Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-03

But after a horrible, choking struggle in
the black uproar 1 got my i'reath igaln,
finding myself clinging, as a
mar will, to something big n sea-
worthy. 1t was an ordinary ships hem
coop that the skipper had bought cheap
from a passenger vessel in Auckland. AS
good a raft as one could wish, it bore me
on over the mad sea, half dead as | was,
until l felt it rise high as if climbing a
cataract and decend amidst a furious
boiling of surf into calm, smooth water.
A few minutes later l touched a sandy
beach. Utterly done up, l slept where
lay, at the waters edge, though the
shrieking hurricane ragged over head as
if it would tear the lane up by the roots.
When / awoke it was fine weather.
though to leeward the Internal reek OF
the departing meteor still disfigured a
huge segment of the sky. Often l had
wondered what a poor devil would DO
who happened to be cast away on such
a spot as this. Apparently 1 was about
to earn. A painful pinch at my bare foot
startled me, and L saw an ugly beast OF
a crab going for me. He was nearly a
foot across, his blue back covered with
long spikes, and his
WICKED LITTLE EYES
Seemed to have an expression of diabol-
ical m~alignity. l snatched at a handful
of his legs and swung around my
head, dashing him against the side OF
, my coop with such vigor that his armor
flew to flinders around me. / have never
liked crab, even when dressed, but L
found the raw flesh of that one tasty
enough. He quite smartened me up.
Having eaten heartily, l took a saunter
up the smooth knoll of sand, aimlessly, l
suppose for it was as bare as a plate,
without a stone or shell. From its high
est point, about 10 feet above highwater
mark, 1 looked around, but my horizon
was completely bounded by the ring of
breakers aforesaid. I felt like the scor-
plon within the fiery circle, and almost
as disposed to sting myself to death had
l possessed the proper weapons.
AS stood gazing vacantly at the foam
ing barrier and solemn enclosing dome Of
fleckless blue I was again surprised by a
vicious nip at my foot. There was an
other huge crab boldly attacking meme.
a vigorous man and not a sodden corpse
as yet. ] felt a grue of horror run all
down my back, but I grabbed at the vile
thing and hurled it from me half across
the island. Then l became aware of 9TH
ers arriving. converging upon me from all
around and | was panic stricken. For one
ma moment l thought of plunging into
the sea again. but reason reasserted itself
IN time, reminding me that, while I
HAD CERTAIN ADVANTAGES
On my SIDE where I was, in the water I
should fall a helDles victim at once, if,
as might naturally be expected, these
ghouls were swarming there. Not a
weapon of any kind could 1 see, neither
stick nor stone. My feelings of disgust
deepened into despair. But 1 got little
time for thought. Such a multitude of
the eeyrle things were about me that I
! was kept most actively employed Selling
them and flinging them from me. They
got bolder, ~feinting and lodging around
me, but happily without any definite plan
of campaign among them. Once I stag
gered forward, having trOdden unaware
upon a spiky bacll as 1 sprung aside,
%wounding my foot badly. I fell into a
group of at least 20, crushing some of
them, but after a painful tsruggle among
these needle-like spines regained my
feet with several clinsing to my body. A
kind of frenzy seized me, and, regard
less of pain, | clutched at them right and
left, dashing them to fragments one
against another, until quite a pile Of
Writhing, dismembered enemies lay
around me, while my hands and arms
were streaming from numberless ounds
Very soon I became exhausted by my
violent efforts and the intense heat, but
to my unfathomable thankfulnes, the
heap of broken crabs afforded me a long
respite, the sound ones finding congenial
occupation in d~evOurlng them. While L
watched the busy cannibals swarming
over the yet Writhing heap I
BECAME VIOLENTLY ILL.
Vertigo seized me, / reeled and fell prone,
oblivious to all things for a time.
When sense returned it was night. The
broad moon was commencing her trium-
phal march among the stars, which
glowed in the blue-black concave like
globules of incandescen steel. My body
was drenched with dew, a blessed relief,
for my tongue was leathery and my lips
were split with drouth, l tore off my
shirt and sucked it eagerly, the moisture
it held, though brackish, mitigating my
tortures of thirst. Suddenly I bethought
me of my foes and looked f~earfully
around. There was not one to be seen,
nothing near but the heap of clean-picked