The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-08-17

OomS, I'LL 1 mdQ0 n6T. but Ll0Q H0aFI s
a girl, and I'm a little man-so mother
says"
Tho whole of that day no figure but
the figure of Bob was in my mind, and
l INDUCED in the maddest s~peculations.
II my boy lived, he would be of the
same age as this little fellow; and
Robert was my fathers name. / should
have asked BOZ further questions about
his mother, but that I was afraid to
shatter the unreasoning hope which a
wild fancy had engendered. 1 saw no
more of him or Pearl during that day,
n when mex I saw him All, me
let me not think of it. l must tell my
story straight.
The weather got worse instead of bet
the first watch-"Land!' was called.
l was in the watch below at the time,
and we were summoned on deck at
once. The course we were steering was
east by north, wind being northwest.
Orders were at once given to square
away the yards, to clear the vessel for
the land, and then for about half an
hOuA VIC AONC away 0OuIACooIS ohu oLIOA
that hauled up again to the eastward.
In less than forty minutes, however,
we beheld the treacherous rocks
straight ahead of us. AS I saw the
white waves-whiter because, of the
darkness which surrounded us-dash-
ing against them, l had no shadow of
doubt that we were lost. Pitch dark it
If WOO hr1f n coiIOr oop coo rO0l-.< with
out a light to guide him-for the matter
of that, I believe he can smell them
and it does not need a sailors Y to
see the white foam from a raging sea
dashed from an iron bound shore back
into the black waters. Many's the time
l ave seen the spotless spray leaping
up the sides of the rocks that line the
foreign shores, and, curling back again
in beautiful showers, laughing in the
sun-sparkles that filled them with light,
and made them look like millions of
living silver stars; but then the days
were fine, and the sun was shining. 1t
was different now. There was no sun
and no moon, and the swell of the sea
toward the shore came to my ears like
LuC DOuAu VI nu1ucu OIuLAS.
The task we had before us now was
to prevent The Rising Sun from set
ting bodily toward the land; but the
task was too much for us, and though
we worked with a will we could not
avoid u fate. The vessel hardly had
steerage way, and the heavy southwest
swell was driving her nearer and near
er to the black rocks. BY midnight
she had become perfectly unmanage-
able; and all the passengers, being now
alarmed and aware of their peril, were
on deck, keeping their feet as well as
they could. l looked out on the lee
beam, and saw the land, like a fog
bank, creeping nearer and nearer to u.s.
In the midst of my duties I had striven
hard, but without success, to discover
Bob and Pearl, and it was while 1 was
thinking of the land with a feeling of
agony that a woman's voice, falling on
my ear, sent a shock through me which
curdled my blood.
Hush, my child-hush!" we're the
spoken words; and it was my wife who
uttered them to my boy.
Dumb with a fearful joy and amaze
ment I turned toward the voice, when
The Rising Sun came crash
against a sharp, jutting rock,
and, if you will believe it,
carried part of it away. In the midst
of the cries of despair that accompanied
the crash, I myself called out: "Ma-
bel! Mabel! give me my boy!", But my
voice only added to the general terror
and confusion, and before we had time
to recover ourselves, the ship lurched
on to another point of rock, which
carried away her spanker-boom and
rudder. And now, dark as it was be-
fore, it grew darker. Ay, it was like
the Egyptian darkness, for it could al
most be felt, and The Rising Sun
seemed to be slowly cutting her way
through it, as if it were a substance.
The two points Of rock which the YES
sci had struck formed the entrance to
a huge water cave, and into this cave
we were o fatally working our way.
This accounted for the increasing dark
ness, for above us and before us were
savage rocks, from the walls of which
the thick slime was crawling down to
the sea. This much l know, and this
much l saw, but | was mercifully
spared from the conscious knowledge
of a great deal of the agony and terror
of that awful night. The mizzen-top-
gallant mast coming down with ire
mendous force, | was struck prone tc
the deck by it, and for a time I partial
ly lost my senses