Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-06-30

the little tokens of love and friendship
which decorated the tiny apartment to
which she had come with SO many happy
antcipations of future joy, and the sight
of those tokens of love added another shade
of horror to the fate which menaced her.
Again and again she dashed at the door,
striving with all her strength to force it
open, but in vain. The tender hands were
cut and torn, the nails broken and bleed
ing and still the door remained fast; NOT
ON inch could she move it, The cabin was
in the stern of the vessel, and the only
windows were round portfolios, which were
screwed fast and could be opened at the
best of times only by an effort of strength
of which she was incapable.
But desperation nerved her to renewed
efforts, and she strove with all her might
to turn the iron handle which locked the
covers, but in vain. 1t seemed to her that
hours had passed since she closed that door
behind her. The vessel was now rolling
each moment more heavily; the water had
risen so high in the hold that the deck was
but q little above the surface; only few
moments more remained, and she would
be carried down, down into the depths,
drowned in the little room in which she
had passed SO many happy hours. She
gave up the struggle. Death was coming
fast. Nothing she could do would retard
his march by even one moment. For long
hours, 1t seemed to her, she sat while the
roll of the vessel became more and more
sluggish, the water rose higher and higher
across the windows. 1t began to trickle in
through the closed port. She wondered
stupidity whether 1t would reach the cabin
in such sufficient quantity to drown her
at once or whether she would live for hours
while the water came in slowly but surely
through the close shut door and the locked
portfolio.
Then the present faded away, and she
was again the merry schoolgirl playing
about with the boy who had even at that
carly day been more to her than any other
of her playmates. Little they thought in
those early days of this terrible thing
which had come upon her. Then she re ,
membered the happy days when she knew
of his love, knew that sooner or later she
and he might be together at sea far away
from the rest of the world, but not once
had they thought of being parted at the
hour of DEATH DEATH Could it be that
death stood, cold and dread, by her side;
he her lover, her husband, was in safety
without? Again she sprang up and strove
with all her puny might to tear open the
cruel door, but it moved not. She threw
herself face downward upon the floor and
in dumb despair waited for the end. She
thought that night must be at hand, for
surely it had been many hours since she
had entered the little cabin. Suddenly she
heard strange sound above the rush and
rustic of the entering water. Was the end
at hand? That crash on deck must be the
fall of a mast or the sound of disastrous
accident which would end all In q short
moment more.
But life and strength came back to her
with a rush, for above the rattle and crash
she heard her husbands voice calling her
name in accents of terror. Shrek after
shrek broke from her stiffened lips, and
then came rush of feet to the door. Blow
after blow fell upon its strong surface and
as it fell in she was caught in her hus-
bands arms and borne fainting to the
deck, where she found several of the crew.
Quickly she was lowered into the boat
waiting by the side of the ship, and strong
arms pulled frantically at the oars to force
the boat beyond the reach Of the suction
which must come with irresistible power
when the ship, now trembling for its last
plunge, should be drawn down into the
blue depths.
Before the boat had crossed half the
short distance between the laundering ship
and the waiting steamer there came a low
cry from the sailors, and looking back she
saw the craft which had been her home
sink slowly down, down beneath the waves.
That was the last she knew for days.
When reason returned, she found that she
had been taken to q hotel and had been ly-
ing in a stupor for days. 1t was more than
week since the wreck Of the Fox. When
able to talk and to listen, she learned that
when she left the side Of tho mate he had
supposed she had decided to wait for the
captain and had therefore left the ship
with his boat. The captain supposed that
she was safe in the first boat and had not
learned his mistake until both men had
stood upon the deck of the steamer.
Then rush had been made for the sink
ing ship, and she had been rescued just in
timo. Five minutes more, and not only
she, but those who had hurried to her aid,
would have been carried down with the
doomed ship. At longest she had been
alone no more than half an hour and prob
ably not that length Of time. She could
scarcely believe 1t when she remembered
the weary hours she thought she had passed
alone there, but at last they convinced her
Of the truth.
When she left her cabin on that fateful
morning her hair was dark glossy brown.
When she rose from her bed week later,
1t was thickly streaked with white, and in
little more than q month she wore
crown of snow. 1t did not change in
night, but fright surely did change its
hue. Ono month had changed her thick
hair from dark to snow white. For time
she was annoyed by the curiosity she ex-
cited, but in time she became used to the
starcs Of surprise and now hardly notices
the interest she attracts. She has got over
the nervous effects Of her terrible expert
ence but has never lost the sign which the
awful fright set upon her to mark her out
from the rest of the world. -Montreal Star.
Is Life Worth Living?
Those people who say that life is not
worth living find it SD because they do
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