Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-11-26

odile had Owed, but no tinge Of blood
crimsoned the agitated surface, and no
carcass bobbed, belly upwards. TOR a
sign of slaughter done.
Bobby swayed upon his feet, the
smoke curling in a blue spiral before
him. He continued TO gaze ruefully at
the circling water, and to wave the
rife as if he hoped to see the magyar
pop out for target again.
'eBobby!" Mignon's voice was hard
and stifed. Were going-to be up
set! Look!-the stream-the island
o-ohi Can't you do anything?"
Lancaster sprang to the sheet. He
had knotted it with the amateurs
clumsy fingers, which had formed a
slip-knot that frightened at their grasp.
The current drove the boat, and swept
it forward like chip upon mill
stream.
Helm Overt"
at won't CO."
The boat began to curl her tail
round, scorpion-wise; in another sec
ond it would be either the island or
more disastrous shipwreck. They were
puppets in the hands of the river, and
she, with a capricious mercy, chased
them by a side eddy out of the mid
current into shallow waters. Next mo-
ment the boat struck sand, careened
over, and the voyage ended with a
downoasting of the Argonauts as they
sprang, spurred by the instinct OF self
preservation, pell-mell on to the narrow
spit.
The shock bewildered them. They
looked vaguely about at their surround
ings.
On the right hand the low bank
seemed to their anxious minds I'M
measurably far away; there was an in
tervening sheet of water-whether deep
or shallow, who could tell?-that put
| the shore SO far from them that even
| the reed beds were only blurs of light
and shade. On the left they could see
| shoals, more plainly marked by the
tinges of the spreading river. But,
right or left, the sandy scrub which
stood for solid earth was far beyond
them, and all that their position per-
mitted them to see was waste and water
waste and water, and the twenty
foot spine of sandbank upon which they
had fallen.
And they were hopelessly wrecked,
without prospect of escape! The mail
ciousness of fate was complete; for ev-
en- as they gathered themselves up and
| looked about them, the boat, with a
shudder of relief at its enlightened bur-
den, was Tapped by the swirl Of the cur
rent from it's anchorage. 1t lurche1-
heAved, fioated, and bobbed away awk-
wardly. to twirl into midstream and so
| out of reach.
Mignon gave a cry of despair. Lark
ester dashed thigh deep into the water
| in a vain effort to catch the disappear
ing craft His feet felt sleeps and
auicksands below them, and he splash
| ed back to the slet as the boat slid ov-
err the river beyond recovery. 1t mock
| ed the voyagers for a little, rocking in
decisively to and fro some fifteen yards
| from them, and then the breeze bellied
| the sail and, darling off like a swallow
Sher Afzul's tub drove shorewards and
wrecked itself, permanently this time,
on the wateredge of the distant reeds.
The sail continued to flap in derision, q
dab of white against the monotone OF
the yellow, heat-quivering background.
'fConfound you!" yelled Bobby, shak-
ing his fist at the thing, as if it were
something that could be pricked by his
objurgation. "Confound you'll" he
shouted again, in impotent anger.
They stood side by side and gazed
forlornly at the scene. The sun beat
down upon them, the sand was hot
under their feet, there was not a bould-
er to shelter against, and there was
neither resource upon the sandbank,
nor sign of life or hope of assistance
to be culled from the glazing desert at
which they stared.
Mignon did not speak for long time
| the air being amply filled by Bobby S
profanity. The full meaning of the
catastrophe soaked into her brain as
| she noted the desolation of the jungle
and river that encompassed her. The
| banks were not a highway, there was
not village to be seen within the hor-
lion, it was in the last degree impro-
bable that anyone would pass within a
mile of them. And. meanwhile. they
had no food, no shelter from the fierce
heat, no
Mignon's heart jumped. A brown
snout had lifted itself out of the water
a few yards away. 1t sank again, bu'
slowly, and few bubbles drifted dowr
stream. The shock of terror that
tLrobbed through the girl sickened her
| and she turned white to the lips
| Bobby's flow of execrations had beer
| frozen at the source, and he, too, stood