The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-27

world was black-that intense night black which has the feel of oppression in it, makes you put out your hands in stinctively and grope.
 The wind blew with a tremendous humming noise, like some huge dyna- mo- which indeed it was, and the wa ter ran as high as when, five hours ago, they had all been dragged ashore, bruised, cut, exhausted.
 Occasionally some conber 1eaped so high that the revolving light touched it; and in that instant 1t seemed to stand still in the air vividly, after the manner of objects seen in lightning hashes! <
 The guide squatted on his launches and peered out. j.
 By and by his eyes began to absorb what light there was, and he saw two faint gray patches on the water bow ing and kotowing to each other like I QuadrilIe dancers. The boats were still there. Would the cables hold till morn. ing?
 All he had in worldly possessions, aside from his home, was that boat. It was his bread and butter. Without it (and at present no means of buying another) he might have to mortgage the home next year. He got up pain fully and Nmped off toward the tower.
 There wasn't any sense of Lester standing watch up there Either the cables would hold or they wouldn't. and watching was only prolonging the agony. is All this because he had let the thought of making hundred dollars dazzle his eyes and obscure his usual caution and common sense. He re- +r 0Ar hat 17n irI md +Hn mystery surrounding her had pulled him as strongly as the thought of gain.
 He paused and reached down to rub his shin gently.
 In helping Cranford in he had fallen on the slippery runway and bruised a shin against one of the rolling pins. We'll, the poor young woman was pay ing for her hardihood-a gash two inches long on the side of her head aud an arm strained so badly that her fin gers spread out croolzedly.
 And she lay there on the floor of the boathouse without movement, without speech, too exhausted to moan against the pain of her injuries. Treasure?
 He was in a fine mood for treasure.
 He would have liked nothing better than to find it and cast it into the lake, to let it remain there till the second de1uge (which the minister said last Sunday was on the way) and ever after.
 Treasure? What treasure? How could there be any treasure on Pidgin? The adventure itself did not stir his imagination They were. all alive on shore, but he had broken faith with himself, and there lay the sting and the bite.
 Known for years as the most careful guide on the river, and to smash that record into smithereens in a moment of mental aberrationi
 Perhaps the real backbone of his dis satisfaction over his conduct was the fact that he had now given the missus the chance for which she had been waiting for years.
 She wasn't .scold, but she would not have upheld the traditions of her sex if she had refused to seize upon this weakness to enlarge upon it, to fling it in his face from now on, .aI through the dreary, long winter to come.
 Inside the boathouse Cranford sat with his back to the ightkeeper's boat asleep.
 A smoky lantern hung from the roof beam.
 Between this and the other lantern, which stood on the floor al little way from Diana's head, swan pale haze, I tainted with the odor of kerosene
 From time to time dark tongue OF water would suddenly. come in under the double doors. to seep laziIy out again. The bolts rattIe1 continuously. Diana lay between the boat and the partition.
 A blanket was spread over her. Un- der her bandaged-head were two cush- ions, over and down which her loosen ed hair flowed. spun bronze in the light so close to it.
 Her face, thrown into relief, had that rare mellow tone of Velasquez DOT trait
 When she fell on the runway she struck against a bolt
 Fortunately the blow was glancing Still, it laid open the side of her head as neatly as a knife would have done. How serious this injury was 5Cranforl was unable to determine, but the pe,- cu1iar twist to the arm, as they picl ! her up and carried her into the bo house senseless, alarmed him.
 He had been on too many a football field not to have learned that often d strain is far more dangerous than clean broken bone. Wild though he was with anxiety, ne went to Work coolly. Billy and Lester wcDe worse than useless in this emergency.
 Off went her heavy outing coat He found it necessary to cut away the sleeve of her sweater, and he was glad she had worn that, for wool even if wet absorbs and retains heat.
 The cut bled profusely, and this he stopped with applications of cold wa ter. ripping up a pillow ease for ban dages. Next he gave his attention to the arm. No bones were broken.
 He bound it tightly to keGe, down the sw cling, soaked it with arnica, which happily, the lightkeeper was able to supply, and s1ung it across her breast All this time she remained unconscious. He drew the stool beside her and set