Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-12-31

row escapes which he had made from slip
ping into the hungry torrent had shaker
every nerve.
I'm over,n called out Fortner aye try
! hit now"
Harry balanced his gun so as to embarras:
him the least and carefully felt with his left
foot for the edge of the chasm. The cata
mount announced his renewed presence by q
vindictive scream The clouds parted just
enough to let through rift of gray light
but it fell not upon the brink of the black gar
in the path. 1t showed for an instant the
whirlpool, with fragments of tree trunks, OF
CHASTITY likeness to drowned human bodies
eddying dizzily around
'Come on" called out FORMER impatiently
| Harry stepped out desperately. For a
mental eternity he hung in air His hands
relaxed and his gun dropped with a crash and
a splash. Then his foot touched the other side
| with nervous doubtfumess. II slipped and he
felt himself falling-falling into all that he
feared. Fortner grasped his collar with a
| strong hand and dragged him up against the
| rocky wall of the path
Thar, yer all right, he said, painting with
the exertion, "but hit WIZ monty loud call
fur ye. Gabriels HON couldn't We made a
much mo- powerful one
"rve lost my gun, said Harry, regIetfully,
as soon as he could compose himself.
GUS burn the blasted ole smooth bore, I"
said Fortner, contemptuously. "Don't waste
no tears on tibet ole kick out- behind. Wen
go long tween Wildcat an the Ford an pick
up wagon load Nv ez good shooters ez tibet
f.Iu
self together. We've on'y got a mile or so
ter go now"
In HalTy's condition the mile or So seemed
to be stretching out long ways around the
globe, and he began to ask himself how near
he was to the much-referTed- to 'heart of the
southern Confederacyn
AT length little fading toward gray of the
thick blackness told that they had emerged
from the heavy woods into more open coun-
try. Harry thought they were come to fields,
but he could see nothing, and without remark
plodded on painfully after his leader
Suddenly a pack of dogs Immediately in
front of them broke the stiffness with start.
ling diapason, ranging from the deep bass of
the mastiff to the ringing bark of the fox
hounds Mingled with this was the sound of
the whole pack rushing fiercely forward
Fortner stopped in his tracks so abruptly that
Glen stumbled against him. The mountaineer
gave the peculiar whistle he had uttered at
the ford The rush ceased instantly. The
deep growls of the mastiffS and builders
stopped likewise; only the hounds and the
shrill voiced young dogs continued barking
The darkness was rent by long narrow
lane of light. A door had been opened in a
tightly closed house just beyond the dogs
Down, Tige! Git out, Beauty!7 said Fort
ner, imperiously. Lay down, Watchl
Quiet, Bruno.n
The clamors of the gang changed to little
yelps of welcome.
rs that you, Jim ? inquired high pitched
but not unpleasant voice from the door.
yes, Aunt Debhy,' answered FORMER,
san l hev some one with me"
As the two approached, surrounded by the
fawning dogs, a slender, erect woman APP
peared in the doorway, holding above her
head, by its nail and chain, one of the rude
iron lamps common in the houses of the
mountains.
Everything all right, Aunt Debby p asked
Fortner, as, after entering. he turned from
firmly securing the door by placing across it
a strong wooden bar that rested in the tim
bers on either side
"Yes, thank God" she said with quiet fer
vor. She stepped with graceful freedom over
the floor, and hung the lamp UP by thrusting
the nail into a crack in one of the logs form
ing the walls of the room. An how is hit
with yer she asked, facing Fortner, with her
large gray eyes eloquent with solicitude
80, ez fur me, I'm jos ez sound ez when
left heah last week, sept tibet I'm tireder'n a
pillow mule at night, an hongrier nor a bar
thet's lived all winter by suckin' hits paws.
dispose y air tired an hongry; We look
hit, said the woman with a compassionate
glance at Harry, who had sank Imply into a
chair before the glowing wood fire that filled
up a large part of the end of the room
SET down by the fire, she continued, IAN
I'll git We some pone an milk. Thar's nothin'
better ter start in on when yer rale empty"
She went to rude cupboard in the further
part of the room, whence the note of collid-
ing crockery soon gave information that she
was busy.
Former took a bunch of tow from his
pouch and with it wiped of every particle of
dampness from the outside of his rifle, after
which he laid the gun on two wooden hooks
above the fireplace, and hung the accouter-
mentS on deer horns at its breech.
Pull of yer shoes an toast yer feet he
said to Harry The lirell draw the tiredness
right CUT
Harrys relaxed fingers fumbled vainly
with the wet and obstinate shoe strings. Aunt
Debby came up with large bowl of milk in
oacb bopI anl n fr,.,of of ,.,-,,
bread under her arm. She placed her burden
upon the floor, and with quick, deft fingers
loosened the stubborn knots without an ap-
parent effort, drew off the muddy shoes and
set them in a dark corner near the fireplace
before Harry fairly realized that he had let
woman do this humble office for him. The
sight and smell Of food aroused him from the
torpor of intense fatigue, and he devoured the
homely fare set before him with a relish that
he had never before felt for victuals. As he
ate his senses awakened so that he studied his
hostess with interest Hair which the adj
vancing years, while bleaching to a snowy
white had still been unable to rob of the
curling waves OF girlhood, rippled over
broad white brow, sober but scarcely
wrinkled; large, serious but gentle gray eyes,
anu u Slildli, lIIl IlCutD, lllitu WIN even
white teeth, were the salient features of a
face at once resolute, refined and womanly.
Long, slender hands, small feet, covered with
coarse but well-ftting shoes, a slight, erect
figure, suggestive of nervous strength and
clad in shapely homespun gown stamped
her as a superior specimen of the class of
mountaineer women to which she belonged
@Heahs 'nuther pone, honey" she said to
Fortner, as she handed both of them seq
ments of another disk Of corn bread, to re-
place that which they bad ravenously de-
voured. "An' le'me fill yer bowls agin. Hit
takes a powerful sight o bread an milk ter
do when ones rale hongry. Bat faint like
meat vittels Yo can't eat 'nuT ter do We
harm
She took from its place behind the rough
stones that formed the jam of tie fireplace a
rude broom, made by shs wing down to near
its end long slender strips from a stick of
plant green hickory, then turning these over
the end and combining them by a band into
an exaggerated mon or brush With this she