The Madison journal., 1913-12-06
crossed safely and threaded her way

crossed safely and threaded her way
SLOWLY up the narrow strait.
Paul estimated that at the slow
speed which the flagship set it would
take about twenty minutes before she
reached the critical point, two and a
half miles ahead, where a series OF
swirling eddies iIFicated the presence
OF barrier OF submerged reefs. Look
ing back he saw that the last ship was
entering the passage. She would be
well within the strait when the disas-
ter happened; bereft of the fiagship's
guidance, even the hindmost could not
hope to thread the route to safety
again. And shudder that he could
not suppress passed over him as he
realized the fate of all those men.
tossed into the icy. rock-strewn cur
rents of the Pyloff shores. II any es-
capped it would be but to die of expos
ure on those inhospitable shores.
He, too, was fated TO die But he
thought little of his own imminent
danger. Life had no further charm
for him. He could perhaps have lived
without Clothilde, had be been parted
by insurmountable reasons OF state, or
even by the fact of her fickleness It
was the revelation Of her nature that
had appalled, him; the treachery with
which she sought to bind him to play
traitors part by a promise made
only to be forgotten.
The ship was almost among the rap
Ids now; he could tell, expert sailor
that he was, how narrow was the
course, from the constant oscillations
as the pilot strove with the vessel.
making 1t answer his lightest move
ment of the wheel An inch-an inch
now to port, now to starboard; the
danger was almost past Was II not
here? He braced himself to meet 1t.
His senses warned him of II an instant
before II came.
Then. with a mighty roar. the wa
ters seemed TO be rent asunder. Paul
looked down through the brown
depths that opened, down through the
swirling whirlpools, through the foam
tipped rapids to the bare ground that
seemed to be displayed. Where there
had been water there was dry land;
then a mighty food swept forward, a
tidal bore, dissolving land and rocks.
and the ship leaped and rolled and
spun dizzily, careening now with her
bows submerged. SO that the water
washed the bridge, now stern upper
most; now she was half under, toppling
as though she would never emerge;
now she had righted again and spun
like a top through the surges. A wave
dashed him from the taffrail and
smothered him with its wash he
struggled and choked and gasped, and
found himself huddled against the
base of funnel; another wave caught
him and swept him along with all the
human fiotsam aboard. He had a VI
sion of twenty ships spinning like tops
upon the surface of the sea. Then
slowly things were righted; the ves-
sci resumed her poise and rode the
seas triumphanrly.
Paul opened his swimming eyes in
amazement. Far-flung across a waste
Of waters rode the ships of the fleet,
unscathed. But where the Pyloff
islands had been there were now but
few bare peaks, emerging out of the
face, of the deep. The islands had dis
appeared; all vestige Of the strait was
gone. Nothing but the unbroken sea
surrounded the ships of the Pacific
squadron.
Nature, as II in ridicule Of man, had
intervened to thwart his petty plans.
The mighty force which had plucked
the Pyloffs from the depths Of the
ocean had drawn them down, and
treachery was discounted and ma
tons base designs frustrated. Paul
felt for the first time in all his ad-
ventures the sense Of an overshadow
ing presence which directed the
scheme Of human affairs; and, feeling
this, he never wholly lost 1t again.