Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1891-07-24
FOLLOWING THE SEA.


At the time Of the great earthquake
of '0s,n said Mr.. swiddler-winiam
Swiddler. of Calaveras-I was at africa,
Peru. / have not a map by me, and am
not certain that AFRICA is not in Chilli, but
1T can't make much difference; there was
earthquake all along there.
Sam Baxter was with rs; I think he
had gone from San Francisco to make a
railway or something. On the morning
Of the quake. sam aud 1 had gone down
to the beach 20 baiha We had shed our
boots. and began 60 moult. when there
was q slight trcmor 4 The earth. asif the
elephant who supports it was pushing
upward, or lying down and getting up
. again. Next, tho s1r-eS which were
f~attening themselves upoa the sand and
dragging away such ttifes rs they could
lay hold of, began racing out seaward, rs
il they had received a dispatch that some
body was not expected to live. This was
y needless for we did not expect to live.
when the sen had receded entirely out
of sight we started after it, for, it will
be remembered, we had come to battle,
and bathing without some kind of water
10 not refreshing in a hot climate.
For the first four or 1--WE miles the
walking was very difficult, although the
grade was tolerably steep. The ground
was soft; there were tangled forests of
seaweed, old rotten ships, rusty anchors,
human skeletons and a multitude Of
3 things to impede the pedestrian. The
laundering sharks bit our legs as we
toiled past them, and we were constantly
slipping down upon the fiat fish strewn
about like orange peel on a sidewalk.
4. Sam, too, had stuffed his shirt front with
such a weight of doubloons from the
wreck. of an old galleon that l had to
/ help him across all the worst places. 1t
was very dispiriting.
Presently, away on the western hori-
zon, l saw the sea coming back. Il &C.
CURED to me then that it did not wish it
to come back. A tidal wave is nearly
8 always wet, and / was now a good way
from home, with no means of making a
Gre.
THE same was true of Sam, but he did
, not appear to think Of it in that way.
I He stood quite still a moment with his
eyes fixed on the advancing line Of
water; then turned to me, saying very
e earnestly:
Tell you what, William, / never
wanted a ship so bad from the cradle to
the gravel l would give more for a
ghip-more than for all the railways and
surnpikes you could scare upl I'd give
more than a hundred. thousand, million
dollarsl l would-rd give all I'm worth
for-just-one-ittle-shipl"
ITO show how lightly he could part
with his wealth, he lifted his shirt out
d. Of his trousers unbosoming himself Of
his doubloons, which tumbled about his
feet, a golden storm.
By this time the tidal wave was close
upon us. Call that p wave! 1t was one
cold green wall Of water, higher than
Niagara Falls, stretching "a far as we
could sec to right and left, without a
break in its towering 'front.' It 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 window
& Lodges. Slaughtered was the lightning
rodl No, there wasn't any lightning
rod. OF course not!
Looking dcspairingly upward, l made
a tolerably good beginning at thinking OF
all the mean actions / had wrought in
the flesh, when I saw projecting beyond
the crest Of the wave a ships bowsprit,
with a man sitting on it reading a news
paperl Thank fortune, we were savedl
Falling upon our knees with fearful
gratitude, we got up again and ran-ran
So fast rs we could, / suspect; for now
the whole forepart of the ship budlged
through the water just above our helds,
and might lose its balance any moment.
If we had only brought along our nm
brellasl
l shouted to the mai on the bowsprit
to drop rs a line. He merely replied
that his correspondence was already
very onerous, and he hadn't any pen and
ink.
Then / told him / wanted to get
aboard. He eGid / would find one on
the beach, about three leagues to the
southland, where theHalcy Tucker went
ashore.
At these replies / was ~disheartened.
II was not so much that the man with
held assistance as that he made puns.
Presently, however, he folded his news
paper, put it carefully ava Ia his peck.
ct, went and got a line and let It down
TO us just as we were about TO give up
the race. Sam made a lunge at it and
gotit.
1 laid hold Of his legs, the end of the
rope was passed about the capstan, and
as soon as the men on board had had a
little grog we were hanled up, I can as.
sure you that IL was no fine experience
togo mp ia that way, close to the Gmooth,
vertical front Of water, with thewhales
tnDblipg ont all round and abnyc as
A~Ad1hesword fishes nosing NJ poiptedly
with vulgar curiosity.
We had no GoOner set foot on deck,
and got Sam ~disengaged from the hook