Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-06-03

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the sea. 1t was coming c~loser-irre-
sistibly closer. And he watched it's APP
proach; he felt it so intensely that
sometimes his whole being seemed 10
be on the alert while he a motionless
In his cane chair, with his eyes fixed
on the barren waste of waters.
III.
Thus it happened that. sitting here
II day, he saw on the shore below,
between tn etufts of yellow broom,
growing on the sandhills, two figures
coming toward him "A man and a wo-
man, like finely-drawn s~ilhouettes in
Indian ink against the silver sea. A
pang suddenly shot through his frame,
from his heart to his throat-to his
temples. But the salt reek came up to
him and reused his senses with a
freshness that mounted to his brain, so
that, In spite of the shock. 1t remained
quite clear, as If filled with a rarer at
mosphere. He saw everything dis
tinctly, down to the subtlest detail of
hue and line; the silver-gray curve OK
the ~silver-gray curve of the horizon.
like an enormous, %glittering, liquid eye,
with mOther-Of-pearl tints, broken by
the tumbllng crests of the waves, and
hardly darker than the spread OF sky
strewn with a variously gray fleece OF
rent and reveled clouds; to the right,
one stucco facade of the Kurhaus,
looking with stupid dignity at the sea
out of its staring window-eyes; further
away, by the waters edge, the fishing
boats, like large walnut shells, with
filmy wells OF black netting hanging
from the masts, each boat with It's lit
tie flag playfully waving and curling
in the breeze; and on the terrace and
the strand, amid a confused crowd of
yellow-painted chairs, n throng OF sum-
mer visitors. like q great stain OF pale
water-coior. in gray but delicate tints.
He could see quite clearly-here a rent
i'll the red sail OF a boat, there a ribbon
huttering from a ba~sket-chair and
again a sea-gull on the shore swooping
to snatch something out of the surf.
He noted all these little details, mi
uute and motley t%rifies, bright specks
la the expanse of sky and ocean, and
very visible in the subdued light of a
sunless day. And these two siihou-
ettes-a man and n w~oman-grew larg-
err. came nearer along the sands until
they We're just opposite him.
He knew them at once by their gen
eral appearance-the man by a pecu-
liar gesture of raising his hat and WHIP
ing his forehead; the lady, by the way
she carried her parasol, the stick rest
ing ON her shoulder while she held the
point of one of the ribs. And, recog-
nlzing them, he had a singular. light
headed sensation. as though he would
presently be floating dizzily out Of his
chair and swept away Over the sea.
He fell back, feeling strangely weary,
aud dazzling sparks danced before his
fixed gaze like glittering notes of an
Interrogation. What was to be doncy
Could he devise some ingenious excuse
and try to tempt Frank to leave the
place, to fly? OH how small the world
was. Was 1t for this that they had
wandered 0ver the gloge, never know
ing any rest-to meet, at their very
first hating place. the two beings he
most dreaded? Was this accident or
was he really afraid?
And In his detection he felt that he
was afraid OF nothing: that he was pro-
foundry Indifferent, full of an intolera-
bic WEAKNESS of s%elf-torture. Hewas
too tired to feel alarm. 1t must come.
There was no escape. 1t was Fatality.
It was rest to sit there .motionless. In
ert. willess, with the wide, silver-gray
waters before him waiting for what
might happen. To struggle no more
for his own ends, to fear no moro, bu.
To wait patiently and forever. 1t must
come. like the tide from the ocean: II
must cover him as the surf covers the
sands-and then 60 down again, and.
perhaps. dag him with 1t, drowned and
dead. A wave Of that food would
wash over him and stop his breath
and more waves would follow-end-
lessly. A senseless tide-a fruit!ess
eternity.
II wish / did not feel 1t so acuteiv.''
he painfully thought. "It Ia too silly
to feel 1t SO. Perhaps nothing will
come of IL, and l shall live to be a hun.
dred In peace and contentment. Still.
this Is uncomfortable, that Is a fact: they
are there! They are here Buff II
were really coming / should not feel IL.
Nothing happens but the unexpected.
1t Is mere nervous weakness, over-ten-
sion. Nothing can really matter 10 me:
nothing matters. The air Is lovely and
pleasantly soft: there floats a cloud.
And l Will just sit still. withuot fear,
Qunte at my ease. There they are
again-the seamews fly low-I vii
wait, walt. . Those boys are play
Ing IN that boat; what folly! They win
have II overr'