Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1901-11-14

turDeu.
The place was like hideous gap
ing pit. A double winding of the
channel closed 1t in above aud be-
low. Some forty or fifty feet over
their heads, against pure sky OF
loveliest blue, waved q shaggy fringe
Of salt grasses, following in the au-
tumn air. This harsh and meagre
heritage encircled the rim Of the
chasm, and seemed tomake the outer
world of men infinitely remote. The
sun, an houror two past noon, glared
down Whitley into the gull, and
glistened, in o myriad of steely re-
SECTIONS, from the polished but ir-
regular sleeps of slime. There was
something so strange and monstrous
in the scene that Margarets dull
misery was quickened to nameless
horror. Suddenly voice, which
she hardly recognized as that of her
lover, said slowly and steadily;
Margaret, this is the end of our
journey We have come to the end.
Looking up she met Crewe's eyes
fastened upon her with a gaze which
seemed to sustain her and filled her
nerves with strength, With the
end of his uncertainty his will be-
came clear, and his resolution as
perfect as tempered steel.
An Indian had brought two stakes
and thrown them on the mud at the
leaders, feet. Margaret looked at
the rough-trimmed saplings, at the
tide-mark far up the dreadful slope,
then again into her lover s face. She
understood but she gave no sign,
save that her skin blanched to a
more deathly pallor, and she ex-
claimed in a voice Of poignant re-
greet: Have we kept silence all
these long hours only for this2 And
| had so much to say to you ~
There will be time" he said gen.
tly, and his voice was q caress.
THE fiood-tide has not yet begun,
and it will take some hours. And
1t was well, dear, that we could not
speak; for SO you had hope till the
last TO support you, while had
none, having heard the Indians say
we Wer@to die, though they said not
in my hearing when or how, Had
you known, you might not have had
this courage ofyours, that now gives
me strength to endure the utmost.
Dear, your heroic fortitude has been
everything to me. "
A faint flush OF pride rose into
the girl s face, and she stretched out
her pinioned arms to him, and cried;
"You shall not be deceived in me-
| will be worthy Of you, and willnot
shame our race before these beasts. >
BY this time the stakes were driv-
en- into the strong clay. They were
placed some way up the slope, and
one q little space above the other.
To the lower stake they fastened
Crewe. AS the girl was being
bound to the other, her arms were
freed fora moment that the savages
might the more readily remove her
upper garments, and by swift
movement she loosened her hair SO
that it fell about her TO her knees
the splendid Neville hair, still fa-
nous in the Province. There was
no bounty then on English scalps,
and the horror OF the scalping-knife
was not threatened them. When
the savages had their task complete,
they laughed in their victims faces
and retreated up the steep and over
the grassy rim.
"Are they gomez" asked the girl,
mo, they are lying in wait To
watch US, answered Crewe; and
as he ceased speaking a muffied
1 sound was heard, and with sudden
hubbub that filed the chasm with
clamor, the first OF the food-tide
came foaming round the curve, and
the descending current halted as il
in fear Of the meeting. The next
moment the bed OF the stream was
hidden by boiling reddish torrent
racing up the channel, and the tide
was creeping by inches toward the
captives' feet. For an hour or more
the bright gulf Of death was so loud
in this turmoil and with the echoes
from the red walls of mud, and the
yellow eddies of foam whirled anC
swept so dizzily past their eyes
that the captives' senses were dull
ed in a measure as II by crude ano
dyne or vast mesmeric influence
When, however, the channel was a
bout one-third full and the watei
beginning to cover Crewe's feet
the food became more quiet and eq
liable, spreading smoothly over free
spaces. Presently there was
frightfnl silence, intensified by th'
steady sunlight, and broken only b.
the stealthy, soft rush and snake