Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-02-12

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| berry that skirted the pit while Nassau
was still coming on, a hundred yard.
| below.
He was appalled, by what he saw.
The earth on the northern side had
broken away, and had rushed down over
the surface of the rock, and had fallen
| into the deep abyss. 1t had dragged with
1t an immense number of trees and sap
lings. At the instant that it was precipi
tated, Miss Alice and her father were
crossing the ground. As it moved and
broke beneath their feet, they became in
volved in the tangled and twisted branches
OF the trees, and were carried down with
them.
The great volume of the avalanche had
fallen into the quarry, but large portion
was caught and poised upon spur OF
rock overhanging the precipice at the
edge.
The clouds of dust lifted and rolled
away, and the two young men beheld al
the same moment, clinging to this rag.
ged and suspended fragment the girl
whose favor they coveted. Her arms
were half buried in the treacherous earth,
her clothing was torn and discolored, and
her forehead had a deep, red wound. Her
lips were pale, her eyes were closed, as if
to shut out the scene, and she lay con-
vulsively embracing her only support.
The father had escaped before the vol
ume of earth had reached the edge of the
pit on its downward course, and, covered
with dust, he now stood upon the brink
above, gazing with starting eyes at his
fainting daughter. His white hair blew
in the breeze, his limbs shook, and he
tried in vain to call for help. He was I'M
able TO articulate, and he began to creep
toward the edge.
AT this instant, Willis footsteps aroused
him. He looked up with cry Of joy.
The girl was fifty feet from them. To
reach her from the nearest point would
require that one descend PERCEPTIONS
Hill of soft and sliding earth, which ter
minated at the edge of the terrible quarry.
Nothing could be more dangerous than
to attempt TO traverse this sensitive ground.
Great care and great nerve, added to great
good fortune, would alone enable one to
reach the spot where Miss Alice lay
breathless and trembling.
Despairing, she turned her head and
looked to her right.
She saw Willis. His eyes were fixed
upon her, but he did not move. She tried
to cry, Gomez but the word escaped her
in whisper.
There was a moment of silence. She
saw Willis move a few feet this way, and
then few feet that way. Still he did not
approach. He made no motion to adj
vance nearer. Suddenly he turned toward
her She saw that his face was haggard,
and that his eyes were fixed upon the dis
tant, ragged bottom Of the pit. His hands
opened and closed repeatedly, and his lips
were parted.
Her heart beat rapidly. Another mo-
ment must end in her destruction.
All at once she saw Willis throw his
hands up before his face and retreat,
stumbling among the weeds, away from
the brink of the declevity.
Suddenly, volume of earth and stones
rushed past her with frightful velocity,
and shot out into the space before and
below her, and in a few seconds struck
upon the broken marble-bed and sent up
roar that aroused, even in her, a new
terror.
She warily and timidly turned her head
to the left To see what caused this fresh
catastrophe, and she beheld, halfway
down the slope, clinging close TO the
trembling earth, the slender figure of the
rector.
He was hatless, and his clothing and
his hands and his face were covered with
soil. Yet he seemed TO be cool and self
possessed. He was almost literally sus-
pended over death, yet Miss Alice saw
that there was smile upon his face.
His eyes met hers.
He arrived within a few feet of her
II.x Zoe nd
there was not motion of his body that
she did not watch
He reached up. She leaned back and
extended her hand. The motion disturbed
the support that she was perched upon,
and she felt that she was falling. She
remained calm, and still leaned down.
Her eyes and Nassau's were fixed upon
each other. He touched the tips Of her
fingers. Then he caught her hand at the
palm, and with hardly a pereeptible mo-
ton gave her the signal that she awaited.
He braced his feet and she leaped inward,
while her foothold broke into a thou
sand atoms and wholly disappeared, and
left the edge Of The pit bare and unob-
structed before them.
They were not two yards from 1t.
This last effort of hers was the final
fash Of her expiring fortitude. Perhaps
she permitted her weakness TO recoil upon
her the sooner because she felt that the
presence of Nassau meant safety to her.
The instant that she touched the ground
she fell upon it and lay quiet
Nassau seized her in his arms, and
faced his task with an anxious spirit.
He traversed the fifteen yards with his
| lips moving In constant prayer
The venerable father, reaching down
his hand, watched their slow and silen,
approach with face of marble. His
| eyes flowed with tears, he stammered in.
coherently, and he moved his arm 10 and
fro, just as Nassau's right shoulder, or
| left shoulder, came nearer TO him. With
| half sob, and halfexultant cry, he
finally clutched his eager fingers in the
skirt of his daughters dress.
Nassau struggled up the last step, and
then laid his burden upon the fiower-be-
sprinkled grass.
The other seized his hand, and, placing
his arm about the girls neck, bent his
head, and pressed his furrowed cheek 70
hers, and wept aloud.
In moment more he turned 10 Nassau
and cried:
my dear friend, you have saved two
lives in one. You are the man seek
pou have the brave heart that my poor