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

beach and the wind, plank at time.
The girl was strong and accustomed 10
using her muscles. but skirts are poor
rig TO play caterpillar IN, and her pro-
gress was slow even with Cambefs
help When they had gained score of
yards. she bade him leave her 10 make
the best of his own way. Il shall get
along all right" she cried GO and
tell them I'm coming
Naturally / should" he shouted
back with a laugh. Here, let me link
my arm inside yours. That right.
Now Wen ferr: along at twice the
pace.
But they did not get much farther
minute afterward to the kick of a
hard squall, the gray old pier tottered
and Clattered and crinched, and the
wind was filled with flying boards, and
Cambel found himself with one arm
cutChmg the weed clad stump Of pile
ard the other wrapped round Elsie Kill
dare.
'Hurt?" he shouted anxiously
mot a bit sound as a bell. Your
But Where's the water? There
should be six feet here and | can feel
none"
Blown away to sea. We may thank
God the wind Is not on shore or we'd
have been drowned as hundreds or
All. That's q shave
A lightning flash showed them a
huge tree plucked from its roots and
blowing past them, squirming and
crushing about like a live mad thing
Then a neavy squared roof beam hit
their Jagged pile and missed Calnbel's
arm by a nails breadth
The hotels going down." he shout
ed. The air will be fun Of this stuff
in a minute, and if We try to move we
shall be Drained before we've got a
yard. Crouch down, dear, at the bot
tom Of the post"
you, too"
mo, there isn't room"
Then / shall stand"
She dragged at his sleeve and pulled
him to her side. Stay by me, here,
Pat. You might get swept away and
/ could bear that"
"Of course Ill stay by you, dear. I'll
never go till you turn me away He
took now grip with his arms, pinning
her between his breast and the weed
ragged leg OF the pile elsie | want
to tell you something. You know I've
always liked you as u friend but now
il has come to more than that Much
more--loye, darling. once my mind was
| fun of another woman, and / thought
] could never care for anyone else as
/ cared for ner, but that was years
since, thousands of years, il seems now,
and Elsie, Twelve forgotten her She
is only a name TO me and your sister.
Dear, if we get away from this, do
| You think you could like me, too, little
more than an ordinary lriend|
She put her lips to his ear. Do you
/ think we shall come out of il alive
| Pat? Tell me honestly"
II hope So
| Honestly. Pat"
I'm afraid. darling, it's a poor
/ chance"
/ Her soft wet checks nestled against
/ him. and strands Of her hair inter
] twined themselves with his Pat
( she said. you never knew but | loved
/ you all along from the first"
Then for the first time during many
years Patrick Cambel knew what II
was to fear death. Beforetime life had
! held many Iorments for MIN, and il
lead or water or steel chose to show
Kim the great secret he did not very
1 much care. Now IL was all different
| He lusted to live with a ferceness
which almost drove him mad
You are trembling" the girl sai(
| guXiously.
Il know | am. You have made me
| rank coward, dear"
She understood him and kissed hi!
mouth but no other words passed be
| tween them,
The cyclone blew on, believing anC
tearing, ana the fend fingers of tn
wind did mischief beyond all reckon
ing Timber which had stood hundred
of years, ceibaS and expresses, live
Caks and pines sprawled down amonl
the tangled underground, mere masse
of splintered matchwood The man
grove thickcts We're clogged witt
stones, with grasses with grany tan
giles of Spanish moss Lakes wer
licked from their beds and spirite,
far over the creamlng waters of III
gulf The land birds were driven Xix
helpless spumc fakes far away to SCI
and choked with the gale before the
were hung breathless from its clutches
The palmetto shacks of the humble
coast dwehers vanished In dust. Tn
frame houses of the better to do burs
at all their angles and spread like plat
forms upon the ground.
And meanwhile the great stragglin
wooden hotel on Point Sebastian dis
solved away like a sand bank in
flooded estuary. First the heat twiste
shingles had been stripped Off hyin
away into the wind like some strang
dark fowl sent as aVant couriers c
more fearsome things 10 come. The
. weatherboards followed singly and j
coVeys, then gable ends and joists an
rafterS all floating and pitching i
the air as though the wind had tn
density of a tossing ocean stream
Chairs and wooden bedsteads, clothc
blown out into grotesque shapes a
, though the freakish spirits OF the storI
had donned them, the scantling of tn
, long piazza, and still more board
! Wnirred out into the night and van
ished forever down the track of tn
, cyclone. And in the thick of thi
devils bombardment crouched men an
women, and other things, shapeless an
' horrible, which had been men an
! women once. The tale of the dea
: grew with awful pace that night.
Once there was a slight lull in III
9 blast of the gale, and driven out water
! of the shore began to return and swir
! ed knee high about the two who wei
: taking refuge at the foot of the pile.
I Come said Cambell, taking the 81
> by the hand I'VE must run for it." An
he led the way backward, blunderin
through piled up pounds OF wreckag
> | while the stinging spindrift swirle
: around their heads and bit them upc
Y the face like whips. But a flying mi!
sile from out OF the inky blackne'
G struck him on the curve or the temp
before he had gone 20 yards. and Il
e grip of his fingers loosened, and
S swayed and fell without a word. tt
girl threw herself = his body, wailir
\ that he was killed and that she, to
[, would stay there ana ule, out WI
:. hope seized her that he might be on
e stunned, and she took his body in h
arms, and half dragging, half carryin
q began to go with him once more
e tedious inches toward the beach.
IS Then the cyclone burst out afre!
If with all the torrent of its fury, and
move or even stand against the viii
= was a thing impossible. The girl al
l. burden was flung heavily to {
J. ground, and a mass of driving wrecl
e age slid above them and pressed the
d down. "Oh, Pat, Pat" she cried.
did 80 want TO i've with you and nc
d we must both die here!"
u Three terrible hours more they spe
> there. the girl expecting violent dea
re TO fall on her every second, the man
her arms gradually returning to co
n. sciousness. And then. like organ who
le wind chamber has emptied itself, [