Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-03-22
Il was too late. And. Zee late. theY

It was too late. And. too late. they
realized it.
The guests had risen from the
table. The women chung together
in frightened groups. The wind
angry surf. The rain fell in torrents.
The men laughed, uneasily, but with
a show of braggadocio. The women
must not be frightened, anyway.
Old Manuel sat huddled in a corner,
angry scowls directed at him by all
the company, they whom he had
warned.
Jean Glode was trying to comfort
his wife. In her arms was their
little babe, and it walled piteously.
Perhaps its blue eyes could see clear
er than those of the strong men and
women, for to little children, they
say, things are often revealed that
are denied to older eyes and ears.
Marie sat rigid, her hand in An
dre's. Courage, courage, Marie,
Lowell" he whispered. 81 knew, too,
the storm would come. 1 said it all
day. But it will pass away. Don't
mind the gibbering old fool, Manuel.
AO14OH IL Will NC OhSI5 inc sun
will shine, the birds will sing and I
shall come for you in the evening and
we will take the Iugger and cross
to Grand Isle. We will take Glode
and the wife, for only this evening
she said she was longing to visit the
Petries." And so he cheered her, and
she smiled and comforted Globes
wife, and smiled and cooed to the
frightened babe lying in it's mothers
arms.
Then fearful thing happened, for
beam shot by the window, on which
rode a human igure-a stark, ghast-
ly figure. Gaspard, who had been
watching at the window, saw it and
Marie saw it too, and so did Andre.
Heavenly Mother walled the girl,
as she sank to her knee. "Oh, pity
US, pity us, and protect us this dread
full night"
Old Manuel had seen it too, re-
vealed in binding flash of lightning.
"See," he cried, with skeleton finger
pointing. ''The sea is all about us.
We are being swept away. L tell you
the houses are gone. This will go,
too" And he pointed to the floor.
There, in a triclling little stream,
was the water, and it came in faster
and faster, through the cracks of the
doors and the fireplace.
"To the attic, the women first, cried
Bizan, pushing his wife to the stair.
"To the attic,' he Numbered. SIT is
the only chance" He drove Globes
wife, with her babe, up the stair, the
others following. Marie had flown to
Andres side, and slipped her beads
over his wrists:
eff we die, we die together" she
whispered.
But for answer he took her firmly
by the arm and led her to the stair,
and she fell, half-fainting, into the
room in which the luckless women
were huddIed, on their knees, while
low muttered prayers were ascending
to an angry heaven.
When the worst came, it was soon
over. "The boat, Andre, the boat"
gasped Glode. ''Save yourself with
Marie. You are both young and
strong. You must fight for life.
Quickl" He grasped Andre by the
hand and shook him off, Marie was
clutched in Andres arms as the little
boat put forth. Glode saw them go.
and he was glad that he and the wife
and the babe were to die together,
since die they must. Out on the wa
ter, Marie and Andre saw sights that
must have turned them gray. Bodies
flew past them in the seething black
water, while shrieks and means rent
the air. Wild echoes flew over the
waters to the lonely figures in the
boat. Every flash of lightning re-
vealed horrors afresh.