Middletown transcript., 1911-06-17

ent mon0tony InaG ~ Se0hl00
part of the silent heat-struck
land.
AS far as the eye could reach
II was the same-nothing but
heat, upon the gray-green rest
less sea clear to the great sweep.
ing dome of sky which stretched
interminably.
The sea with maddening pre-
cision beat against the rocky
cliff; then, repulsed, it raced
along the shore, until, flung back,
ward by low hidden ledges, it
ran across the sandy beach in 3
swift current.
Huge turtles basked in the sum-
as dormant as the cliff, as i'm
movable as the rank shrubbery
which sprang up where the beach
left of.
Out of the wild, tangled under
growth and what little shade It's
parched leaves afforded, a man
came slowly-feet shutting body
swaying-as if each movement
was possibly the last.
His half-shut eyes followed the
ground until, stepping close to
the very edge of the cliff, ne
slowly and wearily lifted his
bearded face, pinched and burned
brownblack, to gaze languidly
out across the rolling ocean
About his legs ragged trousers,
torn by the brush and literally
falling to pieces, tapped in the
breeze. His shirt, open at the
neck and patched in a dozen
places, disclosed a massive neck,
hairy and bronzed by sun and
exposure.
With the same weary, discour'
aged motion which marked bis
steps, he folded his arms-corded
and brown as was his neck
across his chest. AS if infinite
years were his to do in, his gaze
turned to the right, to the left,
and then back over the island
There, on the highest point 9
tall pine, shorn Of its branches
bore o flag of sail canVas,patcheo
and dirty, yet with some sem
blance of whiteness about it.
The flag tapped lazily in the
breeze, lifted straight out, hung
steady an instant, and fel
mournfully. It was as if the
flag itself felt the tutlIlty OF lt'
unfurling and laughed jeeringlJ
at the men who, two long, hope
less years before-with the loss
of their ship-had flung it 81
hopefully to the breeze.
tt had done its work-the flag
that it had failed of result wa
not its fault. Yet with confidence
these men turned 10 it daily; anC
again and again had the mai
now standing on the edge of th'
cliff come of an afternoon to thi
same spot to watch it flap miser
ably, cease, and drop limp.
Was it, too, tired of its task
Had even the flag lost hope?
The mans arms fell to hi
side; and, without even the sigl
that had been his when he cam
to this spot of an afternoon
year past, he moved down tn
rankgrown path to the beach.
The turtles, basking in tn
sun, failed to stir-they even ha'
come to know him. The gull
circled silently about the cliff
it was not yet time for thei
noisy evening clatter.
While over all hung the beat
ing, burning sun, and away an
still away rolled the clear gree
of ocean, on and on, as It had
long-so untiringly.
On it he had been born
hither-would it ever bear hir
back again?
Listlessly-for what was tim
to such as he?-he dropped til
few tattered clothes he wol
from him and stood, a bronze
fgure-tall, supple, massive
his muscles and breadth of bod.
Then-still deliberately, b
with an absolute lack of intere
he began turning hand-sprin
up and down the beach. The
he ran-first slowly, then fastt
along the hard sand from IL
rugged cliff at the point Of IL
island-to where the rank grow
and brush reached the beach.
Gaining his breath, he made
mark and, standing with his bal
feet upon it, jumped as far as
could. A huge rock answers
for a shot, and this he 'put
over and over again He toe
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