The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1916-04-01

boat; the seas would swamp it the
moment it fell into the trough; and,
besides, the sail, dashed to the spare
oars, dragged in the sea ahead of US.
as a sea-anChor.
InStinCtively we drew closer in
gether in the bottom of the boat.
felt her mittened hand come out to
mine. And thus. without speech. we
waited the end. We were not far off
the line the wind made with the west
ern edge of the promontory. and |
watched in the hope that some set OF
the current or send of the sea would
drift us past before we reached the
surf.
I'VE shall go clear" I said, with
confidence which l knew deceived
neither of us.
BY God, we will go clear" cried,
five minutes later.
The oath left my lips in my excite
life, unless trouble it," an eXpletive
OF my youth, be accounted an oath.
81 beg your pardon" | said.
"You have convinced me of your
sincerity" she said, with faint smile.
81 do know, now, that We shall go
| clear"
had seen a distant headland past
| the extreme edge of the promontory,
| and as we looked we could see grow
the intervening coastline Of what was
evidently a deep cove. At the same
time there broke Upon our ears a con-
tinuous and mighty believing. 1t par
took of the magnitude and volume Of
| distant thunder, and it came to us
| directly from leeward, rising above
| the crash of the surf and travelling d.
rectly in the teeth of the storm. AS
we passed the point the whole cove
burst upon our view, a half-moon Of
white sandy beach upon which broke
huge surf, and which was covered
with myriads of seals. 1t was from
them that the great believing went
up.
"A rookery!" cried. Now are we
indeed saved. There must be men
and cruisers to protect them from the
seal-hunters. Possibly there is a sta
tion ashore"
But as studied the surf which beat
upon the beach, l said, Still bad, but
not so bad. And now, if the gods be
truly kind, we shall drift by that next
headland and come upon a perfectly
sheltered beach. where we may land
without wetting our feet"
And the gods were kind. The first
and second headlands were directly
in line with the southwest wind; but
once around the secondhand we went
perilously near-we picked up the
third headland, still in line with the
wind and with the other two. But
the cove that INTERVIEWED! 1t pene
trated deep into the land, and the tide
setting in. drifted us under the shell
ter of the point. Here the sea was
calm. save for a heavy but smooth
groundswell. and | took in the sea
anchor and began to row.
\ Here were no seals whatever. The
, boats stem touched the hard single
sprang out, extending my hand Il
Maud. The next moment she was be
side me. AS my fingers released hers
she clutched for my arm hastily. A
! the same moment swayed, as abou
to fall to the sand. This was tn,
startling effect of the cessation of mo
ton. We had been so long upon thu
moving. rocking sea that the stabl,
land was a shock to us. We expected
the beach to lift up this way and that
and the rocky walls to swing back ant
forth like the sides of a ship; ant
when we braced ourselves, automati
cally. for these various expected
movements, their non-occurrence quit,
overcame our equilibrium.
| Il really must sit down." Maud said
with a nervous laugh and a dizzy ges
ture. and forthwith she sat down Of
the sand.
l attended to making the boat sc
cure and joined her. Thus we lande
on Endeavor island, as we came to II
i landsick from long custom of the sea