The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-12-24

mas, so far as weather was concerned.
was like ours on the Fourth Of July. The
three keepers left at tho lighthouse. cast
about for some means to celebrate the
day. Finally, they determined to hav.
go at the great marray. One OF th"m.
Mark Handy, equipped himself with their
only harpoon, and. with rope around his
waist, which the other two keepers
tended, he was lowered down along the
center pile. over the hole, which was the
usual lair OF this sea monster. As he
stood waist deep In the water on
the shoe OF the pile. he tried to
get a footing on neighboring boulder.
His foot bore outward against 1t and lie
pressed heavily on it as he threw the iron
into the marray. The monster sprang
forward as he felt the blow. The keeper
tried to hold the line attached to it. but
the stone TIPPED. tottered and, rolling
over, fell into the hole, carrying away the
harpoon and leaving the keeper hanging
to the rope, unable to get a footing on the
slippery shore, and he was finally hauled
up by his fellows. They never saw the
stone, the harpoon. or the marray again,
AMI never again did they hear that nerve
shaking knock. Christmas had brought
an abatement Of that gruesome noise.
That which he stepped on IVES tipping
! or rocking stone. 1t was 50 balanced that
+ shoe more Or less heavily, but always
struck, and the shoe, having rusted on to
the iron pile, had become a part OF il, ami
! SO it carried the sound to the pie, when
1t was heard all along Its length. The
! hurricane o. last Christmas that wr"che
! the Ballentyne had evidently hurled tho
/ boulder up there. The keeper had upset
| 1t on this Christmas. So ended the mys-
! terry.
| Il,,t ho1 tote TT
more blood curdling effect. For a time,
whenever a keeper was alone on tao
| gallery which runs around the lantern
more than hundred feet above the
water, he would be seen to dodg'
or suddenly to throw up his arm, as
II to shield his head. When questioned,
he would admit that he had sudden
| heard a rushing sound like the swaviNg
OF sail. Another described the sound as
like that OF the near wing-fap OF n heavy
| bird. All agreed that 1t was SO close at
| hand and SO real, that he had to do som"-
thing to save his head. Finally it 80
| worked on their nerves that no keeper
could be induced to go alone out on tie
gallery to clean the great storm panes "f
glass. There was safety In numbers, for
no one heart the sound except when alone.
On that same clear Christmas day tn. V
saw, at some little distance, an object that
seemed to be large box floating along
the outer edge OF the reef They iowere
their boat and two OF them pulled out 10
it. The sound went with them 80 reaisti-
cally that the keeper who watched them
from the lighthouse said that each m IN
seemed to pull with one hand and fight
mosquitoes wit the otner The box turned
out to be, a eabooss SO broken that it ap-
peared to have been swept from
was SO vigorous and SO angry over
the caboose tlat they were frightene
away, and pulled for the lighthouse. The
sound stayed with the wreckage aur
dwindled into nothing as they increase
their distance. 1t never troubled them
again. The captain had no theory about
the matter, nor have l. tell the tale as
he told it to me. But agreed with him
that this too might be regarded as d
Christmas gift and in considering that as
an eventsul c .ristmas day.
AS before stated, while he was
there his young wife died, and he
could not go ashore even to hpl
funeral. The knocks, the rushing sound
aad the dread Of the coming affected
even his iron nerves. Finally he go
grouty toward his assistants and they al
felt ugly and wouldn't speak except in tn.
way OF duty. So he gave up the post ant
went back to sailoring. And now fol
years he had been master Of the littl,
! lighthouse steamer which looked af;e
all these lighthouses and visite,
them from time to time. But t
, lighthouse life had taken more Gu
i of him than any other work III
,, ever did. He looks back at it with
kind of terror and never visits that par
ticular lighthouse, even now, to suppl!
or inspect it, without feeling the old nor
, ror come back and hang over him 70
, while. He declared he would starv'
! ashore before he would go back t
keep it again, for he felt that II he did
he should go mad. It was evident tn
his "reminiscences had made him cross
t Anyhow, they had made me sleepy an
+. went to my state ROOM thus ending Ii,
g Christmas day on the reefs.