The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-03-09
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 DOW,
and my very life depended upon the
ruse which should divert the mems at
tention from It. Never shall J
the ruffians would have made an end
of it there n then, and have muir
dered me as they had murdered the
criminals upon the ship, IL the argu-
ment had been carried but another SEN
tence. I had seen knives unsheathed
at my words, had heard the p~romptings
of rogue to rogue, that low muttering
of the human beast who has scented
| prey, and whose nostrils are distend-
ed by the lust of it. Let the ak run
On, and they would be UP the ladder
and unon me, cost what It iniSht-up
| and on me, and their knives at my
throat. This / understood, when |
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.
My freedom, nay, my life depended
upon the ruse. Such a fact was clear
above all other. 1t had been no lie
when / said that my friends were COM
Ing to me. Athwart the great ship, not
so yards from the starboard bow, lay
1 lllS lOIS boal WHICH lllo DSS oNAi ~
to me-. 1 took one last look at the hud-
died forms below me, debated the pos
sibilities in one 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. ] leaped boldly from the
bridge and left the issue to the God
of my destinies.
So the tragic hour began for me,
n such were its 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 h di-
rection to strike out; no certainty that
my friends a seen me or were alive
to my Situation-nothing but silence
and 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 ome when a
man might have told himself that he
was cast out utterly from nan and the
world, a true derelict of the vast ocean,
a voice crying in a monstrous silence,
a holocaust to wind and wave and the
gaping sea. The deepest dungeon ashore
| Souid ~ llINS llllllCIcu u NOuIlu u L
desolation so terrible.
l was there within a cables length
of those who would have given their
:sTy lives Tor nle, ana 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, I
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 minutes carried me from human
ity and all human interests.
How long it was before the end
anne, l shall never know. I %recollect
that / had the sense not to swim, but
merely to keep afloat as nea as might
be to the scene of my shines The
intervening moments brought me from
a state of content to one of despair,
and from that again almost to a state
of insensibility-and / know only thai
n 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 Fordibras-my little
Joan of the Valley House-who stopped
n kissed my lips, and with a young
girls tears expressed the welcome by
her heart u%nspoken.
1t had been Okyada's hand which
dragged me from the sea, and LAIR,
AAS - Y tIS EpOdl WHICH
discovered me. Despite the fog, tina
lynxeyed captain of mine had dogge'
| every movement of the Diamond Shfr
and stood SO close to her. ~througheu
| the adventure, that he could sometime
have tossed a biscuit to her decks
bridge, his keen ear had detected tn
connection. He heard me leap fror
the ship. n guessed instantly tn
nature Of the situation which drov
me to this extremity. His expires
commands had kept the long boat /
the sea from the beginning, and in til
sea she swan when / had most nee
OF her.
Rowing swiftly to the yacht, the me
fought their way through the HIT
knot Of anxious men, and had me ruiz
: bed down like a dog and safely in m
own bed almost led
Whatever emotion agitated me Wa
chiefly the emotion of friendship, ar
of the sure knowledge that Joan Fol
i dibras was on the ship, that she move
and breathed near by me, and. Wi
Gods help, would remain my prison,
that, despite old Timothy, who roar,
for the rot water and the lemons In
voice that could have been heard
the truck. little Joan had taken
proud command Of that cabin five mi
utes after / entered it, as any cor
Il EldllucE@ VI q SNIP Wiz ilolSlS Ills pc
mani at plymouth. MOI had anyo
the right to drive her thence or to i'd
that place she occupied SO graceful
j suppose it would have: been ear
the new day when Joan took char
of me, and old Timothy brewed t
punch and Larry came and went fre
the cabin to the bridge as a man f
OF anxieties, and vet in sone sense co
tent that it should be so. These 70,
ish nurses of mine had so far told
nothing, nor did they hear me talki
with equanimity. An immersion
the sea is often regarded by a sail
of all, men, rs a dreadful tragedy. r
of his trade can swim, nor does
ever regard the water as other than.
enemy. So now Larry would ms
kept me In my bed, smother
In blankets and dosed like
old salt with Timothy's rum. 1t
little wonder that I became aim
angry ats their solicitude. and i
ready to behave Ike a spoiled Ct
which does not know its W good +
tune.
"wlrr do you do all this. Joan?
asked ner. when half an hour of 1t
passed. Am I a child to be pctted
spoiled because its pinafore Is N