The Columbus journal., 1893-05-10
THE ESCAPE:

THE G A
The last palisade-over! and limb
long stifened felt lissome once NOR,
with the life of rs. Now for . SLOW
and cautious creep along tho gully b,
which water came into the township
later on he would bethink him o.
that narrow escape at the third door
way. Whlsti q mans head in thu
road, and he bent down once moro be-
hind the cartridge. and pushed hi.
way upstream with difficulty. show.
ing as little Of himself as possible. I,
was an officer coming into town late.
probably been at some Indian hut IL
one OF their villages ear by. too near
the fort to dare vengeance on Span.
ish gallentries. John Tisden had
often heard the S~paniards talk OF the
Indian girls while he worked in the
forts plaza
Very silently; the moonlight was
troublesome to one just escaping, but,
praise the Lord who watches over
bold E~nglishmen, the guard had not
yet discovered their loss; and the
water was bearab;y cold. Never re-
turn thanks too soon! The officer
felt q romantic wish to look back on
tho spot where lately he had satisfied
his hearts latest desire. He refined
his horse on q rising slope, and, turn
ing in his saddle, glanced. back over
the shsdow-dsppled lend Sc that his
eye, running up the shiny ribbon OF
stream, suddenly saw the black dot
laborlng away against its current.
Instincts of destruction a along
the nerves of his hand; he drew q
pistol and fired, sending q splash of
water over Johns head, while the
echoes smote the fortress walls and
lost Themselves in the woodland be-
hind. A low clamor rose out of San
Jsgo; John rose out Of the stream
and ran into the copses. The Span
lard spurred after him with drawn
sword, eager for the pleasure of
slicipg him when caught up. In a
few moments he was alongside, but
this being q shsdoared spot he stayed
his hand overhead till the stroke
should be sure. In that moment John
doubled like u hare and rushed des-
perately at the soldier, who refined
up all ct once and brought down his
blade-vainly. For the cunning
Englishman ducked under the horses
body. then popped out, seized his
foes leg and foot, and with q sudden
fierce heave shot the soldier sideways
out of his saddle and on to his head.
There he lay broken-necked, while
the victor grasped the bride, bent
10 earth and snatched the sword.
mounted the animal and stuck the
weapons point into its haunch; of
shot the horse with a snort of pain,
while the clatter of pursuers rose
behind, finally sinking away as the
pine trees few by. Then, as the
moon entered a thick cloud bank,
they came to an open prairie. and
onward into darkness they went
without more than the slightest of
stumbles. Several miles; the horse
began to breathe hard and sob. then
settled into a slow trot.
More miles. The trot became a
walk, and the walk more difficult;
more miles yet, very long ones. and
the earth went up and down as the
darkness became gray-there were
low hills and shallow ~ravines, then
came rocks and lodges and cliffs; the
gray speedily thinned, the horse
stopped at a cliff wall.
TO the right, to the left. John
looked for an opening; there was
none. He raised his hands, licked a
finger of the cleanest, thought he
felt a faint freshness on the left side
of it, and so turned in that direction.
After some hundred yards he came to
q crack in the wall; he pushed into
it. There was hardly room at first.
but it widened into a chasm, and
wound along in darkness with a band
of light at the top-then came q sud
den descent, and the wearied creature
he rode stumbled and threw him into
a pool Of water.
The shock of the plunge brought
him together again. He struggled
beneath the water, came up at last,
half choked. and pulled himself upon
q rocky ledge with the sword still
hanging from his wrist. Looking
for the horse, he saw nothing but q
violent commotion on the water sur
face, which presently ceased; u few
air-bubbles came to the top and
broke; that was all; his escuer had
ended its life in the depths from
which he had escaped.
Then he sat for aspace and thought;
he could not stay there, they would
track him to the rock wall and cleft;
was there another way to the other
side? The cold, shut-in lake was
quite still now, the cleft by which he
had come in was dimly visible across
the dark level; the cleft continued
there like q narrow road upward.
Then he knew that he had come to
the hidden source of the stream that
passed my%steriously underground.
and came to daylight in the country
where the Spaniards placed Fort San
Jago. He went along the chasm. and
after an hour or two stood on the
platform; bare rock and nothing
else; he went on higher still, with
hunger asserting itself, miles and
more miles yet. The sun came out
and sent yellow rays across the pin
nacles, casting purple shadows as
queerly shaped as they. He climbed
the highest of these rock-teeth and
saw a vast upward plain. with an
orange-tinted rim; here and there
gray twists, where q slight valley
came, and . few lonely stones-really
great boulders of a primeval e a He
looked behind and only q faint gray
tinpe on that horizon indicated the