Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1908-191?, 1910-07-25

! ly builded another pyre for another
beacon. Morning and evening with
J unyarying routine she had scanned the
| horizon, this time with an excellent
! glass that Langford had left her Not
once had she sighted a ship. lie never
came; no one ever came. Hope grad.
ually died away in her heart.
One evening she climbed YEARLY 20
the top of the hill and listlessly swept
the horizon, the bare, vacant, un-
broken horizon, which she bad sur.
yeyed morning and evening all these
years. She expected nothing, but sud
denly there sprang into the object
glass of the telescope dark blur
| which she had never seen before Her
hand tremblrd so that she almost
dropped the glass. She strove TO pick
up that object again and could not do
it In her nervous agitation. Finally
she lay down upon the hin and rested
her arms upon a little rise of ground.
and thus steadying the glass, uanagcd
to dnd it once more. 70 could be moth
ing but the smoke Of q shipl
She had means of striking a light
which Langford had lett her. which
methodically and mechanically she al
ways brought with her when she
climbed up the crest of the hill to seek
for q sail. She lifted the matches and
approached the beacon. She remem-
bered how once before she had lighted
that beacon; she remembered how he
had pleaded with her not to do so,
how in doing it she had brought the
world upon her with such terrible con-
sequences to her Should she do It
again? What would happen If she did?
She laid the matches down and lifted
the glass once more. Yes, the ship
was still there. She was so far away
indeed that the short time which had
elapsed would have made no change in
her apparent position.
She looked back to the westward.
The sun was setting. There would be
no twilight Darkness would come
swiftly. II she did not light that bea-
con the ship would pass in the night.
If she did light It, the darkness would
lend force and efficiency to it. No
ship would disregard such a light in
such a quarter. Should she do it?
In one swift moment her resolution
was taken. She dropped the glass,
turned to the box of matches which
she had boarded for this very purpose,
knelt down, struck one of them,
watched the blue flame develop and
swell out in the still air, paused for
moment hesitant, touched the light to
the innammable mass of dead wood at
the base of the pile.
AS the flames cracked up through
the wood, roaring and catching, the
sun sank and the darkness fell. Her
last act ere the curtain of night shut
her in had been to fix her glass upon
the faint blur of smoke. Now she could
see nothing. 1t was a moonless night,
but bright with stars. She moved
away from the fire and sat down as
she had sat before, sheltered by the
peak, to watch the sea. Now that she
had done what she had sworn not to
do, she was eager for the success of
her attempt
And so she waited wondering I
exhausted themselves and by and by
fell to heap of glowing ashes. Sud
denly there leaped out through the
darkness a distant twinkle of light. It
was too low for a star. Feeling for
the telescope, she found it and with !
difficulty focused 1t on the tiny spark. !
1t was red light, the light of ship! !
la hnA hA gtn NJ
nearer, much nearer now She knew |
about how far such a light could be !
seen. The ship was coming toward |
her. She almost tainted from the re-
vulson of feeling from hope to GER
tainty, from anxiety to assurance.
1t was close at hand now. She must |
go down to the beach to meet it, She |
rose to her feet and started down the
hill. She went slowly, cautiously at |
first, but finally she broke into a
reckless run. She strayed from the !
path in her excitement, her foot caught |
in a projecting root. A sharp, eXcfu- !
ciating pain shot through her. Some |
thing seemed to break in her ankle. !
She pitched forward on her face and |
lay still.
When she came to her senses light |
was shining in her eyes. Men stood !
about her holding ships lanterns |
Some one bent over her as some one |
had bent over her five years before
when she lay senseless on the sand.
A voice she knew called to her; arms
to whose touch she thrilled gathered
her up; she felt heart beat against
her own. He had come back. He was
there.
Woman" said the man, 81 have
come back to you"
Man" returned the woman, oblivi-
Gus of those who stood around, hold
ing the lights, to whom she gave no
single thought-indeed they were
those who knew her well-"Man," she
asked, true to her resolution, do you
love me as much as on that night?"
More, n thousand times,"
And do you think me worthy"
IL -, ]