The words had a new and solemn meaning to her. Yesterday was her
thousand years--this was her watch in the night--and it would pass as a
tale that is told. Involuntarily she turned to the bookcase behind
her, and took the Bible from the little library of books which she had
laughingly described as "a curious assortment." It was her intent to
find the psalm containing that awe-inspiring verse, and read the whole
of it, but, in turning over the leaves, she came upon a scrap of paper
with notes on it. The handwriting was scholarly and legible. She
thought that Captain Courtenay would probably write just such a hand.
Though her cheeks tingled a little at the memory of the words in his
sister's letter, there was no harm in reading a memorandum evidently
intended to mark a passage in the book. The items were sufficiently
striking:--"Meribah--a place of strife; Selah--a repetition, or sort of
musical da capo."
This stirred her to seek an explanation. She searched the two pages
which opened at the marker, and, in the seventh verse of the 81st
Psalm, she found the key: "Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the
secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah.
Selah."
The phrases were strangely appropriate to her present environment.
They were almost prophetic, and there was even a sinister sound in the
concluding instruction to the "chief musician upon Gittith" in this
psalm of Asaph. That was the terrible feature of her vigil. There was
no knowing when or how it would end. She closed the book in a state
more closely approximating to hysterical fright than she had been at
any previous time during that most trying night. The truth was, though
she could not realize it, that her senses were far too alert, her brain
too preoccupied, to permit of such an ordered task as reading. In her
mind's eye, she saw the boats, with their cowering occupants, plunging
and tossing in that frenzied sea. By contrast, she was far better off
on the ship. Yet, were it not for the action of some cowardly Chilean,
she must have gone with Isobel and the others. It was torturing to
think that her fancied security was really more perilous than the more
apparent plight of the storm-tossed boats. No wonder she could not
read, though the words were inspired!
And Joey was becoming restless. He danced backwards and forwards on
the table where he had taken refuge from the invading flood. Indeed,
the dog knew, long before Elsie, that the Kansas was afloat again.
At last she noticed that the water in the cabin was gurgling to and
fro, and, in the same instant, she felt the regular swing of the moving
ship. She was speculating on the outcome of this new condition of
affairs when the door opened and Walker thrust his lantern-jawed face
within. He grinned cheerfully.