Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 3, March 1847Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 3, March 1847
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
[Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
J. Fenimore Cooper, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court
of the United States, for the Northern District of New York.]
(_Continued from page 132._)
PART V.
He sleeps; but dreams of massy gold,
And heaps of pearl. He stretched his hands
He hears a voice—“Ill man withhold!”
A pale one near him stands.
DANA.
It was near night-fall when the Swash anchored among the low and small
islets mentioned. Rose had been on deck, as the vessel approached this
singular and solitary haven, watching the movements of those on board,
as well as the appearance of objects on the land, with the interest her
situation would be likely to awaken. She saw the light and manageable
craft glide through the narrow and crooked passages that led into the
port, the process of anchoring, and the scene of tranquil solitude that
succeeded; each following the other as by a law of nature. The
light-house next attracted her attention, and, as soon as the sun
disappeared, her eyes were fastened on the lantern, in expectation of
beholding the watchful and warning fires gleaming there, to give the
mariner notice of the position of the dangers that surrounded the place.
Minute went by after minute, however, and the customary illumination
seemed to be forgotten.
“Why is not the light shining?” Rose asked of Mulford, as the young man
came near her, after having discharged his duty in helping to moor the
vessel, and in clearing the decks. “All the light-houses we have passed,
and they have been fifty, have shown bright lights at this hour, but
this.”
“I cannot explain it; nor have I the smallest notion where we are. I
have been aloft, and there was nothing in sight but this cluster of low
islets, far or near. I did fancy, for a moment, I saw a speck like a
distant sail, off here to the northward and eastward, but I rather think
it was a gull, or some other sea-bird glancing upward on the wing. I
mentioned it to the captain when I came down, and he appeared to believe
it a mistake. I have watched that light-house closely, too, ever since
we came in, and I have not seen the smallest sign of life about it. It
is altogether an extraordinary place!”
“One suited to acts of villany, I fear, Harry!”
“Of that we shall be better judges to-morrow. You, at least, have one
vigilant friend, who will die sooner than harm shall come to you. I
believe Spike to be thoroughly unprincipled; still he knows he can go so
far and no further, and has a wholesome dread of the law. But the
circumstance that there should be such a port as this, with a regular
light-house, and no person near the last, is so much out of the common
way, that I do not know what to make of it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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