as to follow, and the priest
gazed with strong interest on his features, over which swept many wild
emotions, occasionally softened by a gleam of tenderer feeling. He at
length proceeded:--

One evening, in the stormy month of March, a ship was seen from our
look-out, drifting at the mercy of the wind and waves. The sky was a
mass of leaden clouds, and the sun as it sank from view, threw a lurid
glare over the angry waters, such as one might fancy to arise from the
deepest abyss of Hades. My father ordered the false light to be shown,
which had already brought swift destruction on many a gallant bark. I
knew not why, but my heart was interested in the fate of this vessel,
and I opposed his commands.

"Are you mad?" said he, sternly; "do you not see that this is a ship of
the largest class, and the spoils must be great?"

"But her decks are crowded with human beings," said I, lowering the
glass through which I had been surveying her; "and there are many women
among them. Put not up the false light, I conjure you. If she founders,
the spoils are legitimately yours, but--"

Even as I spoke the baleful light streamed far up into the rapidly
darkening air; a private signal had been given to one of his men, and it
was now too late to remonstrate. I rushed to my own boat, calling on a
boy, who sometimes accompanied me on such occasions, to follow. One
glance at the ship assured me that in five minutes she would be on the
sunken rock over which the light gleamed, and no human power could
prevent her from instantly going to pieces. My boat had weathered many a
storm as severe as this threatened to be, and I was fearless as to the
result. I resolved to die, or save some of the helpless creatures I had
seen on the deck of the doomed ship. A whistle brought a large
Newfoundland dog to my side, and in a very short time I was launched on
the waves of the heaving ocean. My father nodded approvingly to me,
thinking that I had made up my mind to assist as usual in rescuing our
game from the waves.

"Right, my boy!" said he, through his speaking trumpet: "all you save
to-night shall belong to yourself alone."

I was borne beyond the reach of his voice, and as I turned my face
toward the ship, there came a violent burst of thunder which seemed to
fill the echoing vault of heaven, attended by a continual flashing of
lightning. Mingled with its awful roar was a cry more terrible still,
that of human agony uttering its wild appeal to