Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1880 — SAVED BY A WHISTLE. [ARTICLE]

SAVED BY A WHISTLE.

The afternoon was drawing to a close. Huge clouds loomed threateningly in the west, and the wind swept about the old inn with fitful wails. It would evidently prove to be a wild, stormy night; already the waves of the little cove that made in form the bay luul put on their white caps in anticipation of a frolic. The inn had formerly been used for the accommodation of travelers ; but, at the time our story opens, it had been gradually falling to ruin, and people seldom or never stopped there. The inmates were an old woman, known as Granny Crane, a colored man who attended to the chores, and a young orphan girl of 18 whom granny had taken from the poorliouse years before. This girl, Elfie Darke, was standing on the porch, shading her face with one hand and looking anxiously over the water. Her eyes were large and absolutely startling in their wild, dark beauty, with long curling lashes, and deli-cately-arched brows. The scornful curving mouth was red like Southern wine. The head was daintily poised ; the nose small and straight; the foot slender and lurched like an Arab's. Far below her waist swept the jetty hair in a silken waving mass. She was a most exquisite creature, notwithstanding the rough caress of t le salt breeze had browned her cheek and the small hand that shaded those wonderful eyes. A brown skirt ol some woolen material fell to her ankles. She wore a short jacket of scarlet flannel, and a scarf of the same color was thrown over her head. Suddenly a harsh, croaking noise sound* (1 from, the house—- “ Come in, gal! What are ye standing there for, and the cold wind blowing over one ?” Elfie uttered an impatient exclnmatiou, but did not move, and the wrinkled old crone crept to the door and looked over the gill’s shoulder. “Ah, ha ! That’s what troubles, is it? No wonder—and ver lover the only smuggler of ’em at home. I suppose they’d give a good round sum to get him—eh, gal?’’ “Hush!” said Elfie, imperiously, as she turned on Granny Crane. “Don’t you dare to betray him !” The old woman chuckled, and, Blinking her head, hobbled back to the house without speaking. Elfie looked after her with a troubled expression on her beautiful face, and then turned her gaze seaward once more. A vessel lay at anchor just outside the cove. Elfie knew it well enough ;it was the Government cutter in pursuit of smugglers. Elfie was thinking of her bold, handsome lover, and her heart beat strong and feverishly while she considered the chance of his escape. He was coming to see her that night. She would wait; nothing could be done at present, for she knew not where to find him. The night closed blackly; the rain came down in drenching floods, when Granny Crane, wrapped in a long cloak, sallied forth, passing just outside the door a stalwart figure that approached the house from the crazy old barn where he had fastened his horse. “Going ter stay the evening with the gal?” she called after him. “Yes,” came back to her in a bold, free voice, and they passed on, he to the house, and she into the night, which grew blacker and wilder. “Ye are a fine lad, Rolf Stuart, but ye’ll not spend the evening with Elfie. Tho Government hounds’ll track ye ere long.”

The old woman pulled her hood over her wrinkled face and hurried on. Straight to the beach she went, and arrived there just in time to see a number of dark figures leaping from a boat. The men regarded curiously the weird figure that quickly approached tfiem. “Mayhap the gentleman would be glad to know the whereabouts of a smuggler ?” “ Yes, my good woman ! That is what brings us here,” said one, who appeared to be the leader. “ Have you any information to give us ?” She hesitated a moment, and looked at them craftily from under her heavy brows. “I am a poor old .woman —” she began. “ Here the man drew a roll of bills from his breast, and counted a part of them into her eager fingers. “ Now, then, tell us all you know.” “You must follow the. beach up until you reach the road,” she said; “then cross the grove of pines at the right, and you will see the inn. In the front room you will find the Captain of the band, with his sweetheart.” A murmur of satisfaction arose from the men, and the leader, compelling granny to follow, strode on across the beach. Inside the old inn, Eltie and her lover were talking earnestly. “ You must go at once, Rolf. The cutter lays just outside the cove,” the girl said, nervously. “I thought you would see her.” “ I have been out of town all day; and it s too dark to-night to see anything. Come, lassie, fly with me. We will never return. This is no life for you. When you are my wife, sweetheart, silks and jewels’ll be none too fine for you. Come away, and we’ll have a home of our own that is grand mid beautiful, with no granny to gritnfble and find fault. ” jr Hhe loved this daring fellow, i» spite of his lawless deeds. Indeed, she knew no better class of men, for most of her life had been spent among the smugglers on the coast. She laid her cheek on his arm, while he bent to receive her answer. before she could speak, the heavy oaken door was thrown open, and the men from the cutter filed swiftly into the room. ‘ ‘ You nfay as well surrender, my man,” said the leader, throwing open liis cloak and revealing the navy blue with its glittering buttons. The young outlaw stood like a stag at bay. In the confusion Elfie had slipped from his arms, and out of the door. He was very gjad gs that—she was out of ganger.

For an instant there was a dead silence, and then, as the leader took one step forward, Rolf drew a pair of revolvers from his pockets, leveled them at the men, and shouted with a reckless ring in bis voice, while his face gleamed whitely from its frame of careless waving hair: “ Come on—all of ye ! Only give me a fair chance, and come one at a time ! His tall, magnificently-built figure towered a full half a head above the others, and his gleaming eves were full of desperate resolve ; but he looked into the barrels of six loaded pistols, and the men were determined to capture their prize. it * “ Surrender, or we will fire ! ” At that moment a clear, sweet whistle rang above the wailing of the storm and tumult in the small room. Rolf’s quick ear recognized it. Elfie had learned it from his own lips, and had often helped him from danger by that call. While tho men hesitated, and involuntarily glanced over their shoulders to ascertain if possible from whence tho sound came, the young smuggler, with a wild hurrah, and a blessing in his heart for Elfie, leaped upon the fiist of the blueooats, and, knocking the pistol from his hand, made another spring for the door. But a sharp report rang out, and : he felt a stinging sensation in his right arm; another bullet severed a lock of his hair. Turning, he took aim with the revolver in his left hand and fired ; one of the cutter’s men uttered a sharp cry, and throwing up his arms fell to the floor. Another pistol met the bold fellow at the door, but lie struck it up with his weapon and rushed out into the night, with two or three bullets whistling about his ears. Again that clear whistle came to him, and, following the sound, he reached the corner of the inn, where he found Elfie waiting with his horse. “Bless you, my girl!” he murmured. With one leap he was upon the animal’s back. He bent from the saddle and held out one hand. “Will you come, sweetheart ?” Without a pause she caught his hand and swung herself up before him. There was a word to the horse, a reckless, defiant shout sent back at their pursuers, and they were gone in the deep blackness of the night.