The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-02-06
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Then, with an oath, he stumbled
across the deck, dropped swiftly into his
boat and rowed away in the darkness.
But his calculations were astray. Be-
fore he had gone so yards up the food
thole pin broke. So, after vain at
tempt to row without it in the dark.
ness, he gave mp, and putting one oas
by stuck the other over the stern and
sculled shoreward.
Presently the boats nose took the
mud. He planted his oar firmly and
pushed her as far as possible up the
shelving mudbank, then jumped ous
and f1oundered toward the sea wall.
From thence he could gain the road to
the forts and so across country, away
from the horror of the river.
But the night was dark, and as he
plunged ankle deep in the soft mud l,s
came to place where vessel had re-
GENTLY lain. The bed she had followed
was now filled up again. But it was
soft and treacherous as quicksand, so
soft that when he blundered upon it be
sank to his knees. Struggling desperate
ly, he plunged deeper and deeper with
every effort until he could not move at
all. Oh, the agony of It'll There he lay,
sucking into the horrid slime The mud
held him fast in death grip, creeping
higher and higher about his sodden
limbs as he strove in frenzied fashion
to shake himself clear.
The flood-the silent, intraotable
aood-was creeping slowly toward him.
A grim, stealthy death stared him i'll
the face.
Soon the water had crept close. He
found himself counting the minutes
that must elapse ere he was drowned.
The tide swept shoreward Now dead
dog eddied up beside him, gurgling
end bobbing in the tide, now this way,
now that. He tried to avoid it, but the
thing struck him and swerved on again.
Soon he would be like that Another
rush of tide ciroled far beyond him car
rying the body with it. He was dumb
now-in a lethargy-from cold and de-
spair. Stay! Perhaps when the water
flowed enough it would help him to FREQ
himself. He watched intently-watch-
ed and saw it creep waist high, breast
high, then bubble about his shoulders.
But no, it avaiIed him nothing No
help! No helpl
The tide crept on silent as the desert
remorseless as fate, slowly, as though
no terror struck eyes viewed its passage
and prayed for speed; on until it passed
over his head and his last bubbling cry
died out on the night; on until it
reached the iotsam and jetsam at high
water mark, where it mingled, gurgling
amid the stones, slime and seaweed,
among the tin pots and dead dogs, trao-
Ing out the ratholes and Shiny crannies
that mark the extent of the tide flow;
on while the chill wind sighed over
the steaming marshes, while cleaning
lights hurried up the river and mems
voices grew musical with distance, as
though there were no such thing as de-
spair or death.
But Bella was not dead.
When Dick Hathaway returned to
the Sultana, he found her sitting on the
hatches weeping over the dead dog.
Poor child She was nearly mad with
joy at seeing him again and clung to
him, weeping Historically, some time
before he could, CLEAN what had gone
awry.
And then Dick forgot himself and
swore savagely, after tbs manner Of
shippers, of certain vengeance ho would
take ON Hanson when he met him un,
til Bella interrupted softly, with her
arms about his neck, and begged him to
forget it and stopped his fierce words
with a kiss.
So they rested all night, taking no
onward steps with the next ebb. Dick
meanwhile revolyed the trouble anx-
iously.
Toward 8 O'Clock next morning the
mate spied group of men standing
over something lying on the edge of the
mud. Calling the boy quietly, they row.
ed away shoreward Here they found
the body of Bill Hanson, lately freed
from the mud, his limbs rigid with cold