Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1891-09-18

rne shattered pillars in blush, snowy
sheets. But he gave no heed. Sudden
" he seemed to hear voices calling.
Now they seemed in the roaring wood
across the bay; now far out to sea: then
high up in heaven. 1t must be his
fancy, he thought, or the winds wailins
in the holes and hollows of the cliff.
He passed around toward the front Of
the head and listened, but the blast
roared in his ears, and the noise of the
inrolling food was SO great he could not
hear distinctly.
How unspeakably fearful it was; his
father out there in the wallowing
waters. A picture of the man more
vivid than life came into the boys ex-
cited mind; his tall stature, STOPPING
shoulders, ragged clothes, and laugh
ing, vagabond air; his native good
humor, save when liquor made him
harsh: his love for children, and dogs,
and hunting, and how, when he did not
drink, he was the best axman and the
strongest man in all the region. All,
how darkly it all had ended.
But presently, while he was thinking,
the wind lulled, and a voice leaped ont
from the very lips of the head in a long.
quivering cry for help. His blood
bounded and stood still; then the cry
came again, rising above the clashing
elements like a peal of anguish. All, it
was his fathers voice; and his blood
leaped forward again with great
thrill, and forgetful of his lameness he
ran in close to the bursting rollers and
began to climb the face of the head. 1t
seemed an attempt fit for something
mad, for all below him lay boiling
abyss, flashing and laundering and leap
ing after him: but he had no time for
fear; was not his father calling for sue
cor somewhere out there in that abyss
of noise and commotion?
He knew every hole and shelf in the
face of the preciplce, and soon by the
aid of the lightning flashes he was on
a ledge leading toward the voice 1t
was frightful place. Once he slipped
and hung over the edge of the shelf,
very close to death. A thick sweat
broke out upon him, and his heart
Jared his side with every stroke. After
that he crept forward more carefully,
waiting for the lightning flashes and
feeling his way with trembling hands.
Thoughts and images were flying
through his brain; the children sleep
ing in the hut, his mother STOPPING at
the fireplace trying to kindle fire, the
stove in the shed filling with water
h.
shirts to be dried and ironed on the
morrow. Suddenly the clouds broke
open to a great height, and there swan
the moon in peaceful fields of violet, the
serrate edges of the long rift shining
like a cake of silver broken apart.
The rain had almost ceased; only a
few drops fell into the boys white face
as he lifted it to the light, and the voice
broke out afresh. He shouted a reply,
but seemingly could not reach the IA
TIERS car, and trembling and painting
he crcpt onward. In a moment he
came to a jutting point. and. creeping
carefully around it, emerged upon
little platform of ste IL. There the
shelf came apparently an end, and as
he turned about in binding eagerness
to find further way, the voice sprang
out almost from beneath his feet. He
all but leaped into the sea with joy and
fright.
In an instant he was down upon his
knees peering over the brink, and there,
almost in reach of his hand, was his IA
theirs upturned face! He was standing
upon one foot in a break in one of the
pillars that leaned against the cliff,
with his arms about its shattered top,
and upon its top and within the pro-
tecting circle of his arms, sat a thin
faced, yellow-haired child.
1t was the strangest, widest picture
Paul Armor had ever seen.
''Oh, father, don't ye let go. I'll save
ye!" he cried. With the first look the
child stretched out her arms to him,
and a light that was more than the
radiance of the moon broke over The
mans face.
at tuck a sight of hollerin' to raise
We, son!" he said, half weeping in his
Joy and WEAKNESS. I'D bout made up
my mind to let go and slide down among
the fish. l guess I'd done it only this
little shiverin' thing KEEP holdin' me