The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-10-17
PAGE THREE

| 5ne 1Ound herSelt alOne-and once
more in the blind instinct for self
preservation she did what she could
for her own safety
She dared not think of the fate Of
her friends She mourned them now
as dead but still in her subconscious
mind kept bitterly fighting the convic-
tion even as it came. And as she ar
gueu, she found herself swept away
farther and farther from the place
where last she had seen them
In some way, she knew not how,
Kitty found herself among many 9th
ers upon the same considerable piece
OF wreckage where Roleau and Fred
erick had endeavored to place her
soon after the explosion Many others
now clung to this. She shuddered as
she cast a glance about her over the
water and drew closer to the center
of the raft. One after another she
saw them lose their hold; one after
another she saw them carried away
by the waves. AS for herself, pre-
served miraculously, she knew not
how, she fastened herself as best she
could to the frail floating floor and
ceased to struggle. Mercifully her
senses left her for time.
When she came once more slowly
and painfully to a realizing sense Of
what had befallen, she looked about
her YEARLY.
Shn oil
those who had been about her, none
now survived! Not far from her a
body or two hoated, but not a living
being was to be seen, not a survivor
save herself had found this means of
safety.
There was no food. There was no
fresh water for her. There was no
means of raising a sail, or using an
oar, even of hoisting a signal had she
had one. And yet the sky above her
was so blue and gentle, the sea around
her so kind, that all now seemed less
terrible than it had been but now.
Hungry and thirsty as she was she
shuddored as she thought of the added
pangs that might be hers. She called
aloud in her distress, her despair
There came no answer. save in the
shrieks of the circling birds which
hovered, ghostlike, above her.
The waves bore her onward, she
knew not where. and cared not how,
Face to face with herself her past, her
future, the unhappy girl passed a
period of unknown duration, engaged
in her own reflections.
1t was not her own life she feared to
lose. so she said, for life after all was
q little thing, a temporary passage at
best. But if only she might have
lived now for the sake of that which
she felt in her own heart-for the
sake Of that uncompleted period of her
own life whose dawn she acknowl-
edged to have seen but now!
He was gone! She had seen him
swept away before her very eyes. He
was her enemy, who had so often
.aunted her and defied her, who had
fought her in every contest of wits
yet in turn he had aided her to escape
md saved her but now-instead of
enemy he had turned into friend or
more than friend-and he was gone.
The sunset of her day came even with
is dawn.
YES" she said to herself, ''he saved
ne at the cost of his own life" And
he life of that other faithful friend,
loleau, the dauntless, it, too, had
een wasted to save her own-the life
he now could hold but worthless,
ince it must be lived alone. They
'ere dead-and she had been the
ause Of that! What could life hold
Irther for her?
Kitty Gray bent her head down upon
er knees. Her hair fell about her
ice. And thus she sat, she knew not
ow long, resigning herself to her
lte, making her peace with what she
1T now must come. Now" said she,
et me die!" And when once more
le sleep of exhaustion came upon her
le thought it that of death itself.
She wakened, none the less, in
strong indeed are the ties
lat bind us whether or not we like
this life into which we are born
ithout our asking. She wakened and
ared with hollow eyes about her at
world which she neither knew nor
we'd. But even so, at length her gaze
und something to cause her eyes to
ndle, her breath to come a trifle
ster.
Far in the distance she had caught
ght OF the shore of distant land
o same sight which in turn had met
@ gaze of that friend whom now she
ourned. 1t lay there low on the sea
ID distant-land, some sort of land,
e knew not what.
She looked at it duly, alphabetically.
truth, she was too far gone to care.
neither or not she retained con-
iousness through the remainder Of
r voyage, she herself could never
/.
At length. a weak and unimportant
CT flotsan Of the sea, Kitty Gray
S cast up upon the shore, rejected