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Show 1 roar of tho vast black body, i heard again tho "puf-puf-pnr of the little I steam' tug. r.nd 1 looked and saw it i coming at full speed directly toward the ! precipice on which 1 stood. In an in- 1 ; Ftant the Thing had overtaken it. and ad i : it disappeared, with one last hopeless j 6crcam from its whistle, like the d-; d-; spairing wail cf a lost soul, it flashed over me what this awful catastrophe that I had been witnessing was. It was the end of tho world! By a mighty effort I throw myself forward, for-ward, clutching as 1 foil at a tuft cf bunch grass. Barely had 1 time to gasp out "God help me!" when tho awful Thing, cutting through tho cliff as if it , wero paper, was upon me. The earth beneath me gave way, and 1 plunged headlong down, down, into the blackest of darkness, and then all was silent and blank for a space. A drop of rain on my face aroused mo. I lay in the soft grass in the middle of a level meadow that extended or. all sides as far as I could see. The getting suu was firing the western skies, and a feV small rain clouds scudded before tha breezo. , Hither she came and found me, and together wo returned home. Frank P. Stockbridgo in Washington Post. thunder were heard, and a chilling wind rising suddenly moaned among the pines in the distance, and rustled the leaves of the lindens under which we sat. I glanced toward the building, and on tho steps of the door which looked out upon the city there stood an old man, wrinkled and bent. A faded dressing gown was corded about his waist, his feet were en-. en-. caed in embroidered slippers, and his j right hand, which bore a long oaken ' staff, gnarled and twisted, trembled as the fierce blast struck him and tossed his thin gray locks. Ia a shrill voice he cried: "Come in! Come in! We aro going to have a terrible storm." I Even as he spoke, and as if in corrob-; corrob-; oration of his words, the force of the wind increased almost to a gale, and large drops of rain began to fall, slowly and gently at first, but with increasing : vigor till the patter on the leaves was : lost in one long drawn sound, almost a ' roar, as tha wind drove the water through the trees. Meanwhile the rest of the party had sought shelter in tho building, but as I started to follow them my eyes rested on a sight which compelled me involuntarily involun-tarily to pause. Ahead of me, beyond the bay, beyond the city, beyond even the waters of the ocean itself, a veil, or shutter, of more than inky blackness rose perpendicularly from the horizon. Up to the very heavens it seemed to stretch, and to both sides as far as tho ej'e could reach. A sudden, undefinable fear came over me and held me rooted to the earth. 1 My horror increased as I saw that this horrible veil was moving toward me I how rapidly I could not guess, but it j seemed to cover the thousand miles be-! be-! ween the horizon and the straits in barely on iota of time. As it drew nearer to me I saw that it had also another motion, mo-tion, like that of a band saw or an endless end-less chain, as if a huge jack towel of flexible blackness had been swung over two rollers on the nethermost bounds of the universe, and rapidly revolving was eating its way deep into the very bowels of the earth, for as this horrible engine o destruction approached 1 perceived that it was cutting away the sea and the solid land, leaving a smooth, clean StSe where these before had been -It will slop," thought I, "before it reaches the city." But no; the dreadful Thing, like an initiate monster, never paused or ! Sforan instant, and a chill shock ! S through my veins as 1 wa ched teTfte points of land on either side of St then the furthermost houses S the city, and then nearer objects fade S'afterstreetofthecitymeited away tho Thing approached nearer ana SnSgever tl,e dvin" at intervals reached CneiZl llt far distant was I that SHo Snded more like the squeak of a dStagmouse than as if it came from 2e & of a multitude of human bo- infTow the bay began to melt away fter shin a moment ago nding mV tilt -Anchor was swallowed up, per eSpPfeto the water SS the SZ of tha'sea were likewise Mot above the evermore )): p END OF THE WORLD. - I stood on a high cliff. Twenty feet t fe me a perpendicular wall of rock x I it down, down, a veritable "jumping 11 I place," till it seemed one would have I look twico to see the bottom, where I waters of the harbor splashed against I bowlders. I'mlay the bay was smooth as polished l-s, save where tho vessels coming in la the sea through tho strait opposite I point where I stood left a ripple and l:ie of foam behind, like a flaw in the f ie great city lay to the left of the I -it The burning midsummer sun, r'iiig from a cloudless sky, was reflect-ri!y reflect-ri!y a hundred thousand chimneys and I;' tops, and the images of the high I'&igs and the mvriad vessels an-I an-I :'m1 in the harbor made the scene I "o h!:o a mirage than reality. r J far above tho City was my point of I wvation that not a sound, not even a t "our of the bustle and noise attend-I' attend-I' ipon its activity, reached my ears, I JSli through the clear atmosphere I stinguish moving objects as in a t-iera obscura. fom the bay,' too, although many Mis huge ocean steamers, ferry boats 1 1 3'aohts were moving about, I heard I )' one sound, the interminable "puf-I:-Pnf ' of a little tugboat which rapid-I rapid-I ;hreaded its aimless way among the Mr craft. So monotonous indeed did 1 3 sound become that I turned my eyes I a the water and looked around at Mer objects. I10 my right was a grwe of maples. I a clear space in the midst of the trees Md a white building, its gable toward r . which reminded me at first glance I nothing else so much as of the Par-I Par-I non as it used to be represented in the Mieal dictionary. I had not noticed I s building before, and as I stood and I iered a troop of gayly dressed young I 'Vh came rushing out of the door and Msjed themselves in groups on the I circles surrounding the trees. Mt this moment my companion, who fi lagged behind me, came up, and to-I to-I r we went toward the gay throng. M approach seemed unnoticed. j Scarcely had we joined the gronp, ! . raising my eyes, I saw to right and I : dark thunder clouds rolling rapidly I?ard the Eenith. Broad flashes of Mtning played about the horizon, j I-e in sharper, zigzag streaks the j rtric spark cut its path through the j l directly above our heads. Fr0Eri f fisht low mutterraga of distant I |