Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-15
AT LOW E' s
COMMA D
CHAPTER VII
CHATTER VII ALONE, ALONE, ALL, ALL ALONE; ALONE O A WIDE, WIDE SEA-

 CHAPTER VII.
 "ALoNE, ALONE, ALL, ALL ALONE; ALONE oa 4 WIDE, WIDE SEA-"
 By the glare of streaming fires I could watch the boats driving deliriously before the wind, which still blew with hurricane force. To any eye but that sharpened by the terror of despair the flying, leaping specks would not have been distinguiShR- ble from momentary rifts in the careering pillows, for in that terrific scene nothing was distinct, nothing individual. There was no ocean and no sky, but high and low a whirling chaos of foam and spray, with glC~E.S of Ehastly green in the breaking mountains and of hellish lividness in the swirling chasms and shattering crests. The din was as the crack of doom. Sea and thunder crashed together as if the uni verse were splitting and rending, the wicked treble of the tempest breaking in at times like the spiteful screams of congregated demons exulting in the work of destruc- tiOn. The waves, in certain aspects blood red and dripping a crimson froth, reared and curled like monstrous snakes as they rushed, trampling, upon the helpless and staggering brig They seemed alive and mad with a passion to destroy. Leaping | upon their victim like the furies broken loose, they would pound her as with steam hammers, then catch her and throw her aloft as if tC see her go to pieces in the | fall; then, disappointed at her toughness, hurl her headlong into boiling gulf, and as she flOundered heavily fling themselves afresh upon her in frenzied effort to put her forever out of sight.
 Then there would be q swift recoil and a momentary pause, but only because the in furiated waters were gathering for fiercer and deadlier attack. Rallying in piled up, seething masses, on they would come agaIh in wreathed and yeasty avalanches burying her deep and crushing and tearing her tim bers till she groaned and cried like a thing in the last agony. How she lived was a marvel. A right good sailor she must have been in spite of her ugly looks and evil name, a tighter sailer than many craft with prouder head and better reputa- tion.
 Smothcred and pelted and tossed, only the teuseness of grip which the fear of death gives to nerve and muscle could have held me in my place. As often as had vent 1 shrieked in competition with | the storm-shrieked till my voice failed me and my cry sank to the hoarse, gasping rattle that tore chest and throat as raw as if barbed cylinders revolved inside.
 My situation was the more cruel that utu SlTGuStu SLiOuSn lO leSI anu uOnG to act. Had been myself. I should have been on deck in an instant and headlong into the surging wilderness in pursuit of the deserters. My fate would have been soon decided, for the swimmer did not exist who could thac night have escaped the deyouring maw of the sea. But there would have been an instant's diversion in battling and speedy end to suffering As it was, even the solace of making an effort was denied me, so I stood there with my head crushed into the porthole and the jagged edges of the broken glass like saws in my flesh, battered, buffeted, choked by the pitching ship and the preaching seas, yet frantically straining to hold on and to hail the quickly vanishing boats
 Every fiber in my body shook with mortal weakness and terror. My fingers were getting cramped and palsied; my breath was gone 10 a gasp, yet ever as my strength waned the desire to shout for succor be came the more desperate. Have you ever seen a spent animal panting with open mouth for little aid in its extremity? Even so l panted then with distended but v0iceless lips. l would have given a mil lion worlds, had 1 owned them, for the re- turn of my voice just for an instant to make one last appeal for help that would rise above the voice of the storm. But my weakness doomed me to silence.
 In q sudden darkness the shock of tre- mendOus broadside hurled me back with bellyful of salt water. l scrambled up, sputteriug, to be hit and knocked down again. The second time 1 rose with greater difficulty, and clutching dizzily at the port hole looked over the weltering flame lit waste. There were no boats. Either the sea had swallowed them, or they were hid den in the scudding mist of spray. In ! l.l- sickness seized me, my head got strangely
 light, the din fell to farof murmur, and slipping my feeble hold I sank splashing into the water on the floor A period of unconsciousness must have followed, for remember no more until, half crawling, half swim ming and in utter darkness, somehow got back to my berth.
 Then, with my mind settled in the con- yictiOn of doom that was not to be averted, no words could tell the awful sense of deso- lation that fell upon me.
 I thought it would really have been an act of humanity on the part of my late companions to have thrown me into the sea drawn a sharp blade across my throat. Either would have ended my tortures quick ly, whereas had now to be looking into the face of a death advancing upon me by inches. To be tortured thus is to die many l times. But the brig could not long hos gut, and when she should go down all would be instantly over.
 closed my burning eyes, feeling that no light would ever more fall on them till that l light rose that shall not fade away. Ere the morrow morning should be deeper | than did ever plummet sound," cof1ined in ! the black hulk of the eugulfed brig and no mortal should ever look on my grave nmong the green and slimy things that l strew the Indian ocean There was a pang in the thought that no one could mark the 1 place where l slept. But that pang, too must pass in the great Iull, the lasting | quiet that was at hand.
 lay very still, for there was no longer any motive tO move. The tempest was evi- 1 hCuily much ahated. though the waves ere still lcaping madly against the ships l sides, and sometimes making clean breaches | over her. wondered why she held so long | afloat. But doubtless she was going stead l fly, if slowly down. She would sink gradu- | ally for awhile, then in the crucial moment, when the flood should have gained proper hold, she would descend headlong with a dizzy gurgle and swirl as if sucked by the | lips of the maelstrom. 1 could anticipate the motion and my own sensations in the embrace of death. There would be mo- mentary, involuntary effort to hold back, ! gasping for breath, a brief pain as of one | choking, a sudden giddiness fading swiftly l into unconsciousness. and then absolute lSS$A
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