The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1904-03-24

stubborn, fruitful, had come to despoll
the west of its secrets!
Let all the elements therefore join
in riotous revolt! Let earth and sea
and sky make common cause! Rage,
waves and blaze, ye fiery tongues,
and threaten, forests, with all your
ominous voices! Smite, destroy, or ter
rify into swift retreat this little band!
Crush out their tenement! Loosen and
brush off this feeble fngergrasp at
the ancient Threshold! With banners
of flame, with armies of darkness, with
shoutngs of the captains of the
storms, assail, denude, destroy, if even
by the agony of their horrors, these
feeble folk now come hither! And by
this more especially since they would.
set the seal of fruitfulness upon the
land, and bring upon the earth gen
GRAFTON yet to follow. Hover about this
, bed in the frail and swaying lodge of
! bark and boughs, all ye most terrify
ing spirits. Let not this thing be.
"Mother of Cod" cried Jean Bre.
| boeuf, bending low and pulling his
tunic tighter by the belt. as he came
gasping into the faint circle of light
which still remained at the fire log.
"'Tis murderous, this storm! All, Mon
sieur du Mesne, we are dead men! But
what matter? 'Tis as well now as later.
Said not so to you all the way down
Michiganon from the straits? A rab
bit crossed my path at the last camp
before Michilimaclinac, and when we
took our boat to leave the mission at
the straits, three crows flew directly
across our way. Did | not beSccch you
to turn back? Did | not tell you,
most of all, that we had no right hon
est voyageurs that we are, to leave for
the woods without confeSsing to the
good father? IT'S two years now since
| have been proper shIiven. and two
years is too long for a voyageur to re-
main unahsolyed. Mother of God!
When | see the lightnings and listen
to that wind. bethink me of my sins
my sins! | vow bale of beaver"
"Pish Jean" responded Du Mesne,
who had come in from the cover of
the wood and was casting about in
the darkness as best he might TO see
that all was made secure. "ThOult
feel better when the sun shines again.
Call Pierre Noir, and hurry, or our
canoe will pound to bits upon the
beach Gomez"
All three went now knee-deep in the
surf. and Du Mcsne, clinging to the
gunWale as he passed out, was soon
waist deep, and time and again lost
his footing in the food.
'Pull!" he cried at last Now, en-
avant!" He had flung himself over
the stern and with his knife cut the
hide rope of the anchor-stone. Over
board again in an instant, he joined
the Others in their rush up the beach,
and the three bore their ship upon
their shoulders above the reach of the
waves.
Myself" said Pierre Noir, shall
sleep beneath the boat tonight, for
since she sheds water from below, she
may do as well from above"
Even SO, Pierre Noir,' said Du
Mesne, but get you the boat farther
toward your own camp tonight. DO
you not see that Monsieur Las is not
with us?'
"Eh benz"
And were he not surely with us at
such time, unless-?"
"Oh, assurement." replied Pierre
Noir. Jean Breboeuf, aid me in talk
ing the boat back to our camp in the
woods
Now came the rain. Not in steady
and even downpour, not with inter
mittent showers, but in a sidolong, ter
rifying torrent, drenching, biting, cut
ting in its violence The swift weight
of the rain gave to the trees more bur
den than they could bear AS before
the storm, when all was still there
had come time and again the warning
boom of falling tree. stricken with
mysterious mortal dread of that which
was to come, SO now, in the riot of
that arrived danger, first one and then
another wide-armed monarch of the
wood crashed down, adding with its
downfall to the testimony of the as
sailing tempest's strength and fury.
The lightning now came not only in
ragged blazes and long ripping lines
of light but in bursts and shocks, and
in bomb-like balls, exploding with ele-
mental detonations. Balls of this tense
surcharced essence rolicd ont over the
comb of the bluff, fell upon the shad-
ows of the water and seemed to bound
from crest to white-capped crest, ill
at last they split and burst asunder
dixie some ominous missiles from en-
gineS of wrath and destruction.
And now, suddenly, all grew still
again. The sky took on a lighter, livid
tone, one of pure venom. There came
whisper, murmur, a rush as Of
mighty waters, signing as of an army
of the condemned, a shrieking rs Of
legions of the lost, a roaring as of all
the soul-felt tOrtures of a world From
the forest rose a continuous reuding
crash. tt. whipash Of the tempest
cracked the tree trunks as a child be-
heads a row of daisies. Piled up fall
ing, riyen asunder. torn out by the
wind, the giant trees joined the toys
which the cynic storm gathered In its
hands and bore along until such time