The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-03-30

and in recognition OF the mishap lib
orally insulted his luck.
Amber, knowing that his hurt
was as inconsiderable as his ill-tem.
per, which was more thar half-feigned
TO mask his anxiety. laughed quietly.
meanwhile inspecting their find with
q critical eye.
You don't seriously mean to put of
IN this crazy %hen-coop. do your" he
asked.
Just precisely that. It's the only
way"
1T is simple madness. won't"
You don't wan to stay here all
night, do your
no. but"
We'll, then, lend us a hand and
don't stand there grumbling. Be
thankful for what you've got, which Is
NE and my enterprise"
"Oh, all right"
Together they put their shoulders
to the bows Of the old. flat-bottomed
roofing it from it's ancient bed. and at
length had 1t afloat.
Painting, Quain mopped his forehead
with a handkerchief much the worse
for a days association with gun
grease, and peered beneath his hand
into the murk that yelled the bay.
There she is he declared conf
IDENTIFY: aground" He pointed. I'll
fetch up with her In no time"
But Amber could see nothing in the
least resembling the catboat, and said
so with decision.
I'm coming. too" Amber said
quietly.
The hell you are! D'you want to
sink US? What do you think this Is.
anyway-an excursion steamer? You
stay where you are and say-take
care of this till l come back, like a
gooo fellow"
He thrust the butt of his shotgun
into Amber's face, and the latter,
Selling it, was rewarded by a vigor-
GUS push that sent him back half a
dozen feet. At the same time the
painter slipped from his grasp and
] QAdlhs lOuSlJB uA III VI AAC a.
stake on the hard sand bottom, put
his weight upon 1t. Before Amber
could recover, the boat had slid OFF
and was melting swiftly into the shad-
ows.
After a bit Quain's voice came
back: Don't fret, Davy. I'm all right"
Amber cupped hands to mouth and
sent a cheerful hail ringing in re-
Spouse. simultaneously the last,
least, indefinite blur that stood for the
boat in the darkness, vanished In a
swirl Of snow; and he was alone with
the storm and his misgivings.
Twenty minutes wore YEARLY away
Falling ever more densely, the snow
drew an impenetrable wan curtain be-
tween Amber and the world of life
and light and warmth; while with
each ~disconrdant blast the strength
of the gale seemed to wax. its high
hysterio clamor at times drowning
even the incessant deep below of the
ocean surf. Once Amber paused In his
patrol, having heard, or fancy Ing he
had heard, the staccatO plut plut-plut
Of a marine motor. On impulse, with
a swelling heart, he swung his gun
skywards and pulled both triggers.
The double report rang in his ears
loud as a thunderclap.
In the moments that followed, while
he stood listening, with every fiber
of his being keyed to attention, the
sense of his utter isolation chilled his
heart as with cold steel.
A little frantically he loaded and
fred again; but what at first might
have been thought the faint far echo
of a hail he in the end set down reluc-
family to a trick of the bag ridden
wind.
An hour passed, punctuated at fire.
quent intervals by gunshots. Though
they evoked no answer of any sort,
heart. Resolutely he turned to a con
~sideration of his own plight and
problematic way OF escape.
His understanding of his situation
was painfully accurate; he was ma
rooned upon what a flood tide made a
desert island but which at the ebb
was a peninsula-a long and narrow
strip of sand, bounded on the west by
the broad shallow channel TO the
ocean, on the east connected with the
mainland by a sandbar which half the
day lay submerged.
He had, then, these alternatives: he
might either compose himself t o hug
the leeWard side of a dune TIL day
break Cor till relief should Gomez or
else undertake a fiye-milo tramp or
the desperate hope Of finding at the
end of it the tide out and the sandbar
a safe footway from shore to shore,
Between the two he vacillated not al
all; anything were preferable to q
night IA the dunes, beaten by the i'm
placable storm. haunted by the
thought Of Quain; and even though he
were to find the eastern causeway un,
der water, at least the exercise would
have served to keep him from freez
ing.