Iron County register., 1903-09-10

You bade me keep up my courage.
All, | needed your comfort then! Life
was very empty for a while. YOU"
well, you had me,' I reminded.
"Then-then the food gave out"
"What?"
Starvation stared us in the face"
"No, MOI" cried. "Not that! Any
thing but that!"
The barrel which we had believed
held-held plumduff and-and-"
"Deviled kidneys!"
Hard tack"
"Oh!"
I'VE discovered to, be filled only
with"
"Crullers," I said, imploringly.
"With-with dumb-bells!"
"Dumb-bells? Why dumb-bells?" I
asked, coldly.
For an instant she looked nom
plussed. Then she said, falteringly, "I
don't know. They-they were part of
the cargo, think"
Maybe she's training ship" I sug-
gested.
Helen blinked.
Starvation stared us"
''You said that once"
with a groan you covered your face
with your hands"
eyes, yes," I cried. "Then, like a
flash, | remembered that in the cap
tains cabin | had seen box of beef
steak and onions. With an exclama-
ton of joy dashed headlong down the
companionway. The box was still
there. Selling large, thick steak,
hurried to the galley"
You're quite, wrong" interrupted
Helen, inexorably. Hunger has gone
to your brain. You've had nothing to
eat for three days, and"
mo, no, please! Not three days!
One, if you must, but not"
For three weary days." she insisted.
l groaned aloud, and passed trem-
bling hand across the front of my shirt.
1t was true! The pangs of hunger were
already biting. looked longingly to-
ward the shore.
But that was not the worst"
"Stop, stop!" l beseeched.
'"Tho next day we drank the last of
our meager store of water. Then in
deed death lowered nigh"
Tell me one thing" I begged, in
broken whispers. "The--the cask of
Burgundy, vintage of rs, and the two
dozen bottles of Scotch whisky in the
captains cupboard, they-they were
still there?"
Helen looked across at me pityingly,
and snook her head. With an anguished
cry I mid my face in my hands
I'VE found the cask stove in and the
bottles broken to atoms"
did we?" l muttered, vacantly. 81
had forgotten"
without food and water"
"'Water, water everywhere, and not
a drop to drink!'" l gibbered
"For three days we have drifted over
cruel, CLASSY sea, under burning
pitiless sky"
"Pitiless sky echoed, with parched
lips.
"And yet-and yet through it all
there has been one thing to comfort us,
one bright spot in the darkness of de-
spair."
looked toward her eagerly. "I
knew it! knew it! There was one
bottle saved! He had hidden it in his
bunk!"
"Hush,' she said.
sank back again, weak and dispir-
tied.
"And that" she continued, with a
wrapt, dreamy expression in her eyes,
"and that was our love for each other"
"Eh?"
"And that was our love for each
other" repeated Helen, softly.
"Oh-er-yes; that, of coursei' +
said, hurriedly.
What though we had known each
other less than a fortnight? Love"
What thought" l murmured.
Love is not born of time. It may
blossom in a day, an hour, minute!"
"a second!"
so with our love" She paused, and
looked dreamily over the sea. Was she,
too, thinking of luncheon? But no.
I'VE loved each other at first sight"
I'VE did," 7 affirmed heartily.
Helen faltered; her eyelids fluttered;
a tinge Of pink crept over her hunger
pallid cheeks.
"Yet you would never have spoken
had not Fate thrown lis alone together
here thousands of miles from shore"
l glanced startledly toward the
beach. 1t was not there! In a panic
my eyes swept the horizon. Thank
heaven! 1t was over my left shoulder!
The tide had swung the dory around.
For there was Q gulf between u.s."
Helen continued. II was an heiress,
and you were merely a second officer"