Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-07


 times. At every step they slipped, for their boots were soaked, and the chalk 1 is greasy and half decomposed, by the | salt water. At times they. paused to | listen, and through the roar of the l wind and sea came the distant note of bell changing continuously. Ut is the bell on Fecamp pier," said Belfort. ''The mist is coming before | dawn To the east the long arm of Fecamp l light swung slowly round the horizon 1 from the summit of the great bluff of l Notre Dame du Salut, as if sweeping l the sea and elbowing away all that dared approach so grim coast.
 "Ah!' exclaimed the priest. II am in 1 the water The tide is coming up." To their left a wall of foam and spray shut off all view of the sea. On the right the cliff rose, a vast barrier, and cut the sky in two. These two men had nothing in common. They 1 had indeed standing between them l that sword which was brought into the world nineteen hundred years ago and is still unsheathed. But neither thought of turning back. It had been agreed between them that they should make what speed they could along the shore and only turn back at the last moment searching the sea and beach as they returned in the light of dawn. Belfort, the leader, the expert in night and tide and wind, led the way, with one eye on the sea, the other on the eastern sky, which was now show ing gray through tossing clouds.
 "Here we must turn,' he said sud- denly, land the last half mile to the sea wall we shall have to wade"
 They paused and looked up to the sky. Tn half an hour the day would come, but in seventy minutes the break CTS must beat against the sheer cliff.
 ''None has reached the shore alive and with his senses said Belfort, look ing out to sea- "He would have seen our lights and come to us or called if he had broken limbs. It is useless to search the shore too closely. We shall find them here at the edge, half in, half out especially those with life belts, such as we find any winter morning after bad weather"
 He spoke grimly as one who knew that it is not the deep sea that must be paid it's toll but the shoal water, where the rocks and quicksands and crabs and gulls are waiting. They made their way back in silence, and slowly new gray day crept into life. At last they could see the horizon and read the face of the water still torn into seeth- ing chaos of foam. There was no ship upon them. If there had been wreck the storm had done it's work thorough ly. Belfort climbed to the summit of a rock and looked back toward Fecamp. Then he turned and searched the shore toward Yport.
 'There is one,v he cried, "half in, half out, as I said. We shall cheat the crabs at all events, my father"
 And, clambering down, he stumbled on with reckless haste that contrast ed strangely with his speech, for, what ever our words may be, a human life must ever command respect Any may, as some have done, die laughing, but his last sigh must necessarily be of grave faces.
 'HThis one is not dead" said the priest when they had turned the man over and dragged him to dry land. Belfort cut away the life belt, examining it as he did SO.
 "No name,'' he said s'They will have to wait over there in London till he can tell them what ship it was. See; he has been struck on the head, but he made man and light enough to carry some town mouse this, my father, who has never had a wet jacket before. See his face, how white it is, and his little arms and hands. We can carry him, turn and turn about, and shall reach the sea wall before the tide is up, provided we find no more"
 It was full daylight when they at length reached the weed grown steps at the. side of the sea wall, and the smoke was already beginning to rise from the chimneys of Yport. The gale was waning as the day came, but the sea was at its highest, and all the houses facing northward had their wooden shutters up. The waves were breaking over the sea wall, but the two men with their senseless burden took no heed of it. They were all past thinking of salt water.
 Tn answer to their summons Mother Senneville came hastily enough to the back door of the Hotel de la Plage, a small inn of no great promise. Mother Senneville was great woman six feet high, with eye of some ruminating an- imal, the soft, deep voice and perhaps sthe soft heart of giant.
 "Alreadyw she said simply as she held the door back for them to pass in. T thought there would likely be some this morning without the money in their pockets" N
 ''This one will not cali too load for his coffee," replied Belfort, with cyn- icism specially assumed for the ben eft of the cure.
 "And now," he added as they laid their burden on the wine stained table. eff he has papers that will tell us the name of the ship will walk to Fe- camp, to Lloyd's agents there, with the