Marion Marlowe in Buffalo, or, Betrayed by a Rival Company — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Sq Don’t let him escape! [ll make my com- plaint later!” | He darted away, studying a time-table as he went. There was no train for an hour, and an hour seemed an eternity. b _ CHAPTER VIII. AT THE MERCY OF THE WATERS. Never will the people of Niagara forget the horrors of that day! Unfortunates had drifted over the Falls be- _ fore, but it was rarely that any one was 4 warned of the tragedy in time to satisfy their a _ desire to see it. _- The more sober residents flocked together Sd discussed the chances of the boat ever being’ seen again, but the Sister Island was e objective point for hundreds, although it was a wild, rough scramble to reach the _ frozen bank of the river. _ Dr. Brookes was one of the first to reach Sie extreme end of the island and, after an hour of watching had passed, he was joined Sra Bert, who had just reached Niagara, and d d followed the excited crowd that swarmed vin that: direction. _ There was only a nod, and then Bert joined crawd of anxious watchers. The unfortunate craft must pass that way her ride to doom, but nearly two hours x Speces’ and there was not a sign of her. _ “She’s caught somewhere in the ice on the * dank ” suggested some one; “perhaps the - hardly probable !” - The enormous crowd upon the island Re avincited away little by little, and Bert and the doctor were about to return also, when Stk, were joined by several gentlemen whom they had seen in the hotel at Buffalo. “Ts there any more news?” asked Bert, § - qtickly “any word that the boat has gane " shore or anything ?”’ “Not that I’ve heard,” was the reply, as the gentlemen scanned the icy water. “If the boat was where they say it was, she was prob- 3 om swamped by the ice and has gone to the _ bottom.” 2 | “Then there’s no use to stay here any lon- ger ” said Bert, who was blue with the cold. : ee Th is spot aust be gorgeous in summer, but * cs on ‘ae Fad 4a ‘ . ° 7 ~ “ _ ee ‘ <->? ae r creatures have crawled ashore, but it’s MY QUEEN. £ Ly it is bleak enough now! I can understand how that old gentleman at the hotel said the water looked cruel!” “The Rapids are merciless, once they seize upon their prey,” said another voice. “Why, the whirlpool! down below is far more pitiful ; it sucks you in at once and almost like a flash of lightning, but these Rapids resemble a cat and a mouse; they toss you up and buffet you about—they give you a glimpse of sun- shine and then engulf you!” “But could they not have been saved far- ther up the stream?” asked Bert, anxiously. “They tell me the boat started some distance above the Rapids.” The man did not answer; he was scanning the water. He had lived at Niagara all his lite, and ee] knew every tragedy of the Rapids. “They just go down and over,” he went on, after a minute; “and a day or two later they are thrown ashore way down the stream, so bruised and battered that their best friends would not know them.” His hearers shuddered, but they knew he spoke truthfully. The water looked quite capable of just such diabolical treachery. “IT hope Miss Marlowe did not see them! It would almost kill her,” remarked the doc- ter, anxiously, as he scanned the rushing waters; “she rode up, you know, and must have been in plain sight ef the river at sey- eral points. I only hope it is all a hoax—it is too horrible to be real.” “And yet it has happened before; you know what the old gentleman told us,” said Bert, soberly. “The young lady’ was going to visit Mr. Gray, was she not?” asked a familiar voice. Bert looked around and saw the same old gentleman whom he had just quoted. He was surprised fo see him there, but he did not say So. “Yes, I believe she was,” he some wonder. The old man shrugged his shoulders and a strange look crossed his face. “The Gray villa is on those fellows that answered, in tne other side, across mighty careless sometimes,” he muttered, almost ati- erily; “I hope the voung ladv has not met with misfortune.” anc TOW are COMMICLO© (Cc So(GO) An