Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1906-09-29
for The Term of His Natural Life
BY MARCUS CLARKE



had been the progress of the schooner
under the steady breeze. and the ocean
stretched around, black and desolate.
Gazing upon this gloomy expanse Ru.
fus Dawes observed a strange phenom-
enon-lightning appearing to burst up
ward from the sulen bosom of the sea.
At intervals, the darkly rolling waves
flashed fire, and streaks Of fame shot
upward. The tone of a wOman's voice
recalled him to himself. Cautiously I'M
locking the cabin door, he peered out.
The cuddy was lighted by a. swinging,
lamp which revealed Sylvia questioning
one OF the women concerning the storm.
Locking the door, he proceeded hastily
to dress himself in NOrth's clothes. He
would wait until his aid was absolutely
required, and then rush out. In the dark
ness Sylvia would mistake him for the
priest. He could convey her to the boat
if recourse to the boats should be rem
dered necessary-and then take the haz-
ard of his fortune. While she was in
danger his place was near her
From the deck of the vessel tho scene
was appalling. The clouds had closed
in. The arch of light had disappeared
and all was a dull, windy blackness. Gil
gantic seas seemed to mount in the hori-
zon and sweep toward and upon them.
1t was as though the ship lay in the
vortex of whirlpool, 30 high on either
side of her were piled the rough pyra-
midical masses of sea. The vessel lay
almost on her beam ends with her helm
up, stripped even of the sails which had
been furled upon the yards. Mortal
hands could do nothing for her. BY 8
o'clock in the morning the gale had
reached its height.
The sea, pouring down through the
burst hatchway, tore the door of the
| cuddy from its hinges. Sylvia found her
self surrounded by a wildly surging tor
rent which threatened to overwhelm her
She shrieked aloud for aid, but her voice
was inaudible even to herself. Clinging
to the mast which penetrated the little
cuddy, she whispered a last prayer for
succor. The door opened, and from out
the cabin came a figure clad in black.
She looked up, and the light of the ex-
piring lamp showed her a face that was
not that of the man she had expected to
see. Then a pair of dark eyes beaming
| ineffable love and pity were bent upon
her, and a pair Of dripping arms held
her above the brine as she had once been
held In the misty mysterious days that
were gone
In the terror of that moment, the
cloud which had so long oppressed her
brain passed from it. The action of the
strange man before her completed and
explained the action of the convict chain
ed to the Port Arthur coal wagons, of
the convict kneeling in the Norfolk ISL
| and torture chamber. She remembered
the terrible experience of Macquarie
| Harbor. She recalled the evening of the
boat building, when, swung into air by
stalwart arms, she had promised the res
cuing prisoner to plead for him with her
kindred. Regaining her memory thus,
all the agony and shame of the mans
long life of misery became at once APP
parent to her She understood how her
husband had deceived her, and with
what base injustice and falsehood he
had bought her young love. No ques-
ton as to how this doubly condemned
prisoner had escaped from the hideous
isle of punishment she had quit occur
red to her She asked not-even in her
thoughts-how it had been given to him
to supplant the chaplain in his place on
board the vessel. She only considered
in her sudden awakening, the story OF
his wrongs, remembered only his marvel
Gus fortitude and love, knew only, In
this apparently last instant of her pure
Inflated life that as he had saved hel
once from starvation and death, so hac
he come again to save her from despair
The eyes of the man and woman met
in one long, wild gaze. Sylvia stretched
out her white hands and smiled, and
Richard Devine understood in his turn
the story of the young girls joyless life
and knew how she had been sacrificed
In the great crisis Of our life. when
brought face to face with humiliation
we are suspended gasping over the grea'
emptiness of death, we become conscious
that tho self which we think we knew 81
well has strange and unthought-of ca
pacities. To describe a tempest of thu
elements Is not easy, but to describe
!, tempest Of the soul Is impossible. Amids
the fury of such tempest, Thousand
memories each bearing In It's breast thu
corpse of some dead deed whose infiu
ence haunts US yet, are driven like feath
ers before the blast, as unsubstantia
and AZ unregarded. The mists whicl
, shroud our self-knowledge become trans
parent, and we are smitten with sudden
lightning-like comprehensions of our owl
misused power over our fate.
This much we feel and know, but VIII
can coldly describe tho hurricane whic
thus overwhelms him? As well ask tn
drowned mariner to tell Of the marvel
' of mid-sea when the great deeps swal
, lowed him and the darkness of death OF
comprised him round about These tw
\ human beings felt that they had don
! with life. Together thus, alone In tn
very midst and presence of death, tn
| 5t.<;c~+tons ~ fha world diaapraa raf