The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-12-06

stricted shores into the lonelier wastes
OF GARDENERS bay. Their relative po-
sltlons were unchanged: still the Trou-
bic retained her position.
When the chase rounded the buoy,
instead of standing, as any reasonable
beings might have been expected to,
on to Fishers island ar at a tangent
north toward the Connecticut littoral,
they swung off something south of east
"a course that could lead them no
where but to the immensi4ies of the
sea itself.
Whitaker's breath caught in his
throat as he examined this startling
prospect. He shook dubious, vastly
troubled head. But he held on grimly
in the face of dire forebodings.
Once out from under the lee of
Gardeners island, a heavier run of
waves beset them, catching the boats
almost squarely on the beam: fortu-
nately a sea of long, smooth. slow
shouldering rollers, as yet not angry.
Now and again, for all that, one would
favor the Trouble with a uuartering
slap that sent a shower of spray aboard
her to drench Whitaker and sWash
nols1ly round the cockpit ere the self
balllng channels could carry it off. He
was quickly wet to the skin and shiv-
ering. The hour was past midnight,
and the strong air whipping in from
the open sea had bitter edge. They
still had moonlight, but the wind was
blowing with an insistent, unintermit-
tent force it had not before developed.
A haze, vaguely opalescent, encircled
the horizon like a ghost of absinthe.
BY fOur-thirty, when the twilight was
moderately bright, Whitaker was bare
ly able to distinguish the leading boat.
The two seemed as if suspended, strug-
Cling like impaled insects, the one in
the midst, the other near the edge, of
watery pit walled in by vapors.
The end came just before dawn,
with swiftness that stunned the fac
ultieS-aS though one saw the naked
wrath of God leap like lightning from
the sky.
They were precisely as they had
been, within q certain distance of one
another, tOiling On and ever on like
strange misshapen spirits doomed to
run an endless race. The harsh, shape
less light of imminent day alone manu-
featured a color of difference: Whit
aker now was able to see as two dark
shapes the men in the body of the lead
in
the wheel cried out something in a ter
rible voice Of fright, so high and vehe-
ment that it even carried back against
the booming gale for Whitaker to hear
simultaneously he put the wheel over,
with all his might. The other jumped
from his seat, only to be thrown back
as the little vessel swung broadside to
the sea, heeling until she lay almost on
her beam ends. The next instant she
ceased, incredibly, to move-hung mo-
tiOnlesS in that resistless surge, an
amazing, Supplying spectacle. 1t
seemed minutes before Whitaker could
force his wits to comprehend that she
had struck and lay transfixed upon
some submerged rock or reef.
long, gray roller swept upon and
over her, trimming her cockpit with
foaming water. AS it passed he saw
the half-drOwned men release the
coamings, to which they had chung on
involuntary impulse to escape being
swept away, scramble upon the cabin
roof, and with one accord abandon
themselves to the will of the next wave
to follow. AS it broke over the boat
and passed, he caught an instantaneous
glimpse of their heads and arms bob
bing and beating frantically as they
Whirled off through the yeaSty welter.
But he saw this without pity or COM
passion. If he had been able to have
his will with them, he would have sunk
both ten fathoms deep without an in
Stant's respite. His throat was choked
with curses that welled up from a
heart wrenched and raging at this dis
covery of cowardice unparalleled
They had done what they could for
themselves without even hesitating to
release the woman imprisoned in the
cabin.