Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-05-19

cred for ten hours. By that time the
yacht would be 120 miles away. They
would be $50 miles apart by morn
ing, measured on the ~hypotheuse, and
by night, who could tell? At any
rate, she had now done all that she
could.
Her condition was desperate; her
prospects gloomy beyond expression.
She was alone in a small power boat
which would be helpless, the sport of
wind and waves, after perhaps 80
hours. That boat was alone in the
great expanse of the Pacific ocean.
Somewhere about there were islands
probably. Indeed, on the charts those
seas were dotted with points Of land,
but they we're small, inc~onsiderable,
uninhabited, unknown. In that little
boat she might pass close by many
of them without seeing them. She had
provisions, such as they were, and
water sufficient perhaps for a week
or ten days. After that unless she
landed somewhere she would drift on
until she starved and died. If a storm
came, the launch probably would not
survive it. Her chances of escape, in
any event, were worse than problem
atical. The end was almost certain.
But she was happy. The first real
ray of happiness which had entered
her soul since the beginning Of the
great awakening, which had culmin-
ated in the frightful scene Of the
night, illumined her being. AS she sat
in the stern sheets, her hand on the
steering wheel, listening to the steady
drumming of the motor, seeing the
black water broken into foam by the
boats bows flash by her, keeping the
launch steady on her course by the
| aid of the compass needle. her eyes
turned ever and anon to the fast d.
minishing point Of light which marked
the rapidly disappearing yacht, and
she realized that she was free. She
had hurled out of her path-and how
she exulted in her wi prowess; it
was something of a salve to her soul
for the wretched humiliations which
had been heaped upon it-she had
hurled out of her path and stricken
down as any other animal might have
done him who had brought her to this
awful pass. She was away from him
free from him. She was once more,
so far as wind and wave allowed, the
master of her fate, the mistress of hel
destiny.
She was glad in her heart, too, that
there were to be no physical conse
ouences from her brief alliance. She
did not realize that there were to be
other consequences which not even al
the water of the seas over which she
foated could wash out. There was {
strange citation in her soul. She fell
as if in some way she had vindicatet
her right to be. There was something
yet in her philosophy and did oppor
tunity serve, could she get free from
the dangers that e~ncompassed her, sh,
vowed that she would prove it.
All night long she stayed awake
keeping the launch in her course
When morning broke she was abst
i lutely alone upon the ocean. Standin
erect upon a seat, from her low val
tage point she could see nothing bu
smoothly undulating sea. She breal
tasted sparingly from her scanty stor
Il and resumed her post at the whee
1t She was tired and sleepy, but Will
9 the little engine was alive she coul
not leave it to its own devices. Sh
n must hold on her chosen course q
e long as the motive power remained
She could not lose a moment Will
d that motor throbbed and beat. Sh
e. must be alive with it. There woul
y, be time to sleep when it was e.
le hausted. She must put as mar
leagues between her and pursuit
holding the direct course as long
~ was possible.
Dr. And so she sat there grimly, hanC
sc clutching the wheel through the lor
le day and through the longer night ar
k, well into the following morning.
IS must have been half past ten on Il
n morning of the second day before Il
e. motor stopped. The silence, after tt
W eceaseless drumming of a night, a lol
day, a longer night and a still long
IL morning, struck her with the san
strange sense OF shock. She calculate
ID that the motor had been running +
er 3S hours and that she had gone 3
10 miles at least on her course. She hi
seen nothing whatever of the yacl
he The chances that it would pick h
or up, even if it came about and cruis
ne for her, a lonely speck in the ocea