The Tomahawk., 1925-06-11

sides! Both nasts snapped when she
struck"
"Why didn't ,he 60 ashoreT veeder
asked.
Lost his head" the man cried :;
ordered the dory out; kept off shore /;
drifted through the hole, and shot
into the caldron!"
"And then?"
"And them" 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 a sudden, with a wild Shrek a man
caught hold the gunwale amidships.
He talked and cried like maniac, all
the while slipping hand over hand
astern. Then he stopped, hesitated a
second, and with a savage yell, let out.
Good God, it's Silvius!'
Before we knew what he was do
ing, he grabbed boathook anG
damned the point into the captains
neck I lunged at him with the oar,
but he lodged under and l fell, cap
sizing the boat. God only knows
what's become of EN-"
The next morning Veeder and the
refugee set out to inspect the wreck.
The wind had moderated, and a sky,
practically cloudless, except for few
traitors hurrying to catch up with the
in fhn
Along shore, children were searching
out the treasures of the stranded gulf
weed, while their fathers washed
decks, coiled ropes, and half hois;ed
sails to crackle in the breeze end
dry.
The harbormaster and his man fol-
lowed the south shore Of Pensance,
but when nearly at the point came
to a 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 half-metallic thud, and were
struggling over a strip Of skin, so IN
nerved the men that the body slipped
from their hold.
Carefully they turned the corpse
over where it 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 amazement gold pendant, whose
sharp points had cut into the flesh.
He rubbed the trinket in sand and
water, and when it's details emerged,
was startled by this engraving:
MIRIAM HOWE COFFIN"
Instantly Veeder ordered the man to
stand sentinel over the corpse, while,
without delay, he himself secured a
skiff, and alone rOwed Ovnr to Mona
masset. Landing at Collins Cove, he
walked rapidly up the gully toward
the shack.
A hasty survey CONN med Veeders
suspicious, and also drew his atten-
ton to book lying oeen, as Coffin
had left it, on small mahogany table.
$50 please you, God!" 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, Cod" and
working backward through the un-
numbered and undated leaves, he dis
covered that each entry was separated
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
my mind now, been there before! How
often have 1 written these words! o
God! You know, and knowing that you
know, 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; I believe in you, but I 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
me, when as soon as the tempest's
started, you fill me with hatred7
What's the good Of prayers? I'm go
ing back to Miriam; back to the Alba
tross back TO Pensance when all were
lost but Silvius and me. What did you
keep him for? What did you keep me
for? Did you keep me so that forever
after I might be weather-wise, might
sense the tempest, and might forewarn
all men, or did you keep me to re-
member Silvius; to remember how he
fought her Off when she caught hold
the hatch he was on? You knew she