The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-04-30

NOW Tor the cave"
eyes; now for the cave!' repeated,
lifting the glass to my eyes.
We were no small distance from the
foot of the mountain, and perhaps a
mile from the nearest place of ascent,
at the quarries. But the glass was a
powerful one and brought out every
feature of the mountain as clearly as
though close at hand. After watching
the graceful flight of pair of buzzards,
soaring about the middle girth of the
mountain, scanned it's beetling brows.
''Nice secluded place for lovers
stroll up th-Wcll, look at those reck-
less fools!'' exclaimed, catching sight
of man and woman threading the
! narrow path upon the side of the lofty
decline, which dropped few feet be-
low them sheer to the plain, more than
two thousand feet down. 1t was as
though they were walking a cleat
across some gigantic Gothic roof. A
false step would send them tumbling
down its steep descent and dash them
off its dizzy eaves-down-down The
thought sickened me.
My companion had a small spy glass,
which somewhat facilitated his vision.
1.-The fools! The fools!'' he cried,
clinching my arm with his unoccupied
hand.
I was too frozen by the spectacle for
utterance.
God! God! There they go!' he ex-
claimed.
The woman slipped and as she fell
she caught her companions feet, pulling
him after her down the decline.
A faint uncertain cry reached us from
the upper air like bodyless voice of the
prairie kill deer" The hand holding
my glass dropped from my eyes and
became faint, almost to unconscious
ness
"Look! Look!'
The words aroused me. Again 1
raised the glass. Terrible spectacle!
The man had clutched both hands over
the sharp edge of a rock that formed a
kind of trough or lip on the very verge
of the perpendicular precipice. The
woman still retained her grasp upon his
feet, and they hung, like bats, fiat
against the bare face of the cliff
Stone mountain is mica rock, and
the face of that cliff sparkled and
glistened like a front of diamonds
under the brilliant sun. A background
of light that showed every line of their
contour with fearful distinctness!
"See! some one above has sighted
them and gone for help
True! But how long could he hold on
supporting the woman's weight in adj
dition to his own? Only few seconds
at the longest! o, for time! Time and
strength!
At first it seemed that he could not
possibly cling until the rescuers should
return. But as moment after moment
passed, and still they chung, the agony
of witnessing the spectacle was in
creased by the feeble hope, that by
some miracle of strength he might yet
endure unto deliverance. The seconds
seemed to lengthen into minutes. Still
no help!
| felt that the supreme moment had
come; that he could not keep his hold
for another fraction of time if it were
to bring certain safety.
Just as murmur of JOY escaped my
companions lips at the sight of the
rescuers, the human mass upon the
mountains brow grew suddenly less.
The woman had released her grasp and
shot down the preci pice-visibl only
! as dark streak, sable flash, against
the glittering surface of the rock!
The idling buzzards careened away in
frightened haste and lifted my glance
to the man again. One moment more
| and the rescuer who had been let down
would make the rope fast about his
body. He endured.
AS l saw them begin to draw him up,
consciousness forsook me. When l was
revived by the chatting of my COM
panion, we started for the station. AL
| though our progress was slow, we
reached the town just as a dummy car
from the quarry was being pushed
| along the side track to the station.
! Upon it was the man who had been
rescued.
AS the quarrymen supported him in
/ caught the first glance of his face
1t was John Hardy!
He was very weak, and did not speak
word during the whole homeward
| journey. He was seriously i'll for some
weeks, and not even his promised wife
was permitted to see him. Their mar
riage was indefinitely postponed.
The coroner's inquest over the wom-
ans remains revealed the fact that she
was daughter of the settler living in
! the little cabin upon the table-land, and