Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-08-24
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CYCLONE.

A shining faced negro waiter came up
In answer 10 the bell and brought tun-
blers OF tiukling ice and water. Both
Carnbel and Miss Kildare drank thirst
lily and then lay back in their cane
chaires painting. The close heat was
something terrible There was not
breath OF either sea breeze or land
breeze. and the electric fan which
Whirred on the table behind them did
little more than send a blast OF sickly
warmth Down the long lire of the
piazza were the rest of the people in
the hotel the men cursing and mop
ping their faces, the women with closed
eyes tanning themselves languidly.
And overhead the shingles of the roof
cracked and rustled in the baking air
as though they were alive.
Night came and the bell clashed out
its summons to dinner but no one went
in. The wooden sides Of the hotel
baked through aud through by month
of tropical sun, had made the rooms
uncudurable. So they staid where they
We're in the rot, oppressive dark and
bliuked at the white summer lightning
which splashed the violet heavens in
front Of them. IN heavy painting beats
the night seemed to close down upon
them and pen them in, so that il was a
labor 10 breathe
Il can't stand this" said Miss Kill
dare at last
GU NC Ebk TO- ttJtittA Ntillbti Ntclf -
lily, unless YOU choose TO so down the
beach and sit in the water with your
clothes on
THAT would be some relief, although
the water is as hot as tea. But l shant
do that. | shall walk along the pier
over the sea. One may faint half way
and tumble over and get drowned. but
anyway that's better than staying here
and being cooked slowly"
They got UP together and strolled
wearily over the loose white sand and
then more crisply over the worn deck
ing OF the pier. Between the lightning
flashes the darkness above them was
the darkness of cave, but faint phos-
1 phorescent fringes showed out among
the piles beneath. and these guided
them from walking over the edge over
the planks
| You shouldn't stay down there this
4 weather" Cambel said as they paused
down the narrow platform with fingers
/ intertwined. You'll lose your color
4 and your beauty If YOU DO and get
4 thin and sallow like Mrs. Van Lew -
/ No reply came. ana Cambel said moth
( ing more. but walked on, thinking.
4 You've been here now nine whol5
/ days, Pat" the girl said, breaking sill
ence for the second time. when they
were half a mile from the shore.
1T can't be. Yes you're right. Nine
days. Time has gone quickly"
And you've never been out OF the
place once. At least not a dozen mile:
from Point Sebastian"
Mrs, Duyeruay's place was fifteef
miles away. Cambel saw the point
mo" he said. II haven't found time
Il You and have had so much to tell on,
! another"
1--WE always have been very goo,
| friends said the girl and was goini
TO add something else when her word
We're drowned by d furious crash o
thunder
That's close overhead" Cambel re
marked, and something else will fol
low If it's rain. we shall have a del
uge falling in ropes but | fame we'r
In for something different. We ha'
better turn back. Elsie"
- view of this heat, a wetting woul
be a G.stissct luxury, but | think. as yo'
say, there is something else coming be
sides. Oh. Pat. here ii is Run, or W
shall be caught"
The storm gave but one weird mosar
q rustic and a shrek from over tn
tree tops and then was upon them.
a minute il was blowing with a hurr1
cane force which no human being coul
stat3 against.
The wind plucked the feet from unde
them. and they fell TO the deckings {
the pier, gripping with their fingers !
the gaps between the planks A storr
of sand and leaves and twigs bea
against their heads. The crazy trestlt
work OF the pier buckled and swun
| beneath their bodies