A Mishap on the Zuyder Zee.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 152, 24 December 1903, Page 12

A Mishap on the Zuyder Zee.

I was on skates, and thu Zuyder Zee lay before mo. I bud llio route much to myself. Already there wus a fair traffic of bkators on the Monnickeiidum thoroughfare—a black liguie every two or three hundred yards ; there- weie only one eager boy in a vast blue comfoiter, who utiuched himself to mo to speculate at his leisure about my fcshcilield bkutes, a sweeper or two, bleating in the keen cold, earning .their fifths of a penny hardly, poor souls— and that whs all. Tho Zuyder Zee still kept its distance cloukod ; Volendam was as invisible at Mouniukeudam. I might, from nil appearances, have been bound lor the A\orth Polo. There was only one more Bweeper, this timo a wry htilo parody of Die man, uriiortunuto (aa the phrase goes), Jiko the idiot boy in the JMurkoin chinniey cuinur; and then 1 had a bur© iiorixun beloro me. Something led me to pause and exchange words with this poor lohow. He had a very red face, but his lack of intellect was his roost conspicuous quality. As good luck would have it, 1 gavo him two copper coins instead of the usual, though not imperative,' dole of one. At least, I suppose it was good luck; it might at any rate havo buen fatal if 1 had passed him by at the run without taking hand from pocket. Ono cannot be axiomatic about the brains of an uuiortunuto. Bo that as it may, a minute or two later 1 was through tho ice, aiijd no one but thp unfortunate was in sight. I deserved the accident. Had I kept to the route sketched out by the roed tufts 1 should hay* had my safety assured. There was, however, a seducing patch away to tho left, bkick and glassy, virgin ice in fact ; and wiien I was in the very middle of it, crack it went, and my feet lost bottom. A wus quito a comfortable let down, all things considered, and free from any violent shock. I found myself surveying tho Zuyder Zee from my elbows, hueiested at first rather than alarmed by the new nature of the prospect. But some five minutes of careful struggling much changed tho situation. Twico I managed to get one leg out, once both legs to tho very tips of my skates. l)iserect spread-eagling might, I hoped, N do tho business and enable mo to crawl to the' sound margin and so home somewhere, in dismal plight enough, yet whole in bone and wind. But each effort ended in failure and an enlargement of tub black, and now, forbidding pool behind me. Then, with shortening breath, I understood thut 1 wus in a mess. Tho half-witted sweeper was in night, ot courso, but ho soemed unreasonably remote, and moreover ho was plying his broom with his back towards me. Clearly it was advisable to shout. I felt numb already, and, which troubled mo more, the ice on each side was gradually pipping from the horizontal under tho weight of my arms. 1 bhouted several times before my sweeper even stopped sweeping. He looked up, did not sco me, and renewed his simple labours. This timo I was determined that he should hear and understand ; and Jie did both. Up went his arms ia dismay, and he, too, shouted. But to my idiot now came another man, tall ana broad, with a capable look about the shoulders ; oven at a distance, he hud a rousingly practical air. JLuo sight of him acted like a tonio to my drowsing energies und nguin I shouted, for tho minutes were pausing, ami my pi ops were drooping methodically. I know pretty well that I should have little power 6i finger-grip left to grapple for Iresh butlrenßos when the crack came light or left. Of the two anna the right wus the lower in thu water, but, 1 wus souden to both elbows. Thoy moved toward me with loud talk and gesticulations at a' walk, and not a fast ono either. It was enity guesting what was in thoir minds. They hud no proper life-saving mutorials, and their combined Intellects wero bullied by their responsibility: They had a broom apiece unu that was all. At thirty paces from me they halted and the second mun encouraged mo with dospuiiing shakes of tho head <tnd cried which I made no effort to interpret. The poor idiot* arms were stuck up as if in appeal to tho pale blue »ky. I wus being told that I ought not to havo gone from tho track, and that they did not know what to do to get me out. ' This