Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1896-04-08

Il
with great earnestness. Presently he
passed the glass to the officer who stood
by him on the bridge, and who also took
a careful observation; then they con-
yersed together in an undertone and oc-
casionally issued new order to the
crew. There were no sails set on the
| steamer; but the sheets and halliards
were hauled taut and securely Delayed,
and everything was made fast and bat
tened down in such a way that nothing
short of a hurricane could dislodge it.
1.-THE old man understands his bust
| ness" remarked Valentine, and fancy
he thinks that it may need all he knows
to pull us through. Look at the cloud
| now!'
Valentine again turned his eyes toward
the southwest. The small cloud had
suddenly become very much larger, and
was now seen to be connected with u
mass of dark vapor that was rapidly
crowding upon that section of the hori-
zon, and of which it was the pioneer
This vapor was of an extraordinary dark
ness, or rather blackness; it had not the
blue shade that is often seen in storm
clouds, but was of the hue of the densest
factory smoke, with yellow and greenish
streaks upon it here and there. The rim
or upper margin of the oncoming black
ness continued to advance with such as
tonishing rapidity that after only few
moments it had blotted itself upon all
that quarter of the horizon, and now
seemed to have embodied the forerun-
ming cloud, or to have incorporated itself
with it. Looking more closely at it, its
edges and surface appeared wildly COM
noted, fakes and shreds of vapor, like
black fleece, being torn off from the
general mass, and whirled around, or
snatched in various directions, so swiftly
that the eye could scarcely follow their
movements. The green and yellow
streaks were multiplied and other col
ors were represented until the inky
surface assumed an aspect of hideous iri-
descence. Meanwhile the northern and
eastern portions Of the sky and sea re-
manned unchanged in their sultry calm,
except that, the light of the setting sun
being cut off, their aspect had a strange
feverish ghastliness, unlike the tints of
nature. A hot, faint air drew past the
vessel in the direction of the black can
opy, as if it were sucked thither by some
malign attraction. Presently the ears of
the observers began to be conscious of
singular minor sound, somewhat resem-
bling that produced by the wind on q
telegraph wire, only infinitely more hol-
low, deep and reverberating. 1t re-
sounded all over the level surface Of the
pallid sea, and appeared to be echoed
back from the horizon and the vault
above, as if the heavens were metallic
inclosing dome. 1t sang and resounded
and roared, but still with an inner sound,
as if that which uttered it We're still afar,
or walled off by some obstacle that it had
not yet overcome. Everything else was
deathly still; the plash of the foam !
against the vessels bows and under her
stern was the only other sound, but that |
seemed abnormally loud.
The captains voice on the bridge broke
out with startling distinctness, though |
he spoke not above his customary pitch. |
He gave the order to put the vessel |
about Immediately she began to swing
round on her course, describing a semi |
circular sweep with her stern; and in
few minutes she lay with the cloud at her |
back, and her bows pointed towards the |
unclouded regions of the northeast Her
propeller still moved, but slowly; she
was like champion awaiting the onset
of an enemy and gathering himself up
for the struggle.
The enemy was now at hand. By this
time the central advance had thrown out |
two long black arms that crept along the
horizon to the right and left, inclosing J
the vessel in deadly embrace Dark
ness fell over them as from an eclipse;
the unshadowed east, ere it vanished al
together from sight, looked like a scene
viewed through tunnel. The moment
was one of awful suspense; no human
creature could long have endured it
without giving way to some outbreak of
emotion. The blood flowed
thick in the veins; the brain throbbed
confusedly; the breath came in difficult
signs. With a sudden but ma estic up
ward graduation, the minor roar swelled
to deafening shrieks of noise; there was
a vision of white fury of waters astern;
a blast as cold as winter swept from the
taffrail to the bowsprit the dark
ness shut down and became alb
solute, so that the observer seemed
plunged into impalpable pitch; and then
with a paralyzing shock the hurricane
smote the vessel. beating her down into
the sea as by the sheer weight of giant
hand. The next instant, with shudder
and a spring, she leaped forward, stag
gered, and leaped again. Fragments of
boiling surge hurtled along her decks,
striking what they encountered with the
of grape shot. The mizzen mast broke
off within yard of the deck, and, lash
ing forward, struck the main mast and
brought it down in ruin, though the
noise of the crash was inaudible in the
yell of the frenzied gale. The steamer
was rushing onward at headlong speed,
yet she seemed to be standing still, so
fast did wind and sea fly past her. She
reeled, staggered, leaped, was buried and
rose again, again to be overwhelmed. 1t
seemed another world, another age, COM
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