The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-08-23
BY Charles j. Bayne.

oS''tA'S NC
Perhaps you find the bleak air of Brit
tany good for your health" replied Elph-
instone, blowing away the rings from his
c.gar. This was to be a weeks jaunt, l
believe"
oh, l admit that she is good to look
upon and excellent to pa.nt-qu:te a type,
IN fact. But further than that-Umph.
III take the mate to that stog,e."
the small sailboat rocked i%ndolently in
lae ehannei 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
me enamel, 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, if you say So" Marlin resumed after
a pause.
And so it was agreed.
An hour of dolce far niente had passed.
perhaps the smoke of the stog:es OBJ
scure the skies. or the dreams of home
they conjured up had cast an unusual
Spell upon them, for when the two Ameri-
eahs aroused themselves to put back to
st. Malo something had happened.
Already t.ey found thai the culleut of
the channel was running like a mtll race,
the skies We're overcast and inshate the
SURF was booming and Whitening AGAINST
the h%eadlands.
me cathedral tower was scarcely d.stin-
Suishhble against the gray background.
Ire men ooked at each other with en-
pfesslVe silence. and for a moment turned
pale. The nameless dread of a race with
death over waters immemorially cruel was
strong upon them.
We'll, cockn?" Elphinstone tried to
laush at MS allusien to the day when
harvard went to Henley and came home
shorn. w shall ave to fight for IT."
Inc breakers had already become louder
and whittier, and it was hard sailing with
me WIND on the starboard bow. 1t had
grown perceptibly darker, and st. Malo
from its eyrie began to flash intermittent
lights.
An hour had passed. when they finally
came opposite the estuary on which the
rocky citadel stands.
a l.ght seemed to detach itself from the
cluster and waver toward the headland.
where 1t paused at the very brink of the
prec:pice.
"~4Vonne!' exclaimed both men in a
breath. as the figure of a girl stood out
IN Silhouette against the foggyg glow of the
city.
II was not a time for nicknames and in
stlnct1vely they had spoken the Breton
girls name rather than the Rat-a-Pat
~ ~ noOSel S1lOtS.
1ntuitively they realized, moreover. that
anxiety for then-one of them, at least
had brought her there.
Inc lantern in her hand described an arc.
o~scillating 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
OF the surf and the roar of the wind.
Thu 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 fall
in great heavy drops which pattered Xix
hail on the taut anvas. And then
The mainsail tapped!
To the experienced ears which hear 1T
1t was a signal of despair.
The wind had shifted and now blew
straight from shore.
In the waning twilight the two mon
looked at each other hopelessly and as if in
answer to their darkest fears the keel
crunched and quivered. Then the boat was
still, except that it 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 a fable more or less cum
hlAO u lilllc OIL lEe Ell
round history of Brittany, where among
all VINO 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 lave gathered and
crystallized.
fvonne had inherited more than her
share of this wistful charm, Joined with
the full freshness of youth, which half de-
ned the leveling process OF environment.
st. Malo watched her with pride as she
came and went, and when she appeared in
her simple finery on the feast of the Vir-
gin there was a general consent that she
deserved a better fortune than usually
found its way to Brittany.
Her 'practiced eye had detected the first
signs Of the oncoming storm, and as fast
as her pattering sabots could carry her she
had hurried home for a lantern, and then
tediously climbed the cliff which looks out
across the channel. Far away in the Off
Ing she discovered the light boat lufhng
lamely against the wind and waved her
lantern as a beacon in the gathering
gloom.
She knew that she herself. poised on
the beetling precipice stood in danger al
most as great as that which threatened
M'seu Marlin-and the other. She heard
the breakers with their white teeth eating
into the cliff a hundred feet below-stead-
angrily gnawing away the treacherous
Foundation on which she stood.
1t was one of the many terrors which
walked in darkness and DESTROYED at noon
day i'll this unchartered man-trap of the
.forld.
Suddenly. and almost without surprise.
she felt the firm earth yielding beneath
her feet.
And then all grew dark.
When consciousness finally returned tho
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 avalanches 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 pr~ecipitately above her to
where it met the drab expanse of the sky.
while equally far below her she heard the
seet1ing and plunging against
the base of the headland.
1t was no enigma with which her mind
to wrestle.
The action of the waves had eaten away
the base Of the cliff, the longitudinal sur
face of which had crumbled into the sea.
way in its fall the loosened mass of
earth had parted on an imbedded strata
OF sandstone, and on this narrow ledge,
between sea and sky, Yvonne had found a
Judgment.
Still living with her face m tho Civ oh,