Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1915-11-30

1
these powerful friends? Once more
she found herself aione-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-
| ton even as it came. And as she ar
| gued. 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 chung 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 a time.
| When she came once more slowly
and painfully to a realizing sense of
what had befallen, she looked about
her YEARLY.
She was alone upon the sea. OF
| those who had been about her, none
now survived! Not far from her a
body or two foated, but not living
being was to be seen. not 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 sail, or using an
oar, even of hosting 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
shuddered 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
lowered, ghostlike, above her.
The waves bore her onward. she
knew not where, and cared not how,
for how many hours she could not tell.
Face to face with herself, her past, her
future, the unhappy girl passed a
period of unknown duration. engaged
in her own reflections.
It was not her own life she feared to
lose, so she said, for life after all was
little thing, 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 unconpleted 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
tainted her and defed her, who had
| fought her In every contest of wits
yet in turn he had aided her to escape
and 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
its dawn.
Eyes" she said to herself, "he saved
me at the cost of his own life" And
the life of that other faithful friend.
Roleau, the dauntless, it, too, had
been wasted to save her own-the life
she now could hold but worthless,
since it must be lived alone. They
were dead-and she had been the
cause of that! What could life hold
further for her?
Kitty Gray bent her head down upon
her knees. Her hair fell about her
face. And thus she sat, she knew not
how long, resigning herself to her
fate, making her peace with what she
felt now must come. Now" said she,
'1ct ne die" And when once more
the sleep of exhaustion came upon her
she thought it that of death itself.
She wakened. none the less, in
|
that bind us whether or not we like
to this life into which we are born
without our asking. She wakened and
stared with hollow eyes about her at
world which she neither knew nor
loved But even SO, at length her gaze
found something to cause her eyes to
kindle, her breath to come trihe
faster.
Far in the distance she had caught
sight of the shore of distant land
tho same sight which in turn had met
the gaze of that friend whom now she
mourned. 1t lay there low on the sea
and distaat-land, some sort of land
she knew not what.
She looked at it DULY, alphabetically
In truth, she was too far gone to care
Whether Or not she retained con.
seriousness through the remainder OF
her voyage, she herself could never
tell.
At length, a weak and unimpoTtant
bit Of fotsam of the sea. Kitty Gray
was cast up upon the shore, rejected
by that sea but now so eager to claim
} her as its own. Yes. by some miracle
she dared not ask what, she had been
spared. This at least was land. II
death must come, it was not now tc
be death through peril of the sea
YEARLY she lifted herself from heI
: bed upon the sand, raised herself upon
an elbow to look about her.
What she saw gave her no great de
J light. Rather, had she had strength
| left for terror. she had known addition
} al terror now.
Approaching from a distance were
certain figures, inhabitants OF this
land, whose lock she could not recog
nize, whose language she could not
understand. They approached. shout
ing, gesticulating. They were armed