The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-22

| approach; so he boldly entered the water.
 grasped the bow and. with his shoes in
 his teeth. made his way along the deck
 to the poop. where he sat down. Only the
 huh remained. bridge. rnasts. cabins, all
 had been wakhed away. Eloi was disap-
 pointed and prepared to descend. First.
 however, he looked at the setting sun,
 which was casting a flood of gold over
 the water. He noticed then that the l wreck was beyond the reach of the waves I and that the water had left on the sand many delicate shells as large as his hand and wonderfully brilliant As the sun
 was on the point of setting. the shells l opened Bach contained either little I lady or little gentleman. gayiy tricked 1 out in many-colored garments. and the
 little ladies and little gentlemen came
 forth from their shells and. leaning on their long canes, formed themselves into large company. Thereupon they conversed with each |
 other. and the tinkling sound of their |
 voices was so harmonious that Eloi was |
 delighted beyond measure. The little |
 creatures bowed to each other .n most | courtly style. danced in a manner rather
 sedate and amused themselves in thou
 sand different ways. The scene changed,
 however. as soon as the sun dropped into tho west, like ducat into poorbox. The | boded evil for them. the tiny creatures as quickly as possible to their homes and the shells again closed on them.
 Eloi. whom this unusual sight had much saw at the same moment that the place which he occupied would soon be unsafe. Indeed, there was barely time , to get. back to shore, for the wind was . rising and the noise of the mounting , waves grew louder every minute. So he { Jumped down from the wreck, and with put thinking of what he was doing pick ! d up one of the wondereful shells At ! the same moment a storm arose and tho waves rushed shoreward with great speed. , frightened but still keeping . he shell in the palm of his hand. he hur- ' ned toward land. the waves meanwhile pursuing him. while a thousand voices | ,ried amid the tempest: 1t
 Stop the marauder! Drown him! Don't I ct him escape!"
 The lights of the city were hardly vis- ' ble and Eloi, who was quite out of 7 ,reath. had to stop running. Thereupon ! he water stung his feet. the voices grew . nore menacing as they shouted, we've ! sot himi" and strange to say. the shell f which he held became suddenly as heavy | i IS large rock. As he staggered on he f vas constantly afraid that the angry waves would overpower him. and in the iope of saving his life he was on the h 'cint of throwing away the shell when f uddenly the thought struck him. good n ortune comes to every man once during is life and this gave him strength and f outrage. By a final effort he gained the i l7ore. crawled up the steps over the ram art and sank exhausted on a bench. In f is hand he stili held the wonderful prize a 1t the foot of the wall the waves |. hecl1ed in their course, leaped in vain. nd as they fell back they growled like h 7fld beasts that had missed their prey. h As soon as he reached his garTet Eioi h the she'll and never before had h e seen one so beautiful. Benignly in se twilight it s4lone like a sanctuary imp. Elci then decided to open it in or W CT to find out if it contained little lady f! r gentleman. He tried to insert the a Jade of knife between the valves, but Is labor was in vain, for he broke the m Jade and the shell was not even scratch l. He then tried to force it open with d.
 hammer and a steel chisel, but at the tl iird blow the chiseI broke as though 1t Il 'as made of glass. An awI, an augur. " Till. a gimlet and a file were equally u owerless to make an impression on the u lagic shell. Tired out by his vain labor. " ,loi placed the shell on a table near b is bed and went to sleep. H