was magnificent I 1 knuw it all myself and made no comment; my juws wero too earnestly chattering about the cold, for further attempts at cohetont speech. But suddenly my man was visitod with an inspiration. Off went his jacket. He hud something round his waist, and he toro it from him ; something round his neck also, and that, too, • whs removed. Lastly, something in his pockets, and this, being discovered, was with fierce quickness joined to tho other -things. What it was \ could not at this stage exactly sco ; mutters generally were visible only through a pearly mist, which did not spoil their uppeurunce., though it blurred them. I gasped and gasped, ami glancing to tho right realised thut 1 \sux in water to tho shoulder. Well, so bo it. And now tho woust of all was at hand. A wisp of something brown fluttered before my eyes, heralded by hoarse cries from tho two men. Should I or should .1 nob bother about it? That was the question that put itself to me. Upon the whole I was quite comfortable as in the circumstances I had tho right to expect to bo. Any further active resistance to doom was hateful to think of. I perfectly .understood I was bound for the bottom of tho Zuyder Zoo, but I saw no sufficient reason why I should hurry on that journey. When my arm-rests wero bent to the snapping point then I would go, but not before. The brown thing lay under my nose. In a flush I felt prompted to givo it a trial. Loosing both supports, I grabbed the thing with lcadon 'bands, first one and then tho other. Atflho snijio instant I caught myself wondering how any fellow though over .so impecunious, could think it worth his while to wear such a motheaten old scarf us this. Yells of rejoicing or ondcavour followod. There wua i jerk arid a snap and I was in again, to tho neck this time. Of their own accord my arms sprang out to their old friendly barriers. Crack wept one, and it was by mere instinct that both hands clutched tho ice in front just as I sank in. Again that brown thing drooped before my eyes, ni^d tho shouts from beyond intensified in tone. Thoy seemed rather more reinoto than before, aa if they scarcely concerned me ; tho cold trickling down my spine fyom the fresh douche •was a, much moro personal detail. The brown thing wriggled ; they were fishing for mo as one lures a trout. I took it gingerly this time, eyeing its- defects at very close quarter*. Inch by inch I went up it, hand ovor hand. There was a cord above such as might have been taken from a windowHash. Could I reach that? I did, and, with all tht) strength left in tho muscles of my frozen fingers fastened on it. Then enmo the tug. A cry of furious exhiliration sounded quite near, over my lieud almost. But heavens! \Yho was trying to cut me in two at the waist? This was inoi'o then even frozen flesh and blood could boat It ended suddenly. The coid bioke this time, and again my gloves saved mo us I did back, in giving ore a Riip which no nukuil linden Mich as mine then wert could lia\e louud. A long imusu to. lowed. M.\ men &puke iv tired w hispers— at least they* sounded

tired. What they were doing I cured littlo. Conscious of a cicepinu chill which nothing could resint much longer, and of v heaviness which diagged at my feet liko hundredweights, I faintly wondered why the ice in front did not breuk up like that at the bides. lfc was the last attempt ; they and I both, know that. On their purt, even U8 it was, they accounted it uholuss ; but there was still the chauce. And I, too, bolievcd it useless, but went feebly foi that poor, palo, last chance. My fingers were well-nigh dead ; thoy could rest idly on a rim of ice, but thoy could not clutch,' and thoy could hold nothing, ' That was soon shown, for tho ropo was drawn through them like a glove from a hand. But again it was before mo, und now I put my teeth to it, and with my teeth slowly wound it round my right wrist og^in, again, and again. With tho drogs of instinct still in me I swayed my heels hackward ; tho psychological moment wo<i seized when the chest was at an easier angle to the barrier in front und 1 rose from the wo tor. A shout of triumph told me that hope still lived, and then out I came, swiftly along tho surface of the ice, and so to tho , hard wooden shoes of my rescuer. — Charles Edwards, in Macmiflan's.