The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-04

great was my agony OF mind tnat L
had to leave the spot and interest my
self in other things; but some time
afterward, when I had got over my
nervousness. 1 renewed my digging OPP
erations, and in an hour or so had un-
earthed no fewer than sixteen complete
skeletons = fourteen adults ana Two
younger people, possibly women.
THAT morning l made my breakfast
off raw sea gulls' eggs, but was unaple
to get anything to drink Between
and 10 O'Clock, as the tide was then
low. I made my may back to the
schooner without much difficulty ana
collected as many things as possibly
could to transfer ashore. l mad 10
take dangerous headers into the cabin,
as the whole ships interior was full Oh
water, but all I could manage to Sc
cure were a tomahawk and my DOW
and arrows.
De Rougemont told of building. In
LAGOON, boat IL feet long by wide,
only to find when it was completed that
it was too heavy for him to drag over
the rocks into the open water, and that
the tide did not lift it high enough.
But for my dog-rny almost human
Brunei think I must have died. L
used to talk to him just as though he
were a human being. we were apso-
lutely inseparable. | preached long
sermons to him from gospel texts. L
told him in a loud voice all about my
early life and school days at Mon
treaux; I recounted to him my adven-
lures from the fatal meeting with poor
Peter Jensen in Singapore; l sang lit
tie chansons to him, and among these
he had his favorites, as well as those
he disiked cordially. If he did not
care for song he would set up a pitt
full howl I feel convinced that this
constant communing aloud with my
dog saved my reason. Bruno seemed
to be in such good spirits that l never
dreamed of anything happening to him.
and his quiet, sympathetic companion
ship was one of the greatest blessings
/ knew throughout many weird and
terrible years. AS I talked to him he
would sit at my feet, looking so intelli-
gently at me that l fancied he under
stood every word of what 1 was say
ing When the religious mania was
upon me / talked over all sorts OF the
illogical subjects with my Bruno, and
it seemed to relieve me, even although
1 never received any enlightenment
from him upon the knotty point that
was puzzling me at that particular
time. What delighted him most of all
was for me to tell him that loved him
very dearly and that he was even more
valuable to me than the famous dogs
Of st. Bernard were to benighted trav-
Seven weary months had passed
away when one morning on scanning
the horizon I leaped into the air and
screamed: My Cod A sail! A sail,'
I nearly became delirious with excite
ment, but, alas! the ship was too far
out at seat to notice my frantic sig
nails. My island lay very low, and all
that I could make out of the vessel in
the distance was her sails. She must
have been fully five miles away, yet in
my excitement I ran up and down the
beach, shouting in frenzy and wav-
ing my arms IN the hope of attracting
the attention of some one on board,
but IL was all in vain. The ship,
which concluded was a pearler kept
steadily on her way, and eventually
disappeared below the horizon. Never
can I hope to describe the gnawing
pain at my heart as. hoarse and half
mad, I sank exhausted on the sand,
watching the last vestige of the ship
disappearing. Altogether I saw five
ships pass in this way during my So
journ on the island, but they were al
ways too far out at sea to notice my
signals. One of these I knew to be a
man-o'-war flying the British ensign.
IT never feared a lack of fresh water,
for when in the dry season the ships
stock and my reserve from the wet sea-