The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-21

her well and strong again. The crisis Is over She will live. But 1t has been hard battle for all of us.v
 dont grudge the little I've done. SIT, but doubt if she'll thank us when she s comes to her senses and learns
 She will be thankful for her life i. the doctor answered sternlv. .we'va ail got to make the best of our mis- ,ortunes. After all, 1t is possible that MT. Shil has not been drowned The wind and tide might have carried him gut 10 sea; he might have been picked up. and the boat--perhaps she's fetched some harbor down the coast"
 Sod rest his soul" Mrs. Dowsett though new to these parts. Iknow noth- ing bout this poor thing, and what call ne had, to be looking after her. but if ne loved her. I don't blame him. Mebbe he's but friend. for they tell me he's soin' to marry an actress in
 Well. must leave you now. rva other patients," interrupted Dr. Hardy. and remember that you must keep the news about Mir. Shil from her If she asks after him. tell her that he called yesterday morning, and will call again ID weeks time. Invent any excuss you like for his absence. say hes got infiuenza, chill. broken arm--anythirg. But keep her mind easy l don't doubt that hell turn up in day or two"
 Dowsett says there ain't A chance ITS the worst gale he remembers th ia tnirty year. You'm not goin' back on the boat?. VI
 No, l am going. to run her up the creek, land at Playle's hard a.nd walk to Gorehaven. Good night Mrs. now- sett. I'll call again tomorrow evening There is no danger You'll find that she has returned to her senses. when she wakes. But be careful what you say to her."
 Mrs, Dowsett saw him to the door. and then returned to the. Kitchen. where her husband sat smoksag before the fire.
 Forty-eight hours had passed since John Shil left the farm. The morning after his departure. Dr. Hardy had waited in vain for his return, and in the afternoon Dowsett had taken q message by land to Black Hall. He returned late at might with the news that Mir. Shfl had left at 9:30 the pre- vtens eysHiTsE in tise punt with the in- tention of sailing down to Conasea Tsl- ana, and that nothing further had been heard of him.
 A search had at once been instituted. but up to the present no trace had been found Of the boat or its owner. Two hundred people, most of them tenants of the missing man, had ex- plored the Black Hall Creek from the quay to the point where it joined the Rarkwater, and thorough search had been made along the banks on either side of the Conasea Creek. But owing to the terrible storm which swept the estuary itself it had been almost im- possible to investigate the deeper and more open waters. They had tele- graph cd to Gorehaven for the help of two fishing smacks but both had been obliged to put back into harbor, one of them with the loss Of hand, who had been swept overheard.
 The wind. which had been offshore when John Shil had started to cross the Darkwater, and had then shifted to the north. had continued it's course round the compass. and. as 1t increased In volume, had finally settled down into the sou-east There was no shelter from it's fury in the estuary. and the men who returned to Gorehaven, and who had encountered it's full violence in the open sea, said that they could not remember such gale from that quarter since the day the Tullibardisne had been wrecked on the Black Deep Sands nearly thirty years ago.
 But Dowsett. whose smack was, so to speak, in home waters. and who had not been f0rced to face the fury oe the open sea, had not hesitated to give all the assistance in his power He had only returned from the search half an hour before Dr. Hardy's departure. Since daybreak he, had been one in the William and Sarah with q storm jib and a trysail, and the water over his iee-raii, and had come back wet, hum gry, and exhausted. But his efforts had been in vain. He had seen noth- ing of John Shi1 or the missing boat.
 How be the lass7" he said. as his wife entered the room.
 She'll be right enough, so doctor says. But she's not to know nothin'. Sam. Iris to be kept from her."
 "I aint one for talking" the man replied grudiy. but I can tell you I don't like this business, and if 1t weren't as likes Mir. Shil---p
 Don't talk of him." the woman said in an awe-struck voice. Hem where your likes and dislilses won't reach him"
 "No. poor chap. Iris no use they searching, 'cept for the body. Sure, I never seed such a gale from SOUL east. Twas all we could do to wealth CT it and that little log of punt. LOT bless you, Mary, 'tweren't more'n an old box, and he no sailor, either"
 '"Tweren't blowin' so hard night be- fore last"
 "Tweren't blowin' hard enough for him, and dark, too and srat'nin'. I reckon he lost his bearin's in the Darkwater. and got taken seawards. She'd make a lot of leeway. would that old punt,
 ""ris a terrible night" said Sam Dowsett after a long silence. The tone of his voice suggested that he had been considering the matter. and had been forced to come to this conclu- sion.
 ''Ay, sure" his wife replied. as she peeled a large misshapen potato. ''where be the boat? I've bin thinkin' there's a big sea .runnin' against her moorin's."
 5 "shem right up the creek. on them old moorin's. as we don't use owin' to their befn' so far away. I thought it'd be better to take her up there, BiiIs sleepin' aboard her t,night."
 Mrs. Dowset nodded approval.
 And doctors boat?" she asked.
 'We lowed her up"
 "Is the old dinghy here?"
 "Yes, for sure. She'm nearly osn top of the bank Why do you worrit about the boats so?"
 .T was thinkin'," Mrs. Dowsett re- plted, turning round to him. twill be a big tide tonight. We don't want to lose the old dinghy"
 "The tide ain't never bin near her this last six months, and she wouldn't -
 Dr. Price. the famous food