The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11

Twelve days before Christmas, two hundred miles east by north rom
 where Cape Sable's house and hagstan look out on the dead mems sea, ana
 A feecy fog lying thick and endless
 over all the rolling ocean from one
 end of the Grand Bank to the other. | In 1t, within a radius of forty miles. each invisible to the rest, fleet or
 more than one hundred sail, pitching | to anchor and each one praying for the gray ghosts of the Bank to dis solve that they may hurry their work | for the Christmas fare of fish
 rink. tank! Spink, spink! Dong dong, Boom, boom!" 1t rings from
 every quarter. from miles away and close abeam-the hundred warning cries of the anchored vessels. as each
 with bell and horn calls out ID deep sea language, "A fisherman! A fisher
 man" that the speeding steamships east and west bound across the foggy
 shoals. shall step, aside in, their flight. From far away. infinitely far away
 Infinitely mournful and infinitely sort,
 steals a sound where the sWlrled iog
 smokes its thickest. Fainter than all the warning bells, softer than all the
 snoring horns, 1t yet draws through
 and sounds over them all. Scarcely
 has the ear caught its first sorrowtul
 note, ere its second comes twice as loud'
 Tben the third, still louder, beating with A rush of sound on the strained
 ears Through 1t and with It, heaNy
 steady pounding, as. or great pump
 panting hard.
 With one accord, din rises from the hidden fleet. Bells cease their slo" tolling and beat madly Horns plare above horns as If they were blown Tn
 desperate attempt to shiver the draped
 mis.ts.
 Steaming Through the Fleet. } But high over allthe noises or the fishing boats, the slow drawn sound a roar now, hurries fast toward 'hehi- it's plaintive wall changed to vast formless menace. It rushes like the wind. Straight at the fleet 1t sweeps. The noundinR is a wild rush and fury of torn waters now. With It comes the sharp splitting sound Of seas cut Dy
 flying wedge. Filling all the world with It's clamor 1t sweeps by unseen, leaving the nsh , ing fleet dipping and rolling on ooth beams A few. close to the has'ihs terror. catch the sudden swaying of tattered fog wreaths as the great ship rins through them. Then they close in again. and. fast as 1t had rushed on ms. inc noise fades in the mysterious . east.
 The hammering bells win their voices again. Again the horns snore lorth their slow, regular lingering warnings , then. suddenly. for moment IL IS as if all the fishing fleet held it's breath. From far away. down in the whiteness whence comes the soft. sweet mourn ing of the fleeing ships siren, cracks a sharp sound. echolhs 'ie" ''o' ] the oily swells -, . lover the dories! Over! She's cut in two!' Was it the command from our toss ing craft or from a score Of others! The words seemed uttered simultane- ouslv from all the quarters of the comnsss: and almost at once come the snlash of oars on every side-all head ing in the same direction
 Then silence falls again. almost mag icallv: and again. still farther away now steals the soft, sweet wall, dying ] dying. derer," Out of the fog, supernatural ly. floats the voice
 } .rwonder who 1t was! The Mary Saw : age was lying over that way.' floats another voice. made thin by dense va DOTS and distance.
 waiting for the Unseen. So. between the measured strokes
 lof the bells and the blasts Of the horns invisible watchers speculate over fifty
 fathoms of green water, and walt foi
 that which they cannot see.
 Thicker swirls the fog, and with levery movement of the gltstening deck