The Island School — page 308: what you’re looking at

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

ea ve fae ITTER. oe oF DEI Seon fea i | ie ag A At at's .. iat At Fv. lope ; ke. A ia t is . - . ey i Pm | blessed if you don’t give, usa ee surprise | ye ae __ every time.” Ke CHAPTER CXL. i FP lene) ae 9 2 Ge ee «yt have merely improved on the ldhicned - rocket, ”, modestly answered Morse. “I had better - give them another. ) Ee aight: of hy Amid the breathless silence of the lookers-on, he ; _ placed. the second rocket in the tube. The cries were ig still to be heard from the cliff, and a murmuring from lower down. Then, after assuring himself that the tube had not been shifted, he discharged it with as _ good an aim as the first. ie The outery continued, dying away as those whe of _ survived retreated. | ae “Some of them,” said Morse, “ il not complain. _The rest will have to travel a long way round to get to a spot where they can descend.” * How’s that °?” asked Martin. | -- - “T reckon,” replied Morse, “ that they had fixed up - gear to go up and down by themselves as well as to hoist the cannon. I will undertake to say that all that. gear is hopelessly wrecked, and buried under the | ue ' débris of the projecting part of the cliff.” “What explosive did you use?” asked Jim, won- _ deringly. “ Dynamite,” said Marie, “as strong as it can be made. It has a downward action, you will remem- Ne ber. It will not have failed in its mission to blow away the soft soil by the bushes. That bit of ground had to go.” In the gloom of night they could not verify this assertion, but he was generally so very careful in _ what he said, never considering a thing done until he had worked it out in figures or seen it, that they could not doubt him. “Tt is a marvellous feat,” said Terry, breathing a hard. \ By And that was the opinion of them all. rr “The works are closed for the night,” said Morse, grimly, “so now all that are inclined may go to bed.” i The lights had vanished from the cliff, the cries had died away. Truly the work and the lives of five of the foe had come to an end. Three lay buried under the fallen soil, the other two were on their backs on _ the verge of a huge ragged rent in the ground, with _. their sightless eyes fixed blankly on the misty sky. Among the survivors there was a panic, and acting on the first impulse they fled towards the chine. ‘It wasa sorry tale they had to tell to their leader, a woman whose passionate nature could not endure & tive thought of being foiled by enemies, who were but boys. Tt will complete the work of | Me ie men,” muttered ae EN eR sa ; y ny fea i ae Ae AV THE BITTERNESS OF DEFEAT.—THE BURIED CANNON. ie ‘UCIA DI VALO was : lving in her tent, : dteaamile smoking a ; cigarette, when the first rocket was fired by x Morse. In the deep — resonance of the report. - she read the fact that | something out of the ae common had happened. — Ro Springing to her feet, s. she hastened out of the % tent, and found all ths | = P eee. “What is the cause of that report 2” she asked one, i, as he ran up to her, © + ‘“‘It came from the cliff, saniotita he saawwenedl sf and there has been a rushing down of the soil.” ‘Then something serious has happened 2” “ An earthquake.” ss ry “You fool!” she said, curtly. “An conthguake: he would have been fe/é more than heard.” ~ The men made way for her as she stepped eiceien men there were astir. (ee Se so. ag ar * “if 6%, Ne _ out of the shadows of the tent into the open. They followed her, and were in the nick of time to witness Ri the second explosion. aa The avalanche of stones and earth that followed | rattled portentously in their ears, and the cries of the men above sounded ominously. Sie : Two men, who had been engaged in hoisting at ther . base of the cliff, came tearing towards Tica! their se faces, though dimly seen, startling in their expression. of alarm. bi “Senorita,” they cried, “a star from heaven fell. and rent the earth above. As it descended Peitro was buried alive. We had but a narrow escape.” ih “Stars do not fall from heaven,” said Lucia, con temptuously. “It is something from those daring imps of the castle. Have you forgotten already how Ge they rent up yonder path? The cannon—is it in. ae position ?” / i ‘¢ We hoisted it up, five of us,” was the reply, * and , we two, with Peitro, then sent two of our number ie: aloft to help with the work there. ey, were near the summit when the explosion came.” Phy d Ra ‘And they fell?” groaned Lucia. “Tt is to be feared so, senorita.” “You are not sure °” ‘‘No, for a confusion fell upon us.’ “T wish I had a hundred women instead of you tf sou. have no more ) nerve 5 eS on vit 4) 1 fe ‘* ik eM, ih — y Yo 0