Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-05-18

Dawes. From his solitary rock he had
watched the boat pass him and make
for the Lady-bird mcdaniel, and he had
decided that the moment when the gath
ering gloom swallowed her up should be
the moment when he would plunge into
the surge below him. The heavily la
boring boat grew DINNER and DINNER,
as each tug of the oars took her further
from him. Presently, only the figure of
Mr.. TrOke in the stern sheets was Wis
ible; than that also disappeared, and as
the nose of the timber raft rose on the
swell of the next wave, Rufus Dawes
flung himself into the sea.
He was heavily ironed, and he sunk
like stone. He had resolved not to
attempt to swim, and for the first mo-
ment kept his arms raised above his
head In order to sink the quicker. But
as the short, sharp agony of suffocation
caught him, and the shock Of the icy
water dispelled the mental intoxication
under which he was laboring, he desper-
ately struck out, and despite the weight
of his irons, gained the surface for an
instant. AS he did so, all bewildered,
and with the one savage instinct of self
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 ne
clutched it with the tenacity of a death
grip. In another instant he got his head
above water, and, making good his hold,
twisted himself by a violent effort,
across the log.
For a moment he saw the lights from
the stern windows of the anchored ves-
sells 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 crcum-
stance, and in delivering his report to
Vickers mentioned the strange cry he
had heard the night before. "It's 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, busily 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-bird,
an hour later, passed the Grummet
Rock, all on board her believed that the
corpse of Its late occupant was lying
beneath the waves that seethed at its
base.
The drifting log that had so strangely
served as a means of saving Rufus
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 a 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 1t 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, as 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
1t 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, and 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 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 them.