Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-01-08

/ frosty letters. Beyond q DOUBT they
would be broken ere long.
"Harkr' exclaimed Curt, as they drove
out from the shore "Did you hear thats
We shall hardly have time to get across,
I'm afraid"
"Then they won't need no warnin',"
coolly remarked Jake.
"Harkr' again cried Curt Rowland,
| but hoarsely, this time, and with some
thing like pain in the intensity of his
utterance. II did hear it. There's a team
coming down the river at a runw
| Jake Robinson himself heard it now,
and exclaimed:
1T does sound mighty like runaway,
| | declare. Just bark to them bellsm
Curtis breath would have come even
| faster and his heart would have jumped
more fiercely, if he had known the whole
truth. The horses of the sleighing party
| had recognized the signs of approaching
| danger much more promptly than had
their masters, nor had it been at all diff
cult, in most cases, for their skillful driv-
ers to head the frightened but willing
brutes toward safety and the shore. The
| single exception had been in the young
! and stylish but ill-broken span over which
| Sile Herring held the reins, for the gay
young lawyer was not only "skillful
driver" but he had failed to understand
the situation at first, and had dashed his
poor colts mercilessly for their trembling
refusal to go forward. Even when he
consented to wheel them, he had not been
able to guide them landward for great
heave and groan of the ice around him
had just then nearly scared the senses out
of both him and his quadrupeds. In
moment more the fright of the latter was
a wild runaway" right down the river,
and certainly had one good result, for it
bore the sleigh and its occupants swiftly
away from what was fast becoming an
angry tumult of cracking, tossing, grind
ing fragments. All this Curt Rowland
did not know, but, nevertheless, he drove
straight forward instantly, with dim
idea of giving help to somebody. Well
for him that he did so, for in less than
half minute he found himself spinning
along at almost racing speed, behind a
light sleigh, in which there shortly arose
female form, which he knew only too
well, while a clear, firm voice exclaimed:
go, Curt, the ice is breaking! Drive
ashore right awayw
And he had shouted, in reply:
Head 'em for the island, Sile; you can
bring 'em in there. III follow right on.
Don't be scared. Faith, | won't leave
you"
And then another form had risen in the
! sleigh, and Faith Murray herself caught
the falling rcins as Sile Herring dropped
them and sprang out upon the ice. ltwas
a rash and foolish thing to do, and Curt
refined in just long enough to say:
That's it, Jake; jump out and drag
! him ashore, while | go on after the runa-
ways"
Jake obeyed heroically, and he found
that Sile Herring did indeed require
dragging" to get him ashore after that
wild spring and thump upon the ice.
Faith was alone in her sleigh now, and
but little sorry for that, to tell the truth,
or even that she had the reins in her own
hands, for she knew how to manage them
far better than the panic-strlcken youth
who had deserted her, while the colts
themselves were getting the first frenzy of
their fright somewhat raced out OF them.
| The brave girl knew very well what Curt
meant by 1.-THE island" a low-lying bit of
duck marsh and drift-wood hardly above
the waters edge, not great way farther
down. stream, but in the very middle of
the river. She thought it a strange stop
ping place, at first, until she recalled how
bluff and steep were the banks on either
| SlQc Oh the river LOT nlltS DClOW INC DC
customed crossing"
Straight for the island, then, and Curt
| Howland's sleigh was close behind her;
| but, even as her wild young team sprang
up the low activity there came to Faiths
reins were jerked from her hands, and she
found herself suddenly sitting still in her
light cutter, while the colts went nadly
on, with the pole and its attachments
| banging at their heels. No uncommon
| thing tor "irons" to snap, under such cir
cumstances; and, if Faith was dismayed
| for a moment, Curt Rowland felt a good
| deal more inclined to hearty thanksgiy-
| ing.
Jump in, Faith, jump in !" he shouted,
cheerily, as he drove alongside the cutter,
"Don't you see you'll be my only passen.
ger?"
Even in that moment of awful peril,
however, Faiths obstinacy yielded slow
ly, and she was replying, half argumenta-
lively:
But, Curt, how will you ever get ashore
Don't you see that the ice is breaking?
Won't we be safer on the island f'-when
she found herself caught up in strong
arms and lifted, with or without her will,
TO a snug place among the blankets and
buffalo-robes at the bottom of the big
sleigh.
1.-The river is rising. There is a great
flood coming downw exclaimed Curt.
I'm half an hour the island will be uBder
water, and everything on it swept away.
I'd never have known if Jake Robinson
hadn't warned me. | hitched up and
came out as soon as | got the news. Thank
Godp'
Faith Murray felt glow and melting
at her heart as she listened, but she made
no reply. The situation certainly seemed
hardly to favor much conversation, for
Curt was driving fercely up the river
again, and everywhere the signs of the
approaching breakup" were growing
more and more fearful and threatening.
why don't you drive DOWN." she
asked.
THE rapids are only half frozen" re-
piled Curt, land we should surely be lost
if we got into them. Besides, the water
is shallower up here, and the horses will
find their footing sooner after we break
in"
"After we break in!" repeated Faith, 10
herself. why, the sleigh will go right