Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-12-31

BY THE AUTHOR or "TAIRY GOLD"

BY THE AUTHOR OF FAIRY GOLD"
My lady, my lady," he cried, agitated-
ly, Il thought ii fight to come and tell
you, my lady, that there's a large ship-a
merchantmen, they think ashore ON the
Black Reef of TregarthenP
CHAPTER XxIv.
The first struggling light Of the gray
dawn was dimly revealing through the
cold mists Of the wild March morning the
dreary eXpa,ise Of the ffdth-whitened toss
Ing water, the Jagged glittering points
OF the Black Reef peering above the rag.
ing waves; but most noticeably OF all, to
the eyes OF the score or two of watchers OF
the cliffs, Id the faint gray haze cling
around that dark mass with the torn rem
nants OF sails cordage beating idly
and wildly about, and the splintered spars
and masts lying lielplessly with their
heads submerged under the cruel waves
that leaped and dashed over them in fierce
mockery.
Whence she had come, or whittier she
was bound no one knew; but there, on
the Black Reef, beneath the frowning
precipice of Tregarthen Head, on the wild
Cornish coast, had the good ship found
her doom.
"A h%enimegrnnt ship her be, sir: an
bout fifteen hundred tons, | shud say,'i
one of the C~oastguard men remarked to
his officer.
She's nothen o. the sort, John Rich.
ards" the boatswain retorted, not by
her build, rs | can make out. Ties hard
to say" he added to Lieutenant Caerlyon;
"she he goih' to pieces hevery minute"
''IVn0 mana az tho darn, n, nHhn,ns,g
the officer asked.
Not much, sir, except bar'ls, and chests
of tay. and pieces of slaves"
An not a soul left aboard o her" John
Richards put in.
Yer a-talkin' of what e don't know
nothen of, y the boatswain said again,
more sharply; "ef eve got heyes, man,
and n glass, what kind % use doe put 'em
to? see three men, not ten mennits ago,
come in through the passage atween them
flat rocks forrard theer, houldin' on to a
spar, poor fellows. They must be almost
dead
Where have they got TO, then?" Lieu.
tenant Cacrlyon asked. ut will be low
tide in three hours; but there's not a shelf
of rock above water now: and even at low
water the rocks will be all covered i'm this
storm, and no one can get to them. | am
afraid, poor fellows, it's a black lookout
from every point for them
Here be wimmin comm! What do
they want a-comin in such a place." the
C~oastguard boatswain, Il bachelor of some
forty-eight years standing, remarked,
GROSSLY; the gcntler sex, in Mr.. Ned Bos.
cawen's opinion, having no earthly right
To appear in any place where their pres.
ence was not directly required. Comm
up here, wcth the wind BLOWN their
gowns an shawls like balloons-it'Il take
'em of their feet afore they knows wheer
they are
Determined To give the adventurous fc.
males n smart rebuff if they ventured Ito
come clackin' weth their questions rs he
phrased il, To him, Mr.. Boscaweu deigned
TO bestow no further notice on the two
darkly-robed advancing figures. Lieu.
tenant Caerlyon, stcadying his glass
against n ticld-hedge Skirting the last cul.
tivated stretch Of land on the Head, heard
nothing, saw nothing but the cchoing roar
Of thethunder of the waves and the Kissing
sheets of flying spray, with the black
dismantled heap lying 50 forlornly on her
side, and the sharp black rocks beginning
70 show all around her in the ehhing tide.