Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-02-14

/ him. / kept my mastery by the voice,
or rather by the perfect Identification OF
| his will with mine. Our minds acted
! together. "Save strength" / still
warned him, ''ssve strength, my friend,
FOR the mountains are the last leapsP'
A little pathway in the sage bushes
/ suddenly opened before me, as lane
riffs in the press Of hurrying iegions
/ mid the crush Of city thoroughfare.
I dashed on a hundred yards in advance
Of my comrades.
What was this? The brushes tramp
/ led and broken down, just as we In our
| passage were trampling and breaking
/ them. What?
Hoof marks in the dust!
THE Trail" / cried, "the trsilp
They Sprang toward me. Brent fol-
/ lowed the line with his eye. He gal
/ loped forward, with look OF triumph.
Suddenly | saw him fling himself
/ half out of his saddle and clutch at
some object Still going at speed, and
holding on by one leg alone, after the
Indian fashion for sport or shelter
against an arrow or shot, he picked
up something from the bushes, regain
ed his seat and waved his treasure TO
US. We ranged up and rode beside him
over a gap in the sage.
A lady's glove!-that was what he
had stopped 10 recover. An old buck
skin riding gauntlet, neatly stitched
about the wrist and pinked on the wrist
let. A pretty glove, strangely, almost
tragically, feminine in this desolation.
A well worn glove that had seen better
days, like its mistress, but never any
day so good as this. when 1t proved TO
US that we were on the sure path Of res
cue.
II take up the gauntlet" said Brent.
tGare q qui lie touched"
We said nothing more; for this uncon-
Scious token, this silent cry for help,
made the danger seem more closely i'm
mineut. We pressed on. No fiinching
in any of the horses. Where we could
we were going at speed. Where they
could the horses kept side by side, nerv-
ing each other. COmpanionShip sus-
tained them i'm that terrible ride.
And now in front the purple Sierra
was growing brown and rising up dis
tinct wall, cleft viSibly with dell, gully,
rayine and canyon. The sawteeth Of
the ridge defined themselves sharply in
TO peak and pinnacle. Broad fields OF
/ cool snow CLEANED upon the SUBMITS.
We were ascending now all the time
/ into the subalpine regions. We crossed
great slOping Savannas, deep In dry,
rustling grass, where nation of cattle
might pasture. We plunged through
/ broad wastes OF hot sand. We flung
ourselves down and up the red sides OF
water worn gullieS. We took break
neck leaps across dry quebradas In the
/ clay. We Clattered across stony arroy-
/ os, longing thirstily for the guSh Of
water that had flowed there not many
months before.
The trail was everywhere plain. No
! prairie craft was needed TO trace 1t.
Here the chase had gone, but a few
/ hours ago; here, across grassy slopes,
trampline the grass as IL mower had
passed that way; here, blowing YEARLY
| through the sand; here, treading the
red, crumbllng clay; here, breaking
down the side of bank; here, leaving
| the sharp hoOf track in the dry mud of
a fed torrent. Everywhere u straight
path, pointing for that deepening gap
in the Sierra, Luggernel alley, the only
gate Of escape.
Brent's unerring Judgment had d.
vined the course Alright. On he led,
charging along the trail as If he were
tramDling already on the carcasses of
the pursued. On he led, and we fol-
lowed, drawing nearer, nearer TO our
goal.
Our horses suffered bitterly for water.
Some five hours we had ridden without
a pause. Not one drop or sign OF water
in all that arid waste. The torrents had
poured along the dry watercOurSes too
hastily to let the scanty alders and will
lows along their line treasure up any
sap Of growth. The wild sage bushes
had plainly never tasted fluid more
plenteOuS than seldom dewdropS doled
out on certain rare festal days, enough
to keep their meager foliage a dusty
gray. No pleasant streamlet lurked
anywhere under the long dry grass OF
the sayannas. The arroyos were parch-
ed and hot as riffs in lava.
1t became agonizing to listen to the
painting and gasping of our horses.
Their eyes grew staring and bloodshot.
We suffered ourselves hardly less than
they. 1t was cruel to press on. But we
must hinder crueller cruelty, Love
against Time-Vengeance against Time.
We must not finch for any weak hui
manity to the noble allies that strug-
gled on with US without one token of
resistance.
Fulano suffered least. He turned his
brave eye back and beckoned me with
his ear to listen, while he seemed to
say:
"See, this is my endurance! hold
my power ready still to show"
And he curved his proud neck. shook
his name like a banner, and gallOped
the grandest Of all.
We came to broad strip Of sand, the
dry bed Of u mountain torrent. The
trail followed up this disappointing
path. Heavy blowing for the tired
horSeS How would they bear the rough
work down the ravine yet to come? I
Suddenly our leader pulled up and
sprang from the saddle.
Look" he cried, chow those fellows
spent their time and saved ours. Thank
heaven for this. We shall save her,
surely, DOW"
1t was water! No need to go back to
Pindar 70 know that it was "the best"
They had dug pit deep in the thirsty
sand and found 4 lurking river buried
there. Nature never questioned what
manner Of men they were that sought.
Murderers flying from vengeance and
planning now another villain outrage
still impartial Nature did not change
her laws for them. Sunshine, air, wa
ter, life-these boonS of hers-she gave
them freely. The higher boon Of death,
IL they were TO receive ii, must be from
some other power greater than the I'M