The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-08-31


cleared; but it was
still dark. and there was no light on
the waters. I knew, however, that in
an hour or so the moon would rise,
and thought that 1 would wait for il
for what particular reason / can not
say; but it came into my head, and
the good Lord put it there, perhaps.
Being by myself alone, the fancy
came upon me that / was the only man
left in the world. l could not hear a
sound but the soft tapping of the ave
as they rolled inshore, as they had
rolled on this self-same spot thousands
and thousands of years ago, and as
they would roll for thousands and thou
sands more, till they rolled into eterni-
ty. We get thoughts now and again
that we can not plumb, and can not
take the measure of. If l were to set
down the notions that came into my
head as l walked up and down that
solemn shore, you would hardly believe
that l was not drawing on my imagin-
alton. 1 thought that the world was
dead; that light was gone out of it for
ever and ever; that it would be always
night, world without end; and that sun,
moon and stars you'd never shine
again. | stopped and listened to the
waves till, to my fevered fancy, they
spoke a language that l could under
stand; and as | stood still to listen to
the unspoken words, which made me
shudder, so awful were the suggestions
they conveyed, that fear came upon me
that If [ did not move, and move quick
ly, I should be turned into stone, with
ears to hear and eyes to see, but with
all power of motion gone forever.
Then, as I forced myself to pace the
shore, the waves again whispered to
me, asking me to join them, and so put
an end to everything; but I flung away
the temptation and cried, Never,
never, never!' and trembled at the
SOUND of my own voice, as if it were
some strange monster that was speak
ing and not myself. And then came
other fancies. Shadows formed them
selves into the semblance of places I
was familiar with, into the shapes of
men and women l had known. l saw
them so plainly that at first I believed
them tn be real. There rose the little
cottage at Brixton, with "Beecroft,
Mariner" over the window, and my
mother standing at the door looking
down the street for me. That picture
faded ard melted into another: 1 and
the child Mabel were together, I hold
ing a she'll to her ear, and she gazing
in pleasant wonder into my shadowy
face; then came that villain bruce, and
with him a dark mist of blood before
my eyes, which blotted out the pictures
and put an end to them. l shook my
self roughly and turned aside to meet
other fancies. About a hundred yards
to the left was a high s%androck, and as
1 turned toward it, / saw three old
women, for all the world like witches,
with pointed chins, and with crooked
saplings in their hands. They were
pointing with their long, bony fingers
at something that lay at their feet.
I had once seen three witches in a play,
dancing round a caldron, and these
were like them. I waited for the fire
to squirt up from the ground, and for
themselves to commence to dance; but
they stood quite still and motionless,
bending toward each other so that their
chins almost touched. 1 made a few
steps forward-sloWly and cautiously,
for l did not know what kind of crea-
lures might be living on these wild
shores, and / own to being scared-and
1 discovered that the three old witches
were three bits Of scrubby twigs stick
ing up out of the sand-rock. But on
the other side of the rock l saw what
startled me in real earnest, and we'll
nigh took my senses away. A faint
light in the sky, far away over the wat
ers, denoted that it would not be long
before the moon would rise. Among
the low rocks which I was overlooking,
and against which the waves broke in
white foam, covering them entire
ly, now leaving them half bare, mil
liens of great serpents were fighting
and curling their ugly bodies together,
engaged in the deadly purpose of stran-
Cling the life out of each other. Every
wave that rolled inshore brought their
long brown bodies-so long, that there
was no saying where they began and
where they ended-near to the shore,
where they madly bit and fought and
struggled; and every wav that went
out sucked them from my sight, but
the seething, Kissing water plainly pro-
claimed that the desperate fight was
continued beneath the waves.
ITO Rs CONTINUED