The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-08
THE ADVERTISERS
 DAILY SHORT STORY
sm.y. story WEIGHED IN THE Cooley

OI the StOLm WTllG OLneT dlTWdy 60uB scattered over the angry. water. were busy with a battle for life. Boat after boat plunged into anchorage. until but one was lacked, and anxious eyes strove to pierce the all but binding storm. now making harborward.
 To one last group of watchers 1t mat tered little that all but one of Fairway's sons were safe. The missing one was all to them; to the father. grimly intent on the sea: all to the mother. sweeping tears from her eyes to peer into the depths of the storm; all to still another. a daugh- ter of the place. who had looked to have wedding bells ring in her ears that night. and not the wild menace that mingled in the roar of the storm from Fatrway buoy. She had joined in common grief watching. with those who waited for the one who was their all. Until darkness and hearts sank as the last glimpse, as the first revealed only the handiwork or the storm. a sea, seethtng till foam capped waves vanished In the depths of | the night. Sobs from the women marked the boundaries of hope. Silence from the man.
 | rs Until, now the wild changing of the bell | at the harbor mouth had thundered in- t, waves. and one comfort chung in heavy hearts on the sands. that there was hope while the bell rang on, that even the last hard-pressed fisherman might lind
 
 and his heart strong.
 It was not to be.
 In the midst of the vigil, made terri ble by dread and storm and darkness, a struck to the heart of every watching seaman.
 finn lip to lip. ings and was drifting before the storm. Quick ears followed its mad path as with delirium of frenzy 1t set out across the water. With every new sweep of the gale 1t drove on With the changing of inc bell becoming wild, maniacai shriek. as the wooden structure pitched freely without weight of chain and anchor to | steady. Fer to sea 1t was driven until the shriek came. an ine eudible chNcklr to the dazzled listeners, and then back the | taunts of its voice coming nearer ar nearer, and mingling in ferca altercation with the demons in the air. and aow seeming to join with the gale In laughter at some cruel jest. To the very harbor and again, and then. with new whm of the wind, founders seaw wlrd. always changing. until again the voice is lost to the listeners
 Now it's voiee again! Farther and far ther away from the bar it plunges, and still calls the seeker for safety. with a tteachsrous4 note, that now means but | sure death, for relentlessly the storm
  Feirwsy's snug retreat to where sands | give way to pitiless rocks, and doom is written large for craft that may come on them. ss
 One last long reach. and the maniac is l stranded fast, its mad journey over and | Fairway bell. still hpoming through the | storm. though watchers prayed that il might be hushed. now bids the luckless | pilot. not to harborage. but to death. l Alas for Fairway and the watchers, for | the father. the mother and the lass. The | fisherman for whom they waited, sent his boat into that rock-set trap. at the
 shriek. as if brazen demon and storm | ctmon exulted n their traitor work. mus
 have rung in his ears as waves closed | over.
 Morning again! Heartaches that will never be forgotten in Fairway. Tn, | tempest is spent.
 Searchers found the battered hulk and a rnangled body. high among the rocks. mutely eloquent of the tragedy of a night Nearby, grmly held among jag ged instruments of it's maniac will, for 1 such is the story. rested Fairway bell l The waves. fellows with the bell but a | night ago, seemed to have shrunk away | and left the monster, and 1t lay stili. | it's voice hushed in the presence of its | victim. as If conscious. too late, of its sin. 'Fairway menfolk, when they tell thi: | tale. soften their rough speech. There | Is awe in the voices that tell of the bell and it's mania, of the man who was lured l to death. for all of them had bent ear | for the sound of the bell that had doomed | him. Fairway womenfolk will add to the | tale that. from the steeple of the litt,t | church about which the scattered town | nestles, and behind which fisherman and | maiden are sleeping. wedding bellg were | 10 have rung out. but that. mad from | anvv of its kinsmen of the steeple the | maniac bell of Fairwav bar murdered the | man and broke the heart of the maid As the last bolts go home In the great | steel light watchers on the sands are l telling the tale that will live when even | these bolts of steel have crumbled, and | nothing remains of the old buoy that rot | ted in the sands