Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-08-22
BY Charlie. j. Raxna
Copyright. 1904. by w. r.. Hoarst.)

could be more absurd. and settled him
self more comfortably against the tiller.
Perhaps you lind the bleak air OF Brit
tany good for your health" replied Elph-
i%nstone. blowing away the rings from his
cigar. This was to be a weeks jaunt, l
believe"
oh. l admit that she is good to look
upon and excellent to p~aint-quite a type.
in fact. But further than that-umph.
III take the mate to that stogie."
The small satlboat rocked indolently in
the channel and the headlands of the
Breton coast seemed never at the same
time so peaceful and picturesque.
And yet the fact remained that this was
the channel. and that the treacherous
coast OF Brittany. with its tiger claws
sheathed under the velvet waters.
Not necessarily as a defense, but as an
evidence of good faith. we will fold our
sketches and steal away to Paris tomor-
row. II you say So" Marlin resumed after
q pause.
And so IL was agreed.
An hour of dolce far niente had passed.
Perhaps the smoke OF the stogies OBJ
scure the skies. or the dreams of home
they conjured up had cast an unusual
spell upon them, for when the two Ameri-
cans aroused themselves to put back to
st. Malo something had happened.
Already they found that the current OF
the channel was running like a mil race,
the skies were overcast and inshore the
surf was booming and whitening against
the headlands.
The cathedral tower was scarcely distln-
guishable against the gray background.
Inc men looked at each other with eX-
preesive silence, and for a moment turned
pale. The nameless dread of a race with
death over waters immemorially cruel was
strong upon them.
Well, cock'n?" Elphinstone tried to
laugh at his allusion to the day when
Harvard went to Henley and came home
shorn. we shall have to light for it,
me breakers had already become louder
and whittier, and 1t was hard sailing with
the wind on the starboard bow. 1t had
grown perceptibly darker, and st. Malo
from its eyre began to flash intermittent
lights.
An hour had passed. when they finally
came opposite the estuary on which the
rocky citadel stands.
A light seemed to detach itself from the
cluster and waver toward the headland,
where 1t paused at the very brink of the
prccipice.
breath. as the figure of a. girl stood out
in silhouette against the foggy glow of the
city.
IL was not a time for nicknames and in
stinctively they had spoken the Breton
girls name rather than the Rat-a-Pat
SNeSNotsN ny neT wooden SHOES.
.lntuitively they realized. moreover. that
anxiety for of them. at least
had brought her there.
The lantern In her hand described an are.
oscillating to and fro. and half revealed
the mass of waving hair which the wind
Melted and coiled against her face.
But no sound came above the booming
or the surf and the roar of the wind.
Inc sight of her infused new courage
into the exhausted sailors. and with a
quick shift of sail and tiller they steered
for the mouth of the estuary.
AT the same moment rain began to fan
in great heavy drops which battered like
hail on the taut canvas. And then
The mainsail Tapped.
To the experienced ears which hear il
1t was II signal of despair.
The wind had shifted and now blew
straight from shore.
In the waning twilight the two men
looked at each other hopelcssly and as IL in
answer to their darkest fears the keel
cruncled and quivered. Then the boat was
still, except that 1t rocked in the wild
cradle OF the double currents which met
and snarled around them.
They glanced towards the headland.
The light was gone.
Those who think the incidents of that
November night n fable more or less cum
nlngly devised know but little of the year
round history OF Brittany, where among
all who cast their nets the greatest is
Death. as the Fisher of Men. They have
not looked Into the sad gray eyes where
generations OF tears have gathered and
crystallized.
1t was one Of the many terrors which
walked In darkness and destroyed at noon
day in this unchartered man-trap of the
world.
Suddenly. and almost without surprise.
Sne 1e!t the firm earth Nipi1fpp hopn.tI
her feet.
And then ell grew dark.
When consciousness finally returned the
caution of her race was first to assert
itself. She opened her eyes, and, without
stirring. swept the range of vision. Like
a hunter who knows the avalanchcs she
put out a stealthy hand. 1t met the clod-
ded surface of a rock. With upturned
face she traced the black escarpment of
the cliff. rising precipitately above her to
where it met the drab expanse of the sky.
while equally far below her she heard the
breakers seething and piunging against
the base of the headland.
IT was no enigma with which her mind
had to wrestlc.
The action of the waves had eaten away
the base OF the cliff, the longit udinal sur
face Of which had crumbled into the sea. |
Half way in its fall the loosened mass of
earth had parted on an imbedded strata |
or sandstone, and on this narrow ledge. !
between sea and sky, Yvonne had found a
perilous Judgment.
Still lying with her face to the sky. she |
extended her hands to get the dimensions |
OF her strai.ened bed. Then slowly rails
ing herself to her feet she leaned hard
against the cliff. and looked off towards |
the reef on which the boat had been
driven.
She could distinguish nothing in the UNI
broken gloom OF the sea. Her heart sank.
For the nrSf time she frarphInI a,I /
clutched at the sheer wall behind her. How |
long had she remained in the stupor of