The Western news., 1906-05-30

| preservation predominant over all other
| thoughts, he became conscious of a huge
black mass surging upon him out of the
darkness. An instant's buffet with the
| current, an Intellectual attempt to dive
beneath 1t, a horrible sense that the
weight at his feet was dragging him
down-and the huge log, loosened from
the raft, was upon him, crushing him be-
meath its rough and ragged sides. The
log passed completely over him, thrust
ing him beneath the water, but his hand,
scraping along the splintered side, came
in contact with the loop of hide rope
that yet hung round the mass and he
clutched it with the tenacity of death
grip In another instant he got his head
above water, and, making good his hold,
twisted himself, by violent effort,
across the log.
For a moment he saw the lights from
the stern windows of the anchored YES
sels low in the distance; Grummet Rock
disappeared on his left; then, exhausted,
breathless, and bruised, he closed his
eyes, and the drifting log bore him swift
ly and silently away into the darkness.
At daylight the next morning, Mr..
Troke, landing on the prison rock, found
it deserted. The prisoners cap was
lying on the edge of the little cliff, but
the prisoner himself had disappeared.
Pulling back to the Lady-bird, the intel
ligent Troke pondered on the circum-
stance, and in delivering his report to
Vickers mentioned the strange cry he
had heard the night before. Its my
belief, sir, that he was trying to swim
the bay" he said. HE must ha' gone
to the bottom anyhow, for he couldn't
swim five yards with them irons.'
Vickers, busiy engaged in getting un
der way, accepted this very natural sup
position without question. The prisoner
had met his death either by his own act
or by accident. 1t was either suicide
or attempt to escape, and the former
conduct Of Rufus Dawes rendered the
latter explanation a more probable one.
In any case, he was dead. AS Mr.. Troke
rightly surmised, no man could swim the
bay In irons; and when the Lady-blrd,
an hour later, passed the Grummet
Rock, all on board her believed that the
corpse of it's late occupant was lying
beneath the waves that seethed at its
base.
The drifting log that had so strangely
Dawes swan with the current that was
running out Of the bay. For some time
the burden that it bore was an insen-
sible one. Exhausted with his desper
ate struggle for life, the convict lay
along the rough bark of this heaven
sent raft without motion, almost without
breath. At length VIOLENT shock awoke
him to consciousness, and he perceived
that the log had become stranded on a
sandy point, the extremity of which was
lost in darkness. Painfully raising him
self from his uncomfortable posture, he
staggered to his feet, and, crawling a
few PAGES up the beach. flung himself
upon the ground and slept.
When he woke up it was past mid
day, and the sun poured its full rays
upon him. His clothes were dry in all
places, save the side ON which he had
been lying, and he rose to his feet re-
freshed by his long sleep. He scarcely
comprehended, is yet, his true position.
He had escaped, it was true, but not
for long. He was versed in the history
Of escapes, and knew that man alone
on that barren coast was face to face
with starvation or recapture. Glancing
up at the sun, he wondered indeed how
it was that he had been free so long
Then the coal sheds caught his eye, and
he understood that they were untenant-
ed. This astonished him, end he began
to tremble with vague apprehension. En-
tering, he looked around, expecting ev-
cry moment to see some lurking consta-
BILE or armed soldier. Suddenly his
glance fell upon the loaves which lay
in the corner where the departing CON
victs had flung them the night before
At such a moment, this discovery seem
ed like a direct revelation from heaven
He would not have been surprised had
they disappeared. Had he lived in an
other age, he would have looked round
for the angel who had brought hem.
cro he coutinued.l