The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-06-10

why didht ne go ashoreY Veeder
asked
Lost his head" the man cried
ordered the dory out; kept off shore !.
drifted through the hole, and shot
into the caldronl"
And then?'
And thenT' the man echoed with
the look OF one who had Just gazed
death squarely between the eyes
Then happened what no man ever
heard or saw We struck some drift
wood In the center of the pool and all
OF sudden, with wild shrek, a man
caught hold the gunwale amidships
lie talked and cried like maniac. all
the while slipping hand over hand
astern. Then he stopped, hesitated
second, and with savage yell, let out.
Good God, it's Silvius!
Before we knew what he was do
Ing, he grabbed boathook and
damned the point into the captains
neck! I lunged at him with the oar.
but he lodged under and | fell. cap
sizing the boat. God only knows
Will become OF EN-.
The next morning Veeder and the
refugee set out to inspect the wreck.
| The wind had moderated, and q sky.
| practically cloudless, except for few
traitors hurrying to catch up with the
main procession, greeted the eye.
Along shore, children were searching
out the treasures of the stranded gulf
weed, while their fathers washed
decks, coiled ropes, and half hoisted
sails to crackle in the breeze and
dry.
The harbormaster and his man fol-
lowed the south shore of Pensance.
but when nearly at the point came
TO sudden stop over the body of a
man wedged face downward between
two boulders, half under water.
Horror stricken, they carried him to a
strip of dry sand, where the unexpect-
ed sight of two Holsters that had fallen
with a half-metallic thud, and were
struggling over strip of skin, so I'M
nerved the men that the body slipped
from their hold.
Carefully they turned the corpse
over where 1t lay. Face and neck
were mutilated beyond recognition.
Curiously, the left hand. tightly balled
and bloody, clutched something which
fell into the sand only after the thumb
and index finger had been forced apart
by means of a pointed rock. Veeder
examined the thing. and discovered to
his Amusement gold pendant, whose
sharp points had cut into tho flesh.
He rubbed the trinket in SAL and
water and when its details emerged,
was startled by this engraving.
MIRIAM HOWE COFFIN"
Instantly yeeder ordered the man to
stand sentinel over the corpse, while,
without delay, he himself secured a
skiff, and alone rowed ovn- to Mona
masset. Landing at Coffin's Cove, he
walked rapidly up the gully toward
the shack.
A hasty survey confirmed Veeder's
suspicious, and also drew his atten-
ton to book lying open, as Coffin
had left it, on a small mahogany table.
$50 please you, Cod" was written
boldly across the middle of the left
hand page Turning to the beginning |
of what was evidently the last record, |
he found on the third preceding page |
another, $50 please you, God! y and |
working backward through the I'M
numbered and undated leaves, he dis
mt
from the one preceding and the one
following, by $50 please you, God!'
Turning excitedly now to the be-
ginning of the last record, Veeder
read: "How often has all that is in
nv mind now, been there before How
often have | written these words! o
God. You know, and knowing that you
know, l come to you with courage and
hope, and tell everything. You know
what / am. You made me what | am,
and can talk to you as one straight
man to another Why send the temp
est? Why tell me about it? Can't
YOU let ME sleep? Paralyze me, but
don't send the old madness When
you act like this, I'm like a drunken
man who knows he's drunk. I'm ra-
tional: l believe in you, but l can't
help doing what you make me do. Why
don't you leave me alone! What's the
good of trying to save them through
ne, when as soon as the tempests
started, you fill me with hatred!
What's the good of prayers? I'm 60
ne back to Miriam; back to the Alba
ross: back TO Pensance when all were
ost but Silvius and me. What did you
,eep him for? What did you keep me
or? Did you keep me so that forever
lfter might be weather-wise, might
ense the tempest, and might forewarn
III men. or did you keep me to re-
member Silvius; to remember how ne
ought her off when she caught hold
he hatch he was on? You knew she
lad a child, didn't you? And you saw
lin dig his boots into her fingers
idn't you? And you had me snarled
n the rigging, cutting and tearing my