The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-13
THE SICKLE OF FIRE.
ny CHARLES KELSEY GAINES.
fCopyright. 1896. by Bachelor. Johnson and
Bacheller.l
PART III.


it. i stood motionless as if had not
heard.
He sprang up and pushed me. In
the anguish Of his soul the torment OF
his body was forgotten.
"The seal" he walled. 20 God.
o God! Cut il off from the seal"
He was an atheist, but he called upon
God. Many times in that awful hour
he called upon God. II was not pro-
family; IL was the elemental cry of
the human soul in its despair. 1t is
the cry that wilt be heard on the Day
of Judgment! 1t is the cry of the
damned.
The Day of Judgment! 1t was upon
us. The last trump had sounded; the
earth was to be consumed, aud its
oceans would be as oil in that mighty
confagration.
l leaped down the ravine. Already
the upper waters of the stream were
burned away, and its bed was dry and
hot. Yet such speed did / make in
that mad, desperate race, that l almost
overlook the fleeing torrent which
flowed and famed before me. Then
suddenly my strength gave way, my
limbs sank under me. and / fell like o
stricken animal! For some moments
/ lay shrouded in deadly faintness,
incapable of thought.
Then, with wrench OF effort, / sat
up, giddy and weak. / found myself
On the brink of vast precipice--three
steps more would have ended all
where the torrent had dropped it's
foaming waters through sheer descent
of more than hundred feet.
But the torrent was gone. Only
little fire still dripped from the verge,
and splashed in liquid flashes upon the
rocks below. And the pale light and
soaring heat no longer streamed down
from the mountain, though the red
crater that an hour before had held the
glimmering lake cast up lurid, vol
canic glow against the sky.
Before me lay broad, dusky land7
scape, sloping toward the sea, buried in
mist and shadow. But through il ran
| a flicker of light, as the envernomed
steam sped on its deadly mission
toward the deep, breaking at intervals
into cascades of incandescent bright
ness, and sending far down its current
the ruddy, sparkling spume that marked
the first decomposition of the waters.
Nearer and nearer to the sea tl~ fiery
line was creeping, stretching itself
along like a glowing earthworm.
And i, too, cried upon God In my
extremity, for man was impotent and
science vain. Science! Was il not
the very life-blood of that red devil
yonder, crawling on with unquenchablc
torch TO make n molten ruin of the
world? And i, that believed not in
God, / also prayed to God, and wept
and prayed again.
In the midst of my crying / felt
touch, and clasped in my arms the
limp body of my almost dying friend.
Dying he surely was; yet, even then
his iron will-bardened by scientific
training and ordeals such as ordinary
men never dream of-so triumphed
that, despite the intolerable suffering
that dazed and blinded him, he had
dragged himself down the rough gorge
to see the end.
And the end was near. Already
that distant tongue of vibrant flame
was flickering at the margin of the sea.
IL was more than human nerves could
bear. We sbrieked out like men In
nightmare terror. We shreked. and
shrieked again, md could not cease,
for the end of the world was NOW.
The envenomed spume darted out
against the surf Then long white
crested wave rolled in and buried 1t
from view. A tai. column of steam
shot up, so ruddy that at first 1t seemed
Jet of fire; and a sound began to FIJI
the air, as when white-hot steel is
quenched in the ice-bath.
The professor sprang to his feet. He
stood lifted upon his toes, every muscle
tense; his breath came and went in
shrill sighs. Disfignred, naked, in that
weird light, he was like a devil-hunted