Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1910-01-12
CHAPTER VIII.
Cast Up by the Sea.

CHAPTER VIII.
Cast Up by the Sea.
Day was just breaking again when
the woman awoke Reference to her
watch which she had taken the pre-
Caution to wind just before she re-
tired disclosed the fact that it was
four o'clock in the morning. She had
slept unbrokenly since IL o'clock the
morning before. Her sleep had been
stupor of utter and complete exhaus-
tSon. Added to the tremendous physi-
cal strain Of keeping awake and at
tending to the duty to which she had
enforced herself had been the further |
strain of the terrible events on the
night IN which she left the yacht, and |
the apprehension of pursuit which had
been continually with her. Her first |!
motion. indeed, was to rise to her feet
Ind scan the horizon. With relief in
describable her. scrutiny discovered
nothing. She was still alone. Neither
the yacht nor any other vessel nor
any smallest speck of land was sill
houctted against the circling sky line.
!. She sat in the boat musing long
time and then woke to the fact that
she was hungry. Again she satisfied
her appetite sparingly from her scanty
and rapidly diminishing store of food
and drink, and then putting the past
resolutely behind her, hoping and per
haps fancying by some exercise of her
will power finally she could put it be-
thought to her condition.
She realized at last that she in
the hands-another would have said
Of God! she said of chance. The fact
that she was so helpless; that all her
learning and all her training, and
all her skill and all her power were
of no avail. made the situation the
more CALLING. Was there nothing
that she could do? She reflected
deeply and as she did SO the
breeze sprang up. She judged that
the period during which she had slept
had been calm and still. Any violent
rocking of the boat would have awak-
ened her. Indeed, she felt bitterly
cramped and stiff from having lain so
long on the hard floor which only the
boat cloak, thick and heavy, made
tolerable sbed.
& The coming of the breeze stimu-
lated her imagination. 1t was gen
tls breeze. She noticed that it blew
from the direction whence she had
come by her compass course. II she
only had''a sail of some kind the boat
would be driven along. She must
move somewhere. She had heard of
ocean currents and drift but she
doubted whether the boat was moving.
at least sufficiently fast or in any
definite direction to make any differ
ence. Unless she got somewhere, she
would slowly starve and die Just
where she was She stepped forward in
the boat and examined the oars. There
was a sort of a deck forward over
the gasoline tanks. She thought that
she might make shift with the remains
OF the painter, of which she had
good length, to fasten one of the oars
in an upright position against it.
There were bolts and rings of various
sorts on this little deck. She could
step the handle OF the oar between
cleats or ribs at the bottom. AT least
she would try.
Her training had not been manual,
Z but she was bright enough to supple
ment her lack of skill and after some
hours of hard work she actually got
s one oar in an upright position and Sc
curely dashed. Out of the heavy cloak
a huge circular than anything
else-she improyised sail with the
other oar as boom thrust across the
q boat between the mast and the little
forward deck The coat had been
heavily braided. She ripped the silk
braid from the edge, cut off the hood
of the cloak and managed triangular
sail laced by the silk braid to mast
and boom.
The boom was immobile and the
! only way she could sail was straight
4 before the wind, If the wind shifted.
e she would shift with it, She had some
slight control over the vessel with the
+, helm, but that was all 1t was noon
e when she finished her labors, but she
Y was more than satisfied with what she
y had accomplished, for the cloak was
y big enough to give an appreciable
z, way to the boat. She guessed it might
I be three or four knots an hour. That
would be nearly 100 miles q day
She could exc out her provisions and
! water for five or six days longer and
: she could go without for two or three
days after the last drop and morsel
: had vanished. Perhaps she might run
Z down habitable island in that time
Possibly. although this possibility was
more faint than the other, she might
be seen by some vessel and picked up.
At any rate. all she could do was done.
She felt better, too. because she had
made human contribution to the de-
termination of her fate. She was no
longer absolutely at the play of
chance. For five days she sailed
steadily on. the breeze remaining even
and holding unvaryingly true for that
period. She learned the trick of lash
ing the wheel at night and so was
ahle TO take as much rest as her tired,
worn and racked body permitted IL
the confinement of the little boat.
She had abundance OF time fo
: thought Time was when she had rev
eled In such opportunities, but Their,
was less enjoyment in the chances ri
forded her now. That she who ha,
:. lived in the high realm of speculation
should suddenly become woman o
action, fighting for life, struck her a
strange thing. Insensibly the condi
lions of her present existence mod
fled her philosophy. 1t seemed differ
ent. smaller thing. She was les
sure and confident Of herself alon
in the great immensely than in thu
crowded city. There were no applaud
ing thousands. She breatled no al
OF adulation. She was alone with he
soul. The man who is alone is Away
face to face with God, though his eye
may be hidden SO that he cannot Sc,