Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-01-19


and hanged. Do you see the point?
In three days more the girl who had
sold herself into slavery for the saliva
ton of those she loved would have
been released from her bondage only
to marry a murderer
Forsythe scratched q match and re-
lighted his cigar.
81 never thought of such things in
just that light" he said.
Listen to the Wind said the little
priest. Hear the pine trees shrek
out there! 1t recalls to me a night of
years and years ago-a night Xix this,
when the storm moaned and twisted
about my little cabin and when the SUI
preme arbiter sent me my first peni-
tent. Gentlemen, it is something
which will bring you nearer to an un-
derstanding Of the voice and the hand
Of God. 1t is a sermon on the mighty
significance of little things, this story
of my first penitent. If you wish
will tell it to you"
"Go on said F~orsythe.
The travelling men drew near.
at was a night like this" repeated
Father Charles, land it was In a great
wilderness like this, only miles and
miles AVA ] had been sent to estab-
lish a mission, and in my cabin that
wild night, alone and with the storm
shrieking about me, l was busy at
work sketching out my plans. After
q time | grew nervous | did not
smoke then, and so / had nothing to
comfort me but my thoughts. and In
spite of my efforts to make them 9th
erwise they were cherries enough.
The forest grew to my door. In the
1ercer blasts l could hear the flashing
Of the pine tops over my head, and
now int then an arm of one Of the
moaning trees would reach down and
sweep across my cabin roof with a
sound that made me shudder and fear.
1 have heard the pine trees shrek like
dying women, | have heard them wall
ing like lost children, l have heard
them sobbing and moaning like hu-
a souls writing in agony
Father Charles paused to peer
through the window out into the black
night, where the pine trees were sob
bing and moaning now.
And when they cry like that" went
ON Father Charles, "a living voice
would be lost among them as the
splash of a pebble is lost In a roaring
sea.
GAS I sat shuddering before my fire,
there came a thought to me of a story
which l had long ago read about the
sea-a story of impossible achieve
ment and Of impossible heroism AS
wildly as If I had read 1t only the day
before, l recalled the description of a
wild and stormy night when the hero
me placed a lighted lamp In the win
dow of her sea bound cottage to guide
her lover home In safety. Gentlemen,
the reading of that book in my boy
hood days was but a trivial thing. /
had read a thousand others, and of
them all 1t was possibly the least sig
niicant, but the supreme arbiter had
not forgotten.
1.-The memory of that book brought
me to my feet, and l placed a lighted
lamp close up against my cabin win
dow. Fifteen minutes later l heard a
strange sound at the door, and when
l opened it there fell in upon the floor
at my feet a young and beautiful wo-
man. And after her, dragging himself
over the threshold on his hands and
knees, there came a man.
81 closed the door after the man had
crawled In and fallen face downward
upon the floor and turned my attention
first to the woman She was covered
with o Her long, beautiful hair
was loose and disheveled and had
blown about her like a veil. Her big,
dark eyes looked at me pleadingly, and
in them there was a terror such as l
had never beheld in human eyes be-
fore. | bent over her, intending to car
ry her to my cot, but in another mo-
ment she had thrown herself upon the
PROSTATE form of the man, with her
arms about his head, and there burst
from her lips the first sounds that she
had uttered. They were not much
more Ineligible than the wailing grief
Of the pine trees out In the night, but
they told me plainly enough that the
man on the floor was dearer to her
than life.
81 knelt beside him and found that
he was breathing In a quick, painting
sort of way and that his wide open
eyes were looking at the woman. Then
| noticed for the first time that his
face was cut and bruised and his lips
were swollen. His coat was loose at
the throat, and l could see livid marks
ON his neck.
I'm all right he whispered, strug-
Cling for breath and turning his eyes to
me. we should have died-in a few
minutes more-if it hadn't beer for the
light in your window
1.-THE young woman bent down and
kissed him, and then she allowed me to
help her to my cot. When l had at
tended to the young man and he had
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