194 IN THE DAYS OP AUDUBON 



" The sun was setting; night was coming on with the 

 usual watery moon. 



" Suddenly a sound of deep distress fell upon my ear, 

 distant groans as of one in mortal agony. 



" I drifted my canoe on shore, and reprimed my gun, 

 and started in the direction of the sound. 



" As I gazed with fixed eyes in the same direction, a 

 human hand was raised above the reeds. It beckoned. 



" I pushed my way toward it. 



"A head arose; then the breast of a man. 



" ' Help, for the sake of mercy! ' 



" The face was terrible. The agony of death was in it. 



" The hand fell; the head sank into the reeds, and there 

 was a deep silence. 



" Was this a vision? Was the man dead, or was he the 

 victim of some foul deed, and dying? 



" I went to the place where the hand had been raised. 

 There lay the body of a man, wounded and mangled, and 

 in dying agonies. 



"'Water!' 



" I ran for water and filled my cup with it, and hastened 

 back to him. I felt of his heart, and bathed his temples. 



" He had a powerful frame, and his chest was rising and 

 falling as in his last agony. A cutlass lay by his side. I 

 saw that he was a pirate. 



" Darkness now fell upon the wilderness. 



" ' Friend,' said I, ' do you believe in God? ' 



