Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-04-11

IN pItcn, 50 neavy were The lncrustaCions of
tar, grease, paint and other adhesive sub
stances. No sense of absurdity, however,
disturbed his serene self consequence. He
paced the deck with as proud step, as high
and keen look, as if he were an admiral Of
the fleet in faultless uniform and the evil
dence Of hundred victories blazing on his
breast, seldom condescending to any famil-
iarity with those about him, never with
me, huddled in my corner.
We tore along at an incredible rate and
were soon beyond sight of land, though for
q good while the smoke of the burning
brig showed our starting point. Whittier
we were bound could not guess and burst
not ask. I was free to conjecture. if I
pleased, that our course was for some happy
haven not far off, though appearances
rather suggested we were securing the sea
for prey.
By and by we hauled our wind and began
to fetch in a backward direction. But we
had not gone league when we bounded off
on another tack, and for the next hour or
two we tackled and changed so frequently,
running close hauled as if for our lives and
I completely lost my reckoning.
1t was wonderful how that strangely
built ship behaved, how sensitive she was
to the gentlest pressure Of the helm, how
clean, quick and graceful were all her
movements and how she rushed on her
course when she got her head. InSpite of
rather rough seamanship, only once did
she make mistake. Through too hasty
luff she happened to come dead into the
winds eye, and for the space of second
she hung in irons with loose sails. She
seemed to shake herself with vexation, like
a highly spirited horse thrown on its
launches without reason, turned quickly
half round, caught the wind again, and
then, with her yellow wings spread to their
utmost, went skimming along like sea
bird.
It was now well on in the afternoon. The
sun, though scorchingly bot was near orr
level, and the water was deepening in pur-
ple and crimson. was beginning to think
we were to have night at sea, when the
captain gave the order TO put the helm
hard down. We swung round and sped on
q landward course, sailing free and very
swift
1--WE shall make land good hour ere
sundown," said the captain to his chief Of
flcer, giving me the first authentic informa-
tion of the day.
By this time my faculty of curiosity had
lost its edge, but at the mention Of land I
sat up to keep lookout, and in less than
an hour We sighted the shore Its general
character resembled that of the part we
had left earlier in the day, though soon
saw we were not returning to the death
scene Of the luckless Bird Of Paradise. in
stead of shallow beach the water ran close
to high rocks, penetrated by rugged gorres,
into which the sea flowed. No port, town
or human habtation was to be seen. But
that, all things considered, was not surpris-
ing
We shot into narrow opening under the
darkening brows of lofty cliffs, and imme.
diately the sails fell together with flap
Almost before they ceased 1uttering they
were in and furled. Then boat w;ls low
cred, half dozen steel sinewed men got
into it and rowed, pulling the ship by
cable. Light and of small draft, she fol-
lowed easily, and in half an hour or so, aft
er manifold windings, we came to a rude
jctty hewn, as it appeared, out Of the solid
rock. Here we discmbarked, the vessel be-
ing made fast to a rough stone pillar.
AS we leaped from the bulwarks to the
lodges of rock that formed the pier my
heart beat quickly with conjecture and ap-
prehension for it was plain that crisis
was at hand. To guess what it might be
was enough to make the stoutest tremble
The black precipices, the yawning caverns
and hoarse roar of warning waters were OF
evil suggestion, but Of far darker import
than any menace or ugliness Of nature were
the lowering faces of my companions.
These men had shown during the day by a
hundred expressive tokens that they resent
ed my presence among them, and now fan
cied I caught them casting sidelong looks
at one another, then at their weapons, then
at me, as if settling by such glances Of in
telligence the manner of getting rid OF me.
With quaking limbs and the worst fore.
bodings 1 fell into line at the bidding of the
captain, and we struck, single file, into
a craggy path, at its best no broader than
sheep run in the highlands and in places so
narrow as scarcely to afford foothold for
weasel. Looking upward from the bottom
one could not imagine how it scaled the
darkening precipices that frowned upon us
in vast swelllngs and outings with the say
age, solitary pride of the inaccessible. If tue
ascent did not prove utterly impossible, it
was because every man Of us had the feet
of a goat and the sinews and agility of
monkey.
Our ribbon Of path wound in crazy coil
ings and twistings, now rising vertically in
steps higher than our heads, now dropping
treacherously at critical point, ceasing
suddenly and again appearing beyond some
perilous projection that chamois would
hardly have attempted to pass Often we
had to 60 on our hands and knees, scraping
with toes and clutching with finger nails
as we crawled over some slippery mass,
like ants on the polished knob of glacier,
or scrambled up jagged rock, the point of
which cut and rent like sharpened tiints, or
slid down, face inward, twice our own
length to scarcely perceptible crevice,
form ing fresh starting point.
+ was a hunter and knew what it was to
tread dizzy ways. I had followed the fox
to his lair when the hounds had turned
tail and robbed the eagles eylie when the
hardest of my companions stood holding
his breath il awe But the self possession
and free spirit of audacity which prompted
to such hazards and gave them relish were
utterly gone. To speak the truth shiv.
cred like one suddenly taken with an ague.
1t was not the terror of the place alone
that appalled, me. To 60 leaping and
scrambling on hair line along the brink of
O tumbling, Kissing gulf that sent the
spumes of it's wrath high up in clouds, with
no outlook or hope Of escape, was indeed
enough, yet scarcely of itself
sufficient to take the heart out of born
The tremors and shakings,
the alternate srasms Of heat and cold, were
duel trust it Is not cowardly to confess
it-not to the threatenings of cliff and
chasm, but to the hostile weapons that
cleaned in front and rear and might at
any moment be dyed in my blood.
How easy it would be to prod me there
and send me topping mortally wounded
into the abyss, to be ground as between
millstones at the bottom! a sudden stab
in the back, Il push, giddy, headlong fall,
and the deed would be done, and no word
of it need ever get to the outside world
More than once, as my mind dwelt ON this,