Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-10-14
CHATTER ".

nard: then l returned 10 the house.
Nancy met me as passed the thresh-
old. Her sweet face was puckered and
lined by anxiety Mother" she gasped,
sis so i'll. Please come to her at once. !
am frightened"
I entered the parIor. Upon the couch
lay Mrs. Gerard. Her eyes were closed;
her breath came and went in short
gasps; her pulse was rapid and feeble.
At my suggestion Nancy left the room
to procure some aromatic spirits of am
monia. Before she returned Mrs. Ge-
rard opened her eyes.
Mark she murmured, family
"where is he? This faintness viii pass;
but nv child-Mr. Livingston. find my
child
humored her instantly, fearing hys-
terra. The sight of the lad, l reflected,
would still her poor futtering heart
more quickly than all the drugs in
Christendom. Mark. of course. was with
Demetrius. l had left the two at the
back of the house. building a small
sloop upon plans furnished by me. The
Greek was no mean mechanic, and Mark
had proved an enthusiastic apprentice.
Demctrius l found busily at work. but
the boy was not with him.
The impassivity of the Greek, as ! re-
cited the facts. annoyed me. He Ieis-
urely assumed coat and waistcoat and
proceeded to put away his tools.
Don't alarm yourself, sir; can find
Mr.. Mark. lie is around somewhere"
"Somewherei Of course; but where?"
''He ran down to the sands to get
some fresh water for his aquarium"
THE sands! Good God, man, and we
are standing here! Follow me-"
ran at top speed to the waters edge.
Yes, he had left his bucket and wan
dered north, searching, probably, for
shells in the masses of seagrass and
kelp which recent storm had flung
upon the shore. | noted his footprints
in the wet sand, and close beside them
the large, deeply-indented tracks of
Burlington.
Perdition! What if l arrived too
late?
To the south the sands stretched
widely fiat for miles, superb high
war. fringed with low sand dunes; to
the north were the cliffs, jutting prom
ontoriea of red sandstone. honey
coInJcd with caves. These caves could
be entered only at the lowest tides,
and we're favorite haunts of the boy.
In their dim recesses were exquisite
medusR, pink, purple and green, star
fish, echinoderms, monstrous abalones
and other marvels. One cavern. 10
which the Portuguese had given the
melodramatic title Pirates cave, had
mighty fascination for Mark. lie
listened to the yarns of the ancient
mariners and believed implicitly, with
the glorious faith of youth, that chests
of doubloons, dead mems bones and 9th
er relics of Spanish buccaneers were
awaiting discovery. Upon the Pacific
slope, especially in springtime, tidal
waves are not infrequent and Mark had
received strict orders from his mother
never 10 venture alone into the caves.
1 make no doubt that he ignored these
commands whenever opportunity
served
AS l ran, vagabond thoughts whirled
like dervishes through my brain. |
recalled the proverbial patience and
canning of madmen. Burlington, armed
with powerful field glasses, must have
watched and waited POSSIBLY for
full month"; for this very chance. From
my knowledge of the man l shuddered
to think what foul use he would make
of it,
When I reached the end of the sand
paused. y cove was directly in front Of
me-ia fact, q succession of coyes, shell
tered, each one, by frowning headlands.
At high tide these coves were inaccessl-
BILE from the shore; and already the
waters were tapping idly at the base of
the cliffs. Seagulls screamed overhead.
The wet sand was blood-red with sun
set reflections. The sun itself was be-
low the horizon, the day dying fast
and the short spring twilight stealing
swiftly from landward.
Scrambling across the rocks, I
scanned anxiously the semicircular
cove in front of me. No human being
was in sight. Hurrying on, struck
asail the sand, and on it the footprints.
These I followed 10 the mouth OF the
Pirates cave. 1here-where the peb-
UItS Jlll Ilit u dtlA9 pun ~ ID lO1A.
My worst suspicious were realized.
! listened intently for the murmur of
voices Then, slipping OF my shoes, l
stepped noiselessly forward. My right
hand g1-,4.,'ed the stock of pistol
which (at the urgent request ~ .---''rd1 "a
1 carried habitually in my pocket. The
Gaze had two chambers, an inner and
an outer, the latter lighted by small
aperture in the roof. l remembered,
with a sudden gust of hope, that it was
possible to crawl through this aperture
and regain the cliffs above l had per-
formed this feat myself at much per-
sonal inconvenience, but Mark made liz,
tie of it. Here, then, was a loophole of
| escape.
The silence, accumulated by the drip
and trickle of water, was horrible. A
more appropriate stage setting for a
tragedy could scarcely be conceived.
The dank walls, shiny with fungoid
growth, harbored no Gcho. What
nymph, indeed, would haunt so fearful
a grot? The pools of water courted
blood-stained hands. And in the deep
crannies and assures were hiding places
! for hecatomb of victims.
1 am no coward, but horror smote me
| il The face,
| As / glided in the shadows ~ The On
trance of the inner chamber | heard a
| peculiar noisc-a fretting of garments
| against rocks. Pistol in hand, plunged
forward. High up, crawling painfully
across jagged rocks, was Burlington;
pgt where was the boy?
'lHalt!" / cried, sternly.
The sound Of my own voice startled
me; and it startled the madman- above.
He turned suddenly, grasped helplessly
at the Shiny wall lost his hold and
crashed hcadlong to ny feet. lie had
fallen in the most awkward possible
| place, . rilt between two rotl.1. For
the moment every feeling was ban
ished save that of pity; but how to ex-
tricate him passed my understanding.
| He lay senseless upon his back. The
trapezius muscles had borne the brunt