Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-06-28
CHAPTER X.
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.

let her Sleep" Felix said in whisper.
'Poor child it would be cruel to send
her alone tonight into her own quar-
| ters"
And Mali slipped a pillow of null
| berry paper under her mistress head,
and laid it on her own lap, and bent
down to watch her.
But outside, beyond the line, the
natives murmured loud their discon-
tent. "The Queen of the Clouds stays
| in the King of the Rams hut to-
night, they muttered, angrily. ''She
Will not listen to US. Before morning,
be sure, the Tempest will be born of
their meeting to destroy u.s."
About o'clock there came 1ull in
the wind, which had been rising stead
| lily ever since that lurid sunset. Felix
looked out of the hut door The moon
| was full. It was almost as clear as day
with the bright tropical moonlight,
( sllvery in the open, pale green in the
shadow. The people were still squat
| outside the taboo line, and beating
gongs and sticks and human bones, to
| keep time to the Tilt of their lugu-
brious litany.
The air felt unusually heavy and OPP
presslve. Felix raised his eyes to the
sky, and saw wisps of light cloud drift
moon. Below, an ominous fog bank
gathered steadily westward. Then
one clap of thunder rent the sky. AZ
moon was veiled All was dark as
pitch. The natives themselves fell on
=. their faces and prayed with mute lips.
Three minutes later the cyclone had
burst upon them in all it's frenzy.
Such a hurricane Felix had never
before experienced.
It's energy was awful. Round the
palmtrees the wind played a frantic
and capricious DEVILS dance. 1t
pirouetted about the aUoll in the mad
glee OF Inconsistencies. Here and
there it cleared lanes, hundreds Of
yards in length, among the forest trees
and the cocOanut plantations. The
noise of swapping and falling trunks
rang thick on the air. At times the
cyclone would swoop down from above
upon the swaying stem of some tall and
stately palm that bent like grass be-
fore the wind, break 1t Off with roar
at the bottom, and lay it low at once
upon the ground, with a crash like
thunder. In other places. little play
full whirlwinds seemed to descend from
the sky in the very midst Of the dense
brushwood, where they cleared cir
cular patches, strewn thick under foot
with trunks and branches in their til
tanic sport, and yet left unhurt all
about the surrounding forest. Then
again special cyclone of gigantic
proportions would advance. as it were,
in single column against one stem of
q oil h r1 c,,ir, 10
lightning flash, and, DESERVING it for
another, leave it still standing, but
turned and twisted like screw by the
irresistible force of it's invisible fingers.
The storm-god, said Toxic, was dancing
with the palm-trees. The sight was
awful Such destructive energy Felix
had never even imagined before. No
wonder the sayages all round beheld
in it the personal wrath of some
mighty spirit.
For in spite of the black clouds they
could see it all-both the Europeans
and the islanders. The intense dark
ness of the night was lighted up for
them every minute by an almost in
cessant blaze of sheet and forked light
ming. The roar of the thunder min
gled with the roar Ofthe tempest, each
in turn overlapping and drowning the
other. The hut where Felix and Mu-
riel sheltered themselves shook before
the storm: the very ground of the
island trembled and quivered-like the
timbers of a great ship before a
mighty sea-at each onset of the break
ers upon the surrounding fringe-reef
And side by side with it all, to crown
their misery, wild torrents of rain, de-
scending in water-spouts, as it seemed,
or dashed in great sheets against the
roof of their frail tenement, poured
tittully on with fierce tropical energy.
In the midst of the hut Muriel
crouched and prayed with bloodless
lips to Heaven. This was too, too ter
riple. 1t seemed incredible to her
that on top of all they had been called
upon to suffer Of fear and suspense at
the hands of the savages, the very
dumb forces of nature themselves
should thus be stirred up to open war
! against them. Her faith in Provi-
dence was sorely tried. Dumb forces,
indeed. Why, they roared with more
terrible voices than any wild beast on
earth could possibly compass. The
thunder and the wind were bowling
each other down in emulous din, and
the very hiss of the lightning could be
distinctly heard, like some huge snake,
at times above the creaking and snap
ping of the trees before the gale in
the surrounding forest.
Muriel crouched there long, in the
mute misery of utter despair At her
feet Mali crouched, too, as frightened
as herself. out muttering aloud from
time to time, in a reproachful voice:
II tell Missy Queenie what going to
happen. I warn her not. | tell her
she must not eat that very bad storm
apple. But Missy Queenie no listen.
Her take her own way. then storm
come down upon u.s.
And Felix's Shadow. in his own
tongue. exclaimed more than once in
the self-same tone, half terror, half
expostulation: See now what comes
from breaking taboo9 You eat the
storm-fruit. The storm-fruit suits i'll
with the King of the Rain and the
Queen OF the Clouds. The heavens
have broken loose. The sea has boiled.
See what wind and what flood you are
bringing upon u.s."