The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-18

him to stand. He looked at the dog. The dog looked at him.
 What are we going to do about 1t, Bo?' he asked, weakly.
 The dog growled as a second rumble sounded and the vessel began to roll.
 Hedderley sighed. and his complexion became a pale green.
 'Now, I guess this fool wreck will go tumbling and jumping all over creation again." he said. And what will all this stuff do to me? Bo, what is your recipe against seasickness?'
 A terrific crash sent the dog, bristling and growing angrily, to a defiant posi- tion at the mans side; and it made the man tremble.
 The vessel pitched recklessly, and He'd derley and the dog began to skate and tumble from side to side and end to end of the storeroom.
 Let's try to get somewhere that will stay still,' advised Hedderley; and as he started laborious retracing of the course to the salon the dog followed-though how he managed 1t was a puzzle to Hedder- ley. His claws scraped unfolding over the floors, and his round body, once he was off his feet, rolled cylinder-like across whatever space lay before it. It seemed a very long while before they reached the salon.
 But it is worth the trouble" muttered Hedderley thankfully as he followed the dogs example and sprawled on the thick carpet
 The darkness was complete. Not even a flash of lightning reached in now and then to pierce it. Dog and man lay close to each other; and at intervals the dogs rough tongue touched the mans out stretched hand with a caress that seemed to promise all possible protection. Hedderley had no means of estimating bon fs. the carpet. To his wearied mind it seemed at least a full night, and he strained his eyes for sign that the dawn | had come. The thunder. ceased, and 1t did not seem that the wind was so high; 1 but the waves continued to drive the Isin- l glass in her game of leapfrog with the sea, and the man and dog dared not rise.
 Upward and forward shot the ship I hurled by power that might have torn mountain from it's base-moving evenly as an arrow and with more than an ar rows speed. And then, with force l spent, the huge missile was pulled down 1 by its ponderous weight, to crash thun- derously and tremble in every plate and timber and then to lie still in a sudden | quiet that was stupendous! Under the waves dwells silence" He'd derley murmured. For he had no manner of doubt that the married derelict was dropping to a wreck's bed amid coral ! reefs. Are you ready, Bo|' The dog sprang up and began to sniff l about.
 Needn't go to meet trouble" advised the man. Its hot-footing for us-you can l bet on thatl'
 An excited whine from the dog caused the man to sit up and listen. There cer- | tainly was no sound of water rushing in. | "I wonder if I'm fooled again on this sinking proposition?" he asked. And he arose and started forward. The dog led the way to the upper deck. The air that met them was sweet and soft; and all that broke the stiffness was | the laughing gurgle of water tapping the sides of the unmoving ship, and, further away, the solemn boom of beating waves! When daylight came 1t revealed the &C., | complishment of the impossible. Hedder- l ley looked-and turned to hide a blush at the thought that he was in any way party to such stupendous fake. To ex- l pect it to be true that an ocean liner had l been bodily lifted and thrown over reef through a 10o-foot passage between cliffs l and to a bed upon the soft sand of a safely harbored beach,
 "Oh, what a dream sardines can pro- 1 ducel" he murmured.
 But it was hard to get away from ap- pearances. There were the ship and the l beach and the bay, and outside was the ocean, and he could not lose che recollec- 1 tion that a few hours before the ship had been out there on the ocean. Now-there | wasn't any question of it-she was in the harbor, and the only way she could have got there was to jump or be thrown through that narrow cliff-guarded pas sage
 Hedderleys bay was a small, horse- shoe shaped affalr-plenty of smooth water for ship that was just resting, ample expanses of white beach, and as a background frowning cliffs that loomed ugly in the early morning light. Be- tween the heels of the horseshoe was a noisy neck of water that made great to-do about running to and from the sea over a reef of larger rocks, set 30 to 70 feet apart and showing sharp edges under the white surf. The ship was sur | rounded by water to a depth of 10 or | l5 feet, and was firmly held-listing a little to starboard and down a little by the stern, but altogether on fairly even | keel.
 | was no evidence that any one lived | in the neighborhood or that any one ever | had lived there, or that any one could l live there. It was reasonable to suspect
 the place of being an island, but Hedder- | ley could not determine this point, there l being no small boats, and the water being l too deep for wading, and Hedderley being | close by the island was another secret, | contemplation of which led Hedderley to | cry out:
 "Oh, why did leave home!' AS answer there came to him again that l mysterious recollection of something for | gotten-something that he once thought of lot. But he couldn't grasp it; the an- swer stood at the threshold of his mind,
 but would not enter.
 "Ain't 1t the limit" he began, and left it at that, as, calling the dog, he went be- low for breakfast
 And while he ate it occurred to him that he was quite safe from every danger save
 ennui He had safe house, and food and water and liquors and wines that would last 800 people 20 days, and which, there- fore, should last him and Bo something like 15 years. There was an immense sup ply of ice, and in the hold was so much | coal that the thought of carrying it up produced feeling akin to nervous pros tration. The sleeping arrangements were all that could be desired. There were 100 state rooms, in most of which the beds were made up; hence Hedderley. l by merely changing his room every night,