Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-02-17

by Marconigram. Listen with me and
you may follow the story. That is the
first chapter of it,"
I pointed to the deck Of the great
ship, whence he figure OF my little
Joan had disappeared as fnysterieusly
as 1t came, and there I showed to
Larry a group of men In earnest talk
with a newcomer frem the steamer
which now lay almost alongside the
larger vessel. The quick movements,
the gestures Of this company, betrayed
the curiosity which the strangers
words awakened and the establishment
that rightly followed upon IL. Imagin-
ing myself to be a spy among them.
/ heard. in Imagination, every word of
that Hateful conversation. I'VE sent
no message" You've been fooled.
afioat." mo, we haS no accident
what in thunder are you talking about
its a lie" So the new hand must
be telling the astonishea crew. 1t need
ed no great prescience to say what
would follow after. Even Timothy Nc
Shanus arrived at it before 1 had fin
ished.
Would that be Colin Ross gone
aboard?" he asked me, wheeling about
suddenly.
/ told him 1t would hardly be an
other.
Then he'll tell 'em the truth about
the cables. or I'm a liar"
"He will tell them the truth about
the cables, n ysu are not a liar,
Timothy. He is doing so at this very
moment"
Faith. man. they'll be firing shots
at us, then"
"It is possible, Timothy. If you are
curious on the point"
Curious? Would we have me in the
sea?"
I'm the sea or out, I would have you
keep a COO head, Timothy. They are
going to fire at us, but that is not to
turn comes after. Neither today nor
tomorrow may see the end or it. /
am only beginning with them, Timothy.
When I have done, God help some Of
them, Imroth above the others. Now
wait for it and see. Here's the lantern
busy. They are putting the story to
the proof, you will observe. Let us
hope hat their establishment may not
be too much for them"
So a commonplace chatter went, and
yet the mao intoxication Of that in
terval Of suspense had come upon US
all as q fever; and no man might
measure his words. There we We're,
sagging in the trough of the seas some
800 yards it nay be, from the great
| ship > guns, our crew IluCIeTl1S III
hoarse whispers, the steam kissing
from our valves, the smoke drifting to
the north in a dense, ~suffocating cloud.
Aware OF the few moments OF grace
possible to US, we had given h word
down to Mr.. Benson to go full speed
astern; and running thus for the half
of a mile, we then swung the yacht
round and headed due south at all
the speed of which we were capable.
| NnU indan6 tho tnnQa hnI1r nf MIR
doubt began. We counted h very
minutes until the beams of the mon
ster s~earchlight should ensnare us once
more. Brief ordinations, CHEEKY words
Of hope flashing from man to man,
gave passage to that current Of hui
man electricity which burned us as a
flame. Would the light never fall? Aye,
yonder it strikes the sea, and yonder
and yonder comprising the horizon
around in a ~twinkling, a blind glory,
a very Pharos Of the unknown world.
And now it falls full upon us, and
mar car lock upsa tho face &c TGR
as though he stood beneath the sun of
day; and all is stiffness, and silence,
and the unspoken question.
Far as we were away, O roar of tri-
umph could be heard across the sea
when Imroth's ship discovered US and
the great beams OF the searchlight rest
ed upon us eXultingly. In turn, the
smoke from our funnel forbade us any
longer to locate the enemy, or to form
an opinion as to his movements. Ger
tainly, no gunshot followed immediate
ly upon his achievement; and when a
little gust of the south wind, veering
a point or two, carried the loom from
u furnaces away, We espied the two
ships drifting as before, and wen boats
passing from one to the other. From
this time, moreover, the darkness failed
-
pered the ocean with its translucent
beams of silvery light. Our safety lay
in our speed. We burned the precious
coal without stint, since our very lives
were in the furnaces keeping.
What keeps them, Larry? What are
they waiting for?" / asked him pres
emily. He had deserted the bridge and
stood aft with me to watch the distant
steamers. McShanus, meanwhile, paced
the decks like q lion at the hour Of
feeding. 1t was his way of saying he
found the suspense intolerable.
"f don't think we shall have 10 wait
long, SIR" the captain answered me;
you see, they would hardly be ready
to fire their guns, and not overmuch
discipline among them, / suppose. If
they hit us, it will be something by
way OF an accident"
"And yet n that might happen,
Larry. Well, here 1t comes, anyway!
And a wicked bad shot, / must say!"
It was odd that they should have
fired at the very moment / replied to
him, yet such was the fact and such
the coincidence. Scarcely had 1 opened
ny mouth wher q nenstrens yeiie.;
flame leaped out over the bows OF the
Diamond Ship (Which now had put
about to chase us), and, spreading It
self abroad upon the waters, left q
heavy cloud of black smoke very baf-
fling to their AS for the shell,
I know not to this day where 1t fell.
We heard neither explosion nor
splash, saw no spume or spray upon
the hither sea, and were, not a man OF
us, a penny the worse for their en-
deavor. A second attempt achieved no
better result. True, we detected the
shell this time, for 1t fell plump into
the sea, near the fifth part of a mile
from our starboard quarters; but the
wretched shooting, the long interval
between the shots, and the speed at
which we travelled inspired confidence
anew, and so surely, that my men be-
gan to cheer the gunners ironically,
and even to fash a signal to them