San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-06-24
PRINCES WE'LL.
"Mabel. | love you.

"Mabel, love you"
Leaning from my saddle the words
had scarcely left my lips when the girl
riding at my side gave her mount a
touch with her crop and was off like a
fash.
At the bend of the road she turned her
head and smiled. IF you kill your first
deer, look for me tonight in Princes
Well" foated back, silvery laugh
echoed through the pine trees, and she
was gone.
Iwould have followed, but the sound
of the distant baying of hounds caught
my ear. 1t was the first hunt of the
season, and knew Mabel would soon
Join the hounds. listened again. The
whole pack was in full bay; they had
jumped deer, and their excited yelps
were growing rapidly fainter. A horse
man passed me and sped through the
woods. | followed. We passed the
negro quarters, broad cotton field was
left in the rear, and the great rice fields
spread out from the forest to the river.
Away off on the bank, so far distant that
/ could barely hear them, the hounds
were stretched for half a mile. Ahead
of them an antlered monarch SKINNED
along. Taking one of the narrow canal
banks, spurred my horse on, but was
too far behind.
The deer and the hounds disappeared
behind the trees. There was no sound
to guide me, and in vain followed in
the direction had last seen them. I'm
familiar with the roads, halted on the
banks of the broad Santee. The yellow
water flowed by in eddving currents.
Wherever turned saw but the ruin of
better days. As far as the eye could
reach not a field was under cultivation.
Not a house or home arose from the mo-
notonous level to break the dreasiness of
the scene.
turned my horse toward Edgefeld,
determining to follow the river bank I'M
til l came within sight of my hosts
mansion ON the other side of the river.
could easily call the ferryman and get
over before the others returned from the
chase. But had miscalculated the dis
lance had travelled, and after several
hours of picking my way along the di-
lapidated bank that had once formed a
wall between the river and the rice field
but which was now broken in a hundred
places, began to realize that it would
be nightfall before | arrived at Edge
field. Still struggled on, and it seemed
to me that at every break in the bank
the water in the gulch was deeper. At
first it barely covered my horse's'hoofs,
but soon it came to his belly, and once it
almost carried him off his feet, so swift
was the current.
AS we mounted high bank realized
for the first time how swiftly the water
flowed below. 1t seemed, too, as if the
banks were crumbling away in places.
| rode on for a few moments. | could
see that the current was constantly
growing more rapid. thought of the
rains up the country of which Colonel
Hazard had spoken, and of the freshet
the planters expected within a day or
two Could it have missed their calcu-
lations and come upon them unawares?
l glanced ahead at the faraway chin
neys of Hazard Hall, and then at the long
stretch of narrow bank ahead, with its
numerous breaks, through which the
water now flowed in torrents.
/ spurred my horse toward a place
ahead, where the bank spread out hun
dred feet or more, and from which point
/ knew narrow foot bank led to the
mainland. We had almost reached the
little hummock, with its tumble down
log cabin, when | heard a rumblina
murmur behind me. Far up the river q
wave nearly three feet in height ROSE
above the even surface of the river and
rushed toward me, gathering on its crest
logs and driftwood, which it tossed
wildly about. The yellow foam glis
tened in the sunlight, and it was som,
time before l turned my fascinated
frightened gaze from the oncominG
food. When did it was to see that al
immense breach had opened in the banl
between myself and the clearing.
With sinking heart | hurried IN!
tired horse on. l could hear the roarin:
nearer and nearer to me until it wa
just behind. Before ne, though less l.
be dreaded, was the broad breach. NJ,
frightened horse plunged down the stee
bank just as the rush of waters swept il
behind me. He struggled bravely Oh
--+il lifted from his feet. we were bot