MIRIAM’S DREAM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3519, 23 August 1921, Page 58

MIRIAM’S DREAM.

By

CLARE JERGOLD.

(Copyright.) “You won’t really go at this timo of the year, will you';” “Rather! I’d go in December if Dick were at the end of the journey.” ‘‘Well, I would not cross the Atlantic in the middle of November for a dozen sweethearts.” Miriam laughed gleefully. She and her Dick had been separated for three years, j and now he had fallen into a good berth | in Toronto, and had written to her to | decide whether they should both spend their winter in loneliness, or whether she ! would go to him and settle down at once j as liis wife. I Miriam did not hesitate a moment. She J set aside the shortest time possible for winding up her affairs in England, and arranged to sail in the Sivonian from Liverpool to Halifax. “Rut you'll have a dreadful overland journey after that ; it must be a long way to Toronto,” said her friend Nora. ‘‘l don’t know how you’ll get through all by yourself.” “Ah, but I’m not going to! Dick has been sent bv his firm to New York on some business, and he intends to take a berth in the Meldrum, a coasting steamer, which will bring him to Halifax about the same time that I get there.” Miriam was in a fever of joy. and was j altogether oblivious of such small matters j as intense cold, a pitching, rolling ship, j and battened-down hatches. The good | ship fought gaily through a stormy, icej threatened sea, and at last a.morning i broke, when the sun shone fair, and the ; waves sank into a comparative calm, i Passengers swarmed on deck, congrntuj lating each other on their escape from ! prison, and the anxious captain sighed j with relief to think that the worst was I over. He was upon his bridge, stamping I up and down to keep the blood circu- | lating in bis feet, when ahead of them | he saw a strange speck dancing on the j waves. As it drew nearer he found it to lie lan apparently empty boat: and he sent j off one of his boats to tow the stray to | the steamer. When it reached the side, j however, the limp form of a sailor was i lifted from it. Under care and good j treatment, the blood began to run again i through bis stiff veins, and he was able |in tell what had befallen him. Rut | before that happened liis boat bad been I hauled on deck, and the name upon it, i “Meldrum.” made known, i “How funny'” cried Miriam; “a | steamer sailing from New York to HaliI fax is named Meldrum." | “Av ! missie,” said a sailor, ominously, I “and this is one of her boats.” ! “Put bow can it be? How could it i have got loose out here?” “if that poor chap lives he can tell j us 1 lint, and no one else perhaps.” j After some time the sailor’s words j began to beat into Miriam’s stupefied ! brain. She tried to speak to someone j standing near, but her tongue would not j move, only her knees shook so much that she nearly fell. Her neighbour drew her to a seat.

“Is the Meldrum wrecked?” Miriam asked with tragic eyes. “I do not know; but I hope not. That poor fellow will tell us if he lives.” That evening it was known that the Meldrum had collided with another vessel in the storm, and that though all boats had been lowered they had, one after another, been swamped. The rescued sailor had just jumped into one when its rope 3 snapped, and he was, therefore, the only person saved. The stewardess took the tidings, with a cup of tea, to Miriam, as she lay inert and despairing on her sofa, and she let the woman gossip out her news without uttering a sound. At last the stewardess went away, and Miriam lay still, not thinking, only suffering. Later she crawled into her bed, where, through the night, visions of Dick, as a bo}:, as a youth, as a man, rushed through her mind. Sometimes she saw his face shining through the darkness, but when she clasped him round the neck he was cold as ice and wet with salt water. When she awoke she was out on the upper deck and not alone. By her side stood someone-—a huge man, a giant, who seemed to reach to the sky. His clothes changed their colour from light to dark, from black to brown. His great body undulated all the time, and when he put his arm round her she seemed to be surrounded with a dry suffocating warmth. Then he pointed a long arm to the northeast, and seemed to slip farther and farther away, though he still stood by her side; the monster lengthened into miles. Miriam followed him with straining eyes, when a flash of lightning lit up sky and sea. It played for a moment round a distant spot, which the giant was touching, and in that moment she saw a picture which she never forgot. In the little circle of light a boat rocked helplessly upon the waters; under a rail were crouched some dozen people, trying, by huddling together, to keep the warmth in their bodies. >She know that Dick was there, and called his name shrilly; there was a sudden movement in the human heap, a white face peeped out, and then the vision passed. Miriam lay in her berth, the new dawn already lightening the sky. Then feverishly- she got up and went on deck, to see nothing but the grey sky and greyer sea, to hear nothing but the throbbing of the engines and the sough of wind and wav-es. Breakfast time came, but she heeded it- not; for hours she stood immovable, gazing to the north-east over the bulwarks. What- did that dream of hers mean? Was Dick floating somewhere helplessly, with other passengers? It was noon when the yvind, veering, sent a cloud of smoke over her head and a shower of black smudges upon her hands; with them came a passing sensation of warmth. This slight incident awoke some y T ague memory connected with her dream. The black column of smoke, changing at its edges to brown, thinning out until she could see the grey sky through it, starting ever from her side, and yet reaching far into the distance, caught her eye. Inspiration followed quickly. The smoke was the giant of the night before, and where it pointed lay Dick and his companions! Sight danced into her eves, hope beat strongly in her heart. She turned a rdorified face to the ship. What could she do? How save them? She saw a foot surmounted by: blue cloth moving methodically: on the deck above, and in a moment fieyv un the stairs leading to the captain’s bridge. The captain turned round sharply at the sound of strange footsteps, and peremptorily ordered her down. Clutching his arm, she cried : “Captain! They are out there, under the line of smoke ! A dozen survivors of the Meldrum are drifting helplessly and nearly- dead !” The captain glanced in the direction indicated. How could this frantic young woman have seen what his practised eye could not discern? Then he guessed that she was the person yvho, they- said, had lost her lover in the wreck. “My dear,” he cried, patting her head, “go to your berth, and lie down. You are in great trouble.” But the haggard hopeful ey-es stared brightly at him. “For the love of humanity, captain, use vour glass. You will see them. I know yon will.” To humour her he took a careful survey of the horizon, upon which the sun was shining. At first he shook his head, (hen he stood for a long time examining the spot under the thin edge of the line of smoke. He rubbed his glasses well and looked again, then said quietly: “Something is there ! Sit down in that corner and wait!” The course of the steamer was altered slightly, a boat lowered once more to gather in the ocean’s drift. To his intense surprise the captain saw that the distant, object was reallv a boat, without sail or oar. ITrtw could this girl have known it? Then the group of peonle became visible, all evidently' in the last -to re of exhaustion, and he went over to Miriam and told her to look through the glass, and see if her friend was there. She took it from bis band yvith a wild sob. and gazed long and steadily- at the coming boat, then gave the class back, in the midst, of a passion of weeping, noddimr her head to signify that she had seen Dick. Then she sot herself to regain self.control by- the time the boat came in. When it did she was waiting in the hospital for. her beloved. For the next twenty four hours she shared the duties of nurse with fine of the stewardesses, and r aw Dirk’s eves open with the first gleam of consciousness in them. With a, contented look at her he fell asleep, and on the ship’s arrival at Halifax he. with all those yvho bad been saved, were yvell enough to be moved to more comfortable quarters on shove. The contain made fi lends with At irlam during those few hours, and learned how it was that she knew the boat was afloat.

He could hardly believe it, and ha could not explain it, but yvas contented to accept the fact as it stood, and to be present at the simple ceremony which made Dick and Miriam man and wife.