The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-07-30


stern sheets, the ends of a cape flying
past him in the gale.
When l could see again the long boat
was making ready for the dash into the
roaring surf The oarsmen-there were
some twelve-were laboring to keep the
bow straight on. The tall man was stand
ing up to see where he should 60, and |
caught sight of his white and storm-dis-
torted face l could not move, l could
not utter cry l stood transfixed, scarce
breathing, my body taut, waiting to see
what would happen next.
Seconds passed in the darkness, then
flash, and l saw that the boat had
weathered the worst of the surf, and was
grinding on the shore. Four of the men
had leaped out and were hauling hard
at the sides; the steersman, gaunt and
black, still clutched the tiller, half
crouching, and was shouting Succeeding
darkness gave me a chance to wonder
what manner of men were these making
for Alastair. deserving their ship on the
coast, and landing where there was no
harbor, and only a shingle beach. Light
again, and l stood dumfounded, trans
fixed, for | saw little procession march
ing up the beach to the pines east of me !:
first the tall man in the long, black, flap
ping cloak, then two men bearing a good
sized box between them, and then two
others, carrying what looked to me
like shovels. Darkness, a terrible roar
of thunder, and pinched myself to make
sure that l was awake.
/ struck a match and held it behind my
hand in order that no signal should be
given. My watch told me the hour was
half past one. l found that I was shiv-
ering from the cold, and slipped into my
coat. At every flash of light was back
at the window, raking the beach with my
eyes. 1 saw nothing but the grounded
boat, with a number of men standing by,
and far off the tossing hulk of the schoon-
er.
1 did not even dare step into the hall
to call Charles, so afraid was l of losing
something of this remarkable sight Min
utes passed. l kept my watch in my
hand. Flash succeeded flash at greater
intervals, but the scene was still the
same the boat evidently waiting. the far
Their reaches of the beach empty.
Half an hour had gone when my pa
thence was rewarded. The same process
sion appeared from the pines, minus only
so far as l could see-the box that two
of them had carried. There was long
interval of blackness, and then l saw the
long boat plunging again through the
breakers. and the crew struggling to keep
her righted with their oars. 1 could see
the boat was sharp at either end and the
men no novices at the dangerous work
of Bleaching. They were gone, going back
to their schooner, and l felt that the
spirit of mystery was lifting from Alas
tair.
Still 1 waited, and in time the scene
lighted. and l saw that the boat had left
something: the tall, cloaked man still
stood upon the beach, gazing seward as
though to catch the last of his mates. I
remember that even in that brief in
slant l felt there was something strange
about him, something fantastic. some
thing out of keeping with the New Eng
land shore.
Darkness shut in, the roar of thunder
lessened, the lightning passed; the outer
world only sent me the deep, distant
booming of the sea upon the cliff.
stumbled back to bed and pulled the
clothes about me, full of wonder at what
my eyes had seen.
l lay there for long time, thinking,
conjecturing what all this strange mat
ter meant. Somehow, my quiet beach had
been transformed; the space between the
cliffs now Swallowed forth a mystery, and
yet, preposterous as the idea seemed,
felt in some way that had always ex-
pected a remarkable something to happen,
my dreams in some way to come true, for
Alastair was no common place and was
fit for some surprising history.
In time l dropped asleep, to dream of
queer things.