The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-07-31
looking up. sHe sold the fish he got
yesterday, guess


tie time their meager supper was over,
and darkness was thick without. 1t
was singularly warm and still even for
the mild California coast, and after
| putting the children to sleep the mother
went out and listened. Paul was lean
ing upon the ruined wall with his face
turned seaward, and nothing stirred
the silence save a faint whispering of
| waters out in the darkness. The at
mosphere seemed utterly becalmed.
But suddenly as they listened there
came a little puff of wind like some
thing invisible fleeing before the storm,
then sort of seething rose far over
/ head, as if the clouds were turning in
helpless fear about the ceiling of the
sky, and the sea began to chop and
purr like an unseen animal whetting it's
teeth in the darkness. In moment
the few remaining stars were ingulfed,
and in another moment there came
shivering crash, and the whole scene
leaped into view.
| My God!' cried the woman, starting
forward, and Paul, with a faintness
rushing over him with thought of the
wish he had made in his heart, knew
that she was praying for his father, out
in his double darkness of his evil weak
ness and the gathering terrors of the
night.
| Together they hurried in and made
the doors and windows fast against the
coming storm. In moment it broke,
and roared and lashed across the cliff
| for hours, while the mother, with white
face, went to and fro, soothing the
children, and turning now and then as
if she would go out into the storm and
| find the one she feared might never
come again. Paurs eyes followed her
troubled face, with a look of pleading
terror. Suddenly he seized the latch.
"Mother, I'm going to the shore!'' he
"No, child, no!'' she cried.
'sOh, mother, must! must! Father
may come" and he sprang out into the
| tempest.
At first he was thrown from side to
side and dashed against the house by
the wind, but presently got his feet and
went reeling through the falling tor
rents down the hillside, and came upon
the beach.
The sea seemed alive with leaping
ridges as the lightning fell upon them,
and all along the base of the head it
burst at times into lurid fire. The boy
drew back before it, but his father was
out there--out there where all things
rolled together in convulsion, and he
chung in the teeth of the tempest,
straining ear and eye upon the sea.
Suddenly ship burst into the glare.
1t seemed coming straight upon the
shore, and the boy shouted. with fear,
but it veered and passed away into the
darkness. But what was that leaping
along the pillows? There it shone in
the glare; now all was swallowed up
in night; there it came again-a boat
and he ran into the very arms of the
billows to meet it as long wave hurled
it high upon the beach. With a leap he
was beside it, and when the lightning
came again he saw it was his fathers
boat, but-empty! A shock of horror
passed throughehlm; his wish had come
true. The lightning fell about him, the
ocean turned to froth, and the pillows,
bursting against the head, leaped up
the shattered pillars in blush, snowy
sheets. But he gave no heed. Sudden
ly he seemed to hear voices calling
Now they seemed in the roaring wood
across the bay; now far out to sea; then
high up in heaven. 1t must be his
fancy, he thought, or the winds wailing
in the holes and hollows of the cliff
He passed around toward the front of
the head and listened, but the blast
roared in his ears, and thesnoise of the
inrolling flood was so great he could not
hear distinctly.
How unspeakably fearful it was; his
father out there in the wallowing
waters A picture of the man more
vivid than life came into the boys ex-
cited mind his tall stature, STOPPING
shoulders, ragged clothes, and laugh
ing, vagabond air; his native good
humor, save when liquor made him
harsh; his love for children, and dogs,
and hunting, and how, when he did not
drink, he was the best axman and the
strongest man in all the region. All,
how darkly it all had ended.
But presently, while he was thinking,
the wind lulled, and voice leaped out
from the very lips of the head in long,
quivering cry for help. His blood
bounded and stood still; then the cry
came again, rising above the clashing
elements like peal of anguish. All, it
was his fathers voice; and his blood
leaped forward again with a great
thrill, and forgetful of his lameness he
ran in close to the bursting rollers and
began to climb the face of the head. 1t
seemed an attempt fit for something
mad, for all below him lay a boiling
abyss, lashing and laundering and leap
ing after him; but he had no time for
fear; was not his father calling for sue
cor somewhere out there in that abyss
of noise and commotion?
He knew every hole and shelf in the
face of the preciplce, and soon by the
aid of the lightning flashes he was on
ledge leading toward the voice. 1t
was a frightful place. Once he slipped
and hung over the edge of the shelf,
very close to death. A thick sweat
broke out upon him, and his heart
Jared his side with every stroke. After
that he crept forward more carefully,
waiting for the lightning flashes and
feeling his way with trembling hands. |
Thoughts and images We're flying
through his brain; the children sleep
ing in the hut, his mother STOPPING at
the fireplace trying to lzindle a fire, the
stove in the shed filling with water
from the storm, and the millmen's
shirts to be dried and ironed on the |
morrow. Suddenly the clouds broke |