People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-11-15


pen-knife, and drank
The draught was a wonderful re-
freshment and seemed to help nv
mind back to its old mornings. I
sat me down under the very same
tree in whose shadow Jenny had
kept watch and fell to thinking.
The morning crept away. The
sun rose higher and higher until he
shone overhead in the north, and his
wake foated in a dazzling stream
from the edge OF the sea to the
small curls Of foam which ran up
and down the coral beach in a soft,
seething sound. Hour after hour |
had sat contemplating the ocean
with a glazed and hopeless gaze, and
a heart fast sickening and sinking
under lis burden Of horror, and grief,
and misery. Suddenly, my eye wan.
dering mechanically a little tay
from the eastern side of the river of
glory flowing under the sun, caught
sight OF speck, tiny black dot
upon the water. 1t vanished. l
rubbed my eyelids to view it again.
and once more perceived it Again
1t disappeared; but now | nde-stood
that whatever it might be its CON-
Ing and going was owing to the lift
and fall of the swell. | watched it
with strained eyes. with a prefer
natural intentness as will be sup
posed of one in my situation. 1t
might be ships boat; it might be a
big balk Of timber whose green. weed.
ladened sides showed black against
the hinder effulgence. | kept my
gaze rooted upon it until its very
slow but certain enlargement salts
fed me that il was boat and that
1t was approaching the island.
leaned, with my back against
Jenny's cOcoanut tree, watching it.
Then, later on, | could family catch
the sparkle OF the blades OF a couple
OF oars rising and falling. At first I
had viewed it without hope or ex-
pectation. | was sensible of no emo
tion raised in me by sight OF it. It
might be a canoe, for all | knew,
with inmates to bevigilantly stunned;
but when saw that it was indeed a
ships boat impelled by pair of oars,
though could not yet distinguish
The rover, a consuming passion of
anxiety took possession of me, a wild
emotion of JOY that trembled too
with the dread of disappointment.
At times | held my breath. The boat
slowly approached, the movement of
the oars growing more and more Ian.
guild, it struck me. Now | could per-
celve that the little fabric was urged
by single person; within another
ten minutes | could make out the
form OF Jenny, slowly and in a faint.
Ing manner, rowing the gig toward
the part OF the beach upon which |
stood gazing. l rushed to the very
wash OF the water and cried to her.
l called upon her name; I hourisled
my arms; fell upon my knees and
thanked God. In my insane eager.
ness to come at her, to assist her
for | witnessed exhaustion in every
feeble rise of the blades-I waded
waist high into the water, but burst
not strike out lest the tide should
SEND me away from her, and likewise
because | understood that INV
strength had been greatly reduced.
and that | might perish even in n
short swim. She was without
covering to her head and the light of
the sup shown rudy in her beauti.
tul hair. saw her white face turn
again and again over her shoulder
as though despairfully measuring
the distance that yet separated her
from the land. | cried to her to rest
on her oars, to take breath. but she
persisted, and at a snails pace the
little keel stole through the water
to the devoted efforts of her brave
hands until the stem was near
enough for me to grasp, and then
with the strength OF a dozen men I
ran the boat up the beach till LITTLE
more than her stern post touched the
wafer. o
My darling arose, staggered, pant.
ing cruelty, drops of distress from
her brow drowning her sweet ewes
with tears. She opened her arms for
me to receive her, and | had her
heart against mine in an instant Az
stood holding her incapable at the
moment OF speech, my eye went 70
the inside of the boat, and at the
bottom of it, close to where the mast
was stepped, lay the body of CAPTAIN
Harness. He was dead! There was
terrible cash on the right side of
his throat, and his handsome head
lay sleeping in the blood that had
drained out of his death. wound. Re.
side him lay the big clasp-knife that
belonged to me, the weapon with
which had cut away the gear that
had confined the gig to the stern Of
the Lady Charlotte.
Jenny lay a dead weight in NV
arms. She had tainted. One might
have thought that she had died in
my embrace so white were her cheek
and lips, so death-like the glaze on
the streak OF eye upon which the
long fringes of her lids had not
closed. | bore her to the shadow of
the cocoanut tree, where the incline
OF the beach furnished sort of nil.
low for her head. and rushed TO The
boat for such fresh water as | miobt