Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-09-11

expecI II TO remain nxed in one aspect
Whether in calm or storm. the con-
trary would surely happen ere many
days had passed. But life was diff
ferent thing How came it that at the
very close Of SO many years of asso-
ciation with the tickle ocean she should
play such a trick on him and his
daughters. infold them with perils.
snatch them from the quiet pleasures
of the life they had planned for the IN /
trre and thrust upon them. even if +
they escaped with their lives. pub /
licity which he. at any rate. abhorred |
! and even dreaded!
He harbored no delusions on this
point He knew that the drama OF the
Gulf Rock was now filing the columns
of newspapers all over Lle world. lie
and his beloved girls would be written
about. discussed, described in fulsome
language, pictured by black and white
artists and eulogized by wideawake
editors eager to make much OF a topic
dear to the public mind.
On the rock they were undoubtedly
lin grave danger. Death confronted
u
CHASTITY. No tyrant of the middle ages,
with all his paraphernalia for wiring
ing truth or lies out OF crlnglng
i wretches, had devised such fate as
threatened if the inconstant sea should
choose to render the reef altogether
unapproaehable for, many days. Yet II
help came he and those dear to him
were already stepped in unavoidable
notoriety, bringing in its train certain
4 vague disabilities which he had striven
to avoid for over twenty years.
And all this because one fierce gale
out of the many he had endured
sprang into being at a moment when
his mates were incapacitated and his
daughters happened to pay him sur
prise visit.
..It is an insane freak of fortune" he
muttered. $50 incomprehensible, SO ut
terly out of focus with common events,
that if were a superstitious man L
should regard it as betokening the ap-
| proach of some great epoch in my life.
Surely, a merciful Providence would
\ not bring my girls here to subject them
to the lingering torture of hunger and
: thirst. 1 must not think Of it further.
| That way lies madness
| There was at least one other troubled
/ soul on the rock which OWNED some
/ sinister portent in the storm. Mrs.
| Vansittart, even at this moment, was
8 staring into the black void with ques-
i tioning eyes.
r He resolutely threw back his head as
:, if he would hurl into the outer dark
e ness the gibbering phantom which
e whispered these words of foreboding
' Although the lamp needed no attention
inst then. he climbed to the trimming
: stage merely to find relief in mechan
h ical action. He carefully examined th'
q 4 adjustment, and, to-; Judge how TIT
r weather was shaping, went out into tn
gallery to look at the distant lights.
{ The three quick flashes of the Sever
Stones lightship were very clear. Tha
is was a good sign. The wind came iron
that quarter. and, clustering though
was, driving gigantic waves before
h into the loud embrace of the reef,
maintained the good promise OF tn
d. last few hours. ~! i.
n Seeking the comparative shelter, g
o. the east side, he gazed steadily at th
Iizard!; ;SIts two fixed ELECTRIC beams
m nearly In, line with, the Gulf iREock Rock, wer
dull. and watery. A local squall of raj
90 was sweeping down from the LAM
:" Changeable,,. threatening, unsettled
the meteoroiogist might apply any
% these terms to the prevalent cond
II 4 TONS ~ y t#s ~ =, =
a. Far orti lin the channel he saw Il
N twinkling smasthead lights, of sever
steamers. Blow high or low. mai
"a must travel and vessels put to sea.
be such q night at other times he wou
re-enter the lighthouse with cheel
no sense of its comfort and homelike a
I pect. Now he dreaded the brilliant
no terror of the service room. Its garl
~, aspect i'll accorded with the patie
e.. misery, the useless repinings, the in
10 briate stapor which crouched beneat
co If he and those committed to his char
nj. were to be saved either the sea mt
bo be stilled or another miracle OF t
+oo Ioayes and fishes enacted.
There, alone on the gallery, amid t
- din of bowling wind and ceasele
-, plant of the waves, he seemed to