Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-03-16
CHAPTER Xxx.

CHAPTER Xxx.
The sea was void upon the quarter
what need to tell it. But my eyes had
already detected the black outline of a
ships boat upon the starboard bow,
n my very life depended upon the
ruse which should divert the mems at
tention from it. Never shall l doubt
the ruffians would have made an end
Of 1T there and then, and have muir
uered me as they had murdered the
criminals upon the ship. II the argu-
ment had been carried but another SEN
tence. I had seen knives unsheathed
at my words, had heard the promptings
OF rogue to rogue, hat low muttering
OF the human eas who has scented
prey, and whose nostrils are distend-
ed by the lust Of it.. Let the talk run
on. and they woul be up the ladder
and upon me, cost what it might-up
and on me, and their knives at my
throat. This l understood. when I
pointed to the port quarter and sent
them gaping there in a body-as chill
dren who are not content to hear, but
With their own eyes would see.
Ny freedom, nay. my life depended
upon the ruse. Such a fact was clear
above all other. 1t had been no lie
when I said that my friends were COM
Ing to me. Athwart the great ship, not
DO yards from the starboard bow, lay
the long boat which had been sem out
to me. I took one last look at the hud-
died forms below me, debated the pos
sibilities in n of those swift mental
surveys to which long habit has trained
me, and stalking all upon the venture,
risking every peril both of the men and
the sea. I leaped boldly from the
bridge and left the issue to the God
OF my destinies.
So the tragic hour began for me,
and such We're it's circumstances! The
rushing waters booming as a dirge in
my ears, my clothes dragging me down
as a burden insupportable; darkness
and the dread sea all about me; a black
sky meeting my vision as I rose gasp
Ing to the surface-no knowledge now
Of where the BOAT lay or in what di-
rection to strike out; no certainty that
my friends had seen me or were alive
to my Misunderstanding but silence
n the long rollers carrying me, and
far away a distant shouting, an echo
of pistol shots, a rejoinder Of strong
voices and then a silence. so deep, so
profound that the very wavelets were
as cataracts beating at my brain.
This, surely, was the moment when a
man might have told himself that he
was a 8 out utterly from man and the
world, a true derelict of the vast ocean,
q voice crying in q monstrous silence,
q holocaust to wind and wave and the
gaping sea. The deepest dungeon ashore
could not have inflicted a wound of
1esolation SO terrible.
was there within a cables length
Of those who would have given their
very Ives for me. and yet as far
away from them as though 1 had stood
at the foot of Mount Terror and cried
to the skies for my salvation. Not a
sound. not a whisper of life did the
wind bear to me. A strong swimmer, /
lay deep in the water, the spindrift
cold upon my face, the ripples of the
crest soaking my hair, the blue black
sky for my zenith. And how far had
those mute carried me from human-
ity and all human interests!
How long it was before the end
came. I shall know. I recollect
that I had the n not to swim, but
merely to keep afloat as near as might
be to the scene of my rashness. The
intervening moments brought me from
. state Of content to one Of despair,
and from that again almost to a state
of insensibility-and I know only that
a great rough hand took me from the
sea at last, that white faces bent over
me. and that, kindliest of them all, was
the face Of Joan F~ordibras-my little
Joan Of the Valley Housewife stopped
and kissed my lips, and, with q young
girls tears expressed the, welcome by
her heart unspoken.
It had been Okyada's hand which
dragged me from the sea, and Larry
himself had steered the boat which
discovered me- Despite the fog, that
Iynxeyed captain OF mine had dogged
every movement Of the Diamond Ship.
the adventure. that he could sometimes
have tossed q biscuit to her decks,
When the rabble chased me to the
bridge. his keen ear had detected the
commotion. He heard me leap from
the ship. and guessed instantly the
nature Of the situation which drove
me to this extremity: His express
the sea from the beginning, and in the
e she swan when I had most need
OF her.
Rowing swiftly to the yacht, the men
fought their way through the little
knot of anxious men. and had me rub
bed down like a dog and safely in my
own bed almost before I realized It
chiefly the emotion of friendship, and
of the sure knowledge that Joan For
dibras was on the ship. that she moved
and breathed near by me. and. with
Gods help. would remain my prisoner
to the end Of my days. For. BIO assured
that. despite old Timothy. who roared
for the rot water and the lemons in q
voice that could have been heard 81
the truck. little Joan had taken a
proud command Of that cabin five min.
utes after I entered 1t. as any com.
mander of a ship who hoists his zen.
nant at Plymouth. Nor. had anyone
the right to drive her thence or to take
that place she occupied SO gracefully
suppose II would have been earl,
in the new day when Joan took charge
Of me, and old Timothy brewed the
punch and Larry came and went from
the cabin to the bridge as a man ful
Of anxieties. and yet in some sense con.
tent that 1t should be 30. These fool.
ish nurses of mine had SO far told M