The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1905-08-10

Indifferent to my own fate. But the
sounds of excitement had their effect
on me, and I was soon cropping for my
clothes and struggling to get them on
before joining the frantic mob on
deck.
1 succeeded in getting myself clad,
as regards shirt and trousers. At this
point l became panic-stricken, and
feeling that l was surely doomed if
the ship sank, l breathed a prayer and
Edith's name at the same time and
sank on the floor.
just then the door of my stateroom
was flung open and Maubikeck ap-
peared. He picked me up from the
floor, wrapped my overcoat around me,
and taking me in his arms as if l was
a child, he hurried out and up the
companionway onto the deck. Here
was a of almost indescribable
confusion. The lights on the deck
glimmered but dimly through the fog,
and the whole scene was enveloped
in a dense blackness. Yet 1 could dis
tinguish the forms of men rushing
madly to and fro. cursing, shouting,
and crying, having no aim except to
a themselves, regardless of the fate
of others.
But how grandly different was the
lion-tamer! With me in his arms, he
sped over the slippery uphill deck to
a place at the rail where a boat was
being lowered.
l saw the forms of women in it, and
realized that the Queens officers had
insisted upon the rule at sea of saving
the ONE first. Maubikeck was about
to step into the boat.
"Stand back there!" some one
shouted. There's room for only one
more in here!"
"You go!" I said. "Nita needs you"
keep still" he said sternly, and
as calmly as if nothing stood in the
way of our safety. Calling to the Off
Ger in charge of the boat, the lion
tanner said: Here! If there is O
for one more, take him. This is Mr..
Wilberton of the Lotus Club, New
York. He is ill. Do your best for
him."
l felt myself taken by other hands,
and gasped out a word of gratitude to
my preserver.
"Listen!" he said. eff you are saved
and | am not, save Nita from Maligni.".
81 will save her at any COST" I an
swered, at the same time thinking that
my promise amounted to little, so
weak was I, and SO poor a stick in this
emergency.
But there was no time for further
words. The boat that 1 was in plunged
out into the darkness, and all l could
see was the great black hull looming
up in the fog, her bows now almost
under water, and through the thick,
black night came the agonized cries
and shrieks of those who had been left
behind. And as l heard them, Thought
of Maubikeck. That noble, stalwart
hero, standing there-I could almost
see him, SO clear was it in my mind
peering out into the darkness to watch
if possible the progress of our boat,
and not a murmur nor a sound of fear
over his own probable fate.
Other boats had been put off, and
the hope of those in our boat was
that their loved ones might be in one
of the other boats, and might, there
fore, be rescued by some passing YES
sci. 1t was unanimously agreed that
for those who remained on board the
Queen there was no hope.
All night we were butfeted by the
waves and chilled by the damp, cold
air that swept around us, and from
which we had no protection. That
night seemed interminable. If time
could be measured by misery, then
it was nigh unto eternity before the
morning broke.
The sailors were weary and nearly
exhausted by their labors at the oars.
The murmuring and sobbing Of the
women had given way to a condition
of mute despair. But even misery ends
sometimes without being relieved by
the great Destroyer.
(To be continued.)
Increase in Cremation.
T-~rz IT, L