Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-25

launched the dingey. 1t was heavy,
slow, and luckily staunch and seaworthy
boat. 1t was not till she was well off shore
that she began to feel the full fury of the
wind and waves and knew the difficulty
and danger of her undertaking. She had
decided that her shortest and most direct
course was within a few points of the
wind, but the quartering of the waves on
the broad bluff bows of the boat tended to
throw it to leeward, a movement that,
while it retarded her forward progress,
no doubt saved the little craft from swamp
ing. Again the feebleness and short
ness of her stroke, which never impelled
her through rising wave, but rather lifted
her halfway up its face, prevented the boat
from taking much water, while her stead
fast gaze, fixed only on the slowly retreat
ing shore, kept her steering free from any
fatal nervous vacillation which the sight of
the threatening seas on her bow might
have produced. Preserved through her
very weakness, ignorance, and simplicity
of purpose, the dingey had all the security
of drifting boat, yet retained a certain
gentle but persistent guidance. In this
feminine fashion she made enough head
way TO carry her abreast of the point,
where she met the refiux current sweeping
round it that carried her well along into
the channel, now sluggish with the turn of
the tide. After half au hours pulling, she
was delighted to find herself again in il
reverse current. abreast of her cottage, hut
steadily increasing her distance from it.
She was, in fact on the extreme outer edge
of a vast whirlpool formed by the force of
the galeon curving lee shore, and was
being carried to her destination in a
semicircle around that bay which she
never could have crossed. She was moving
now in line with the shore and the fort,
whose flagstaff, above its green, square
and white quarters, she could
see distinctly, and whose lower water
battery and landing seemed to stretch out
from the rocks scarcely mile ahead. Pro
tected by the shore from the fury of the
wind, and even of the sea, her progress was
also steadily accelerated by the velocity of
the current, mingling with the ebbing tide
A sudden fear seized her. She turned the
boats head toward the shore, but it was
swept quickly round again; she redoubled
her exertions, Juggling frantically at her
helpless oars. She only succeeded in get
ting the boat into the trough of the sea,
where, after lurch that threatened to cap
size it, it providentially swung around OF
its short keel and began to drift stern on
She was almost abreast of the battery now.
She could hear the fitful notes of a bugle
that seemed blown and scattered above her
head; she even thought she could see some
men in blue uniforms moving along the lit ]
tie pier. She was passing it. another fruit
less effort to regain her ground, butsshe
was swept along steadily toward theGate,
the whitening bar and the open ocsan.
She knew now what it all meahe This
was what she had come for; this was the
end Beyond, only q little Beyond, Just
few moments longer to waiE andsEeH out
there among the breakers rs ne rest that
she had longed for, but Afd not d4re3ss6
seek. 1t was not her fausk they Qddla naa |
blame her. He would conn back 1d never
know what had happened eor sen .lFsowi
Aud he would find his heuseh possession |
Of-of-those devilsl NJ mol she must |
not die yet, at least noE until she had |
warned the fort. She seized the oars |
again with frenzied strength; the boat had |
stopped under the unwonted strain; stag |
gered. tried 10 rise in an uplifted sea, took |
part of it over her bow, struck down Mrs. |
Bunker under half a ton of blue water that
wrested the oars from her paralyzed hands /
ike playthings, swept them over the gun