The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-22

S1Il COultl udte uOluluS OAl tti! III " N0Sp
her at this hour. And slowly there
dawned upon him Il dreadful doubt.
Could it be that she had fooled him
and was not coming at all? He put the
thought from him. but only for q time.
In the end he swore vehemently and
would have turned away had not q roar
of laughter suddenly arrested him. Be
fore he could recover from his surprise
he was struggling in the midst of half
dozen men. and moment later they
had overpowercd and bound him. put
ting Il gag between his teeth.
All this time they had not spoken Il
word, and it was still in utter silence
that he was compelled to march, a man
at either arm. in the direction OF the
cove Coffin did not doubt that he had
fallen into the hands OF smugglers re-
solved to revenge on him the recent IN
juries to the traffic they carried on Ele
remembered a hundred horrid tales OF
violence, and his heart Guailed within
him.
They led him onward until the sound
of the sea broke on his ears, and soon
he was being led by wild and danger
Gus path down to the little yellow
beach. His captors dealt none too gen.
tly with him when they came to cross
the space of tumbled @bowlders at the
foot OF the cliff, and when they had
gained the beach they led him to where
a tall, wooden post had been fixed in
an upright position in the sand. One OF
the men advanced and kicked it. 1t
quiyered. but otherwise was firm. being
deeply sunk and having big stones
buried about it's base And John Coffin
would have cried aloud for mercy had
he been able
For he realized what they were going
to do with him They raised him and
bound him against the wooden post.
and he looked desperately out to sea.
gagged so that he still could not speak
and wondered how long it would be
before the advancing tide would reach
him The men moved about in silence,
testing all the knots with tremendous
vigilance before they moved away in
band and vanished in the blackness OF
the cliffs shadow. And John Coffin
was left alone to watch the slow, re-
lentless advance Of doom.
There was no moon The clear star
light quivered in lines of silver on the
dark plain of the sea. He could distin-
guish through the gloom the glimmer
of the breakers. There was a heavy
ground swell on, and he knew tGat.
even if he had been able to shout, even
if any human being had chanced to ap-
proach this lonely region of the coast
after the fall of darkness. it would still
be in vain to hope for rescue, since his
voice would not be heard above the din
of the tide
He did not lack ccurage-as indeed
he had proved beyond dispute BY the
conduct which had brought him into
his present predicament for 20 inter
fere seriously with the smuggling was
to take up arms against a united coun-
tryside-even. he had sometimes dimly
suspected, against the local magnates
who should have been glad to cooper
ate with him in the work. And in that
work he had never been afraid. He
knew that he risked his life, but he
went armed. and the risk would never
have troubled him had he been q free
man and at liberty to fight for his life.
He would almost have enjoyed the eH-
element. But to be bound to a post on
lonely beach and to wait in the dark
ness for death. whose laundering foot
steps already deafened him, was an or
deal beyond what man is made to
bear. A cold fear froze his heart They
might have taken away the gag, and he
would still have lacked the power OF
speech
He realized that this vengeance of the
smugglers was not so much return
fer his interferences with their actual
trade as for the few words he had
spoken with Maggie Opie. and he knew
that her trcachcry had betrayed him
And he lad stopped to talk with Mag.
gle, in the first place, not because he
knew that she possessed valuable infor-
nation. but merely because he had seen
no girl in all his life who was half so
pretty. no girl whom he would more
unwiliingly have veSed. And he had
endeavored to learn the secrets with.
which she was acquainted involuntarlly
and out of habit.
He had been ten minutes alone
though the time had seemed longer than
the longest night> to the man who Is
tired and cannot sleep Suddenly he
heard footsteps close ut hand.
The men had returned They had
gained the top Of the path, and then, a
mode of deepening the horror of his
situation occurring to them, they had
returned. They did not speak word
One of them took big red handker.
chief from his pocket. folded it and
bound it tightly over Coffin's eyes.
Then they once more left him alone.
The thunder of the sea grew louder
and more near. The very minutes
seemed interminable and SO filled with
intolerable fear that he constantly far
cied he must lose his reason immediate,
IL. And suddenly Il shock Of terror
threw the blood back upon his heart.
A wave had broken close at hand. The
cold water had reached his feet
He waited for the ncSt-waited, rs
it seemed to him. for many minutes
Possibly, he thought the wave which
had reached his feet had been one OF