
meeting. too, over the island drove the Ia
COON hither and thither, catching up the
white pondlilies by their long stems, twist
ing Oft the dense groves of mangroves by
the roots, burrowing holes in the sandy beds
of the cactuses. and steering off their flint.
thorny leaves and needle points by the acre
together; then rushing whirl around the
cocoon nuts, bowling their tufted tops at first
till they nearly touched the earth, when. the
stout trunks swapping like glass. they would
go pitching md tossing from base TO crown,
carecring and dancing nloft-borne away
with sand and inangrove. cactus, flowers,
and sticks. into the flying clouds before the
hurricane. Then another lull: aud from the
opposite direction again Numbered the ter
thousands of sea- birds, with broken pin
ions, screaming amidst the gale, hurting
them against the crag, stripping the feath-
ers from their crushed carcases, and in q
moment burying them foot deep in clouds
Of sand. No more ,auses or lulls now in
the hnrtling tempest; but with Il steady,
tremendous, believing roar, which made
the earth tremble, the rocks quake, and
laid every vestigc Of vegetation flat to the
ground, it came on mightier and mightier,
and fiercer and fierccr, with black masses
Of never-ending clouds sweeping close
down like dark midnight, rs if heaven aud
earth had come together. All through the
gloomy day and through the night this cle-
mental war, with its lcgions Of careering
demons, continued to lash the sen and smite
the land; and then rs if satiated with ven-
geance, the clouds bclched forth in red
lightning, vomiting out peal upon peal Of
awful thunder as n parting salute, and then
moderating down to u hard gale from an
other quarter. broke away. The blue sky
appeared. and the glorious sun once more
came up in his majesty over the distant
hills of Cubn.