Year: 1873

could be done, they told Mr.. Forsyth,
and all the while came the boom! boom!
boom! from the. guns of the iIl-fated
vessel upon The rocks, around which the
sea was tugging, and drawing and surg
ing, as If eager to swallow it up and be
done with it at once.


Katharine left her fathers side and
went up to one of the bravest of the
men.


GLOW can yop stand. here. Is no one
ready to go with you?" she askedl


eyes, we be all ready enough, Miss,
but the good Lord help the poor man
who goes out tonight"


Katharine said not another word, but
thanking the "good Lord" that she
knew how to handle both boat and a
pair of oars, she slipped through them,
and before any one knew it, she had un-
fastened boat, was in it, and going out
swiftly on asrcceding wave toward the
rocks and-him.


The light tlared on white faces enough
when they found that woman had
gone out alone, and Mr.. Forsyth gasped
for breath, and nearly tainted when he
really believed that it was true.


The rest of that long nightZand it
seemed rs if morning would never come
they paced up and down the beach,
while the storm ragged on, for not man
would follow the mad woman, though
MIR. Forsyth offered them more money
than most of them had seen at once in
all their lives, if they would make the
attemptt lie could not row himself, and
so, half-crazed, knowing how well he
loved his child, he had to endure, as
best he might, the horrors of that time,
which his heart told him would end in
certain death. One such hour will teach
us more of ourselves than a common
lifetime. oh, If he had his treasure for
one poor half hour now, how he would
take her to his heart They had dis
trusted each other for many DAYS, but
there was love, boundless stores of it. in
the depths of their hearts for each other,
he knew, and as he wrung his hands in
agonles of dispair, and cried out for his
child, the rough men felt their own
hearts breaking up, though they could
not help him.


At last, as the morning began to
dawn, life-boat was thrown upon the
shore, scattering its freight of half life
less bodies, but it was not katharipe's
boat, and neither she nor the captain
were among the number


There was work enough to do now,
and it was done with a right good will.
The first one who could speak, said that
all the crew had left the ship; that the
captain had gone last, where or how,
none of them knew, though one of them
said, after while, that he had kind
of half recollection of hearing the cap
tain cry out: 'My God! Katharinei" as
he swung over the ships side, but he
could tell nothing certainly, there had
been so much confusion when the ship
commenced to go to pieces.


In the middle of the forenoon the
storm abated, and another boat made in
to the bay, with Captain Alcott on
board, but though he had thought he
saw Katharine the night before, he be-
lieved it to be only his immagination,
and knew nothing of her now only what
they told him, that she had gone out to
slve him if she could.


In an hour after he had landed, he,
with Mr.. Forsyth, had taken steam
tug, and was off after the woman who
was probably lying at that moment
fathoms deep beneath the cruel waves.


Captain Alcott kept his own lookout,
and he had both heaven and hell in his
head during that awful search, for if he
did not find her, and his reason told him
it was the merest folly to hope for such
IA thing, he would never forgive the man
who stood close beside him at every
turn, and whose worn, haggard face was
enough to move stone to pity. If he
did find her, if God would but hear and
answer this, the most terribly in earnest
prayer that he had ever uttered in his
life, it would make him a changed man
for all that time.


We make such VOWS in these dire
straits which ovcrtake us now and then
the worse for us if we do not keep them


The sun began to get low in the west
ern horizon, and yet nothing. Would il
just as he was certain of her love, and
upon the very threshold of what might
be bliss? His eyes were straining faI
around in every direction. The hope
and dispair alternating. i'll them, making
them dreadful to see. He was a strong
man, but strong men love with fearful
intensity, sometimes, and love over G
possible and probable grave is always
more or less terrible.


AT last, after another hour, he gave
such start that Mr. Forsyth caught
him, thinking he was about to plunge
overheard.


"Do you see that?" he said, his face
white as ashes, pointing off to what ap
peared to be mere speck upon the wa
ter.


Then came the command:


"More steam on! Straight ahead!"


AS for Katharine, God took care OF
her, as he does of us all when everything
human fails.


She had some way outlived the
stormy night, and though drifting help
lessly out to sea, her oars had been lost
long before, she was alive, and kept NJ
faint courage until she knew that helT
was coming. When they lifted her on
board, she lay like one dead, and fol
hours she only repeated deliriously il
answer to her father or her lover: "Y OF
will let him drown, you will let hin
drownp