The Argosy — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

50 The Robbers’ Cave. floated about her, and she seemed in some awful strait. She shook the gate of the second tower, but that, too, was shut—barred against the robbers. On she sped till she reached the haunted field. She shrieked with terror, expecting to be assailed by all sorts of invisible enemies. But there was not even a Jjack-o’-lantern to mislead her; so she rushed through it till she found herself close upon the shore. She paused and muttered in breathless excitement, ‘‘ Thank God, it is out! The Points are unclosed.” She meant the tide and the two projecting rocks. She was on the sands quick as an arrow from abow. ‘They were smooth yellow sands; so, happily, the bare feet did not suffer. Could she get past the Points before the yawning, greedy sea rushed into the bay? The tide was creeping up like some beast of prey in ambush, and might in a moment leap forward with a bound, and seize on her and her burden. She gazed on it, hesitated, and rushed on. She rounded one of the points, and suddenly the roar of the wild monster in- creased in volume, and she stood a second, paralyzed with terror. Only a second, for she darted onwards to the other Point, and reached it just as the insatiable tide leapt in fury into the bay. She escaped its jaws as if by a miracle, and ran up the beach, pursued by the angry waters. Out of their reach at last, she sat down on a big boulder. The moon shone out and revealed a face pale as its own. ‘They will see me!” she cried, glancing within the loose cloak, and hastening on again. ‘‘ Better the tide! better the tide!” she added, as she looked at the rolling ocean. It was rolling ominously towards her, when, with a bound, she leapt from a heap of pebbles at the top of the beach into a green dell, similar to the valley of spirits she had left behind, but smaller. Her poor feet were bleeding now, and her strength was well nigh spent. She had traversed three or four miles of greensward and sand, and her breath came heavily, her footsteps lagged. With a supernatural effort, however, she ran up the dell, glancing behind her as if pursued. Turning off to the right, she followed a path among the rocks, heed- less of the stones and brushwood that pierced her feet and tore her garments. “ At last, thank God!” she cried, as the moon suddenly veiled her face, and she sank down exhausted. ‘Help! help!” she shrieked, and with her call mingled the shrill cry of an infant. ‘“Who’s there?” echoed through the darkness, followed by a gleam of light that seemed supernatural. The lusty baby-cry was the only answer. Nevertheless it attracted the ignis fatuus of a light, which vanished from above and reappeared below. Again the moon shone out and revealed a scene as picturesque as it was Startling. The woman lay, seemingly dead, beneath the porch of a small dwelling, at which suddenly appeared the figures of a man and woman. ECORNIEOOOKS.E@) m