The record-union., 1894-09-15

stoutly in front of the Professor and
urged him TO remain at the saeter,
They will be here at once, am sure,''
she pieadingly said. "All is in readiness
10 go. If we stay behind but one day
we may never reach 0rmeimr'
But he put her aside as he would have
done foolish child and petulantly went
his way to the ice cavern and his tasks,
She stood al the hut door until she had
seen nlm disappear behind the frowning
rocks. Then she wrung her hands pite-
ously and looked shudderingly AT the
close, dark sky. She had scarcely re-
entered the cabin door when the far
mer, with his pack ponies and helpers,
had come.
you are i'll, Hansine." they said.
fool ana follow quickly, for the first wild
storms are even now upon u.s."
She ran heetly to the field and burst
into the ice cavern, calling loudly:
"Comel Come! They are here. Do
you not know that dreadful storms
are coming? Can you not believe Han
sine?"
But Professor Detrius Moraine was
surely science mad in his glittering cell.
Tell them." he distractedly returned
as he came TO the entrance, ''to remain
but for two days-tor but one. [ will
pay them well-What they may wish
They must wait, Hansine! For all Nor
way | cannot sooner leave this place!"
See, see the sky!' she pleaded.
Look, look!' Here she raised her up
turned palm and clutched at flakes fine
and hard as needle points which her
weather-wise eyes alone could see. "Can
you not hear the moaning of the winds
creeping stealthiiy like wild beasts into
the gorges?"
zone more day, Hansine-one more
day. | must, L will have it! Tell the
good people sop he said almost tiercely,
tearing himself from her, but not with
out struggle, and Fastening back to his
ice chambe and his work.
Dear God! is so great mind gone
madn' she cried, reeling back despair
lngiy from the cavern entrance.
W hat perturbed moments this innocent
girl had known within the dread silences
OF her soul in the week that had gone
what immeasurable agonies now swept
into her trenZled heart; what nights Of
dauntleSS herolsm her nature in an in
slant reached, might never be fully re-
vealed. This much had outward ex-
preston.
She looked again at the sky as at
deadly Toe. She peered over the rocks to
her departing friends, and heard the
tinkling bells of the ponies and the herds
already fading to musical whispers far
down the craggy nights. She turned and
stealthily placed little package of food
she had brought within the cavern en-
trance. She swung back the skins and
blankets before it with the trem bling
touch of one replacing a pail upon their
best loved dead. Then, with parting
glance OF unutterable tenderness she left
the spot, reeled down the rocks and
across the valley to the open cabin door
as one struck with mortal hurt, and
then fell unconscious upon the earthern
floor OF the deserted Crag-hOllow saeter
hut.
When our rescuing party, which num-
bered half the folk of the Romsdal, the
sturdy innkeeper of Ormeim, all-but-
frantic Lars, my ingenious companion
and myself, had reached the saeter of
Klippe-hul, the fiinty snow lay almost
even across the valley from crag to
crag.
But single tiny black spot was any
where visible upon the binding reach of
white. A mad race was instantly made
for this. 1t proved to be the wide CHM
ney top of the sought-for saeter hut. To
the Norwegians' practiced eyes it showed
where the heroic girl had made her exit
| from her Imprisonment for rescue of
her own.
1t was easy to follow the tracks of her
sooty snow shoes across the level snow.
a mile or so higher up the field Lars
espied the black, pinnacled crag point
beside what we all 1elt sure must be
the ice tomb of Professor Detrius Mo-
raine.
We passed forward and a ringing cheer
speedily went up from the tleetest in ad-
vance. Pellmell we came headlong into
deep excavation, and here stood the
brave Hansine, toiling at her mighty
task, eXcitedly beating back those who
would relieve her with cries OF:
Il have heard his answ ering knock
ings! 1t shall be Hansine who brings
him forth to Iifel"
And so ii was. With final crash the
snow wall fell, carrying down the cur
tanning blankets aud the sl.ins-as Ham
sine sprang wildly into the Professor s
outstretched arms!
BLESS me, bless mer' exclaimed the
Professor, beaming radiantly upon US
all. Precisely in the nick of time!
had just finished my work, and the pros
pect of further confinement was really
becoming somewhat irksome. If some
of you good -will-ah-support
this dear young person for moment,
until L can gather up my trifling odds
and ends, we will all go back to Ornem
together, and if.-if there are no insupera-
BILE obiectionsn-here he looked around
upon the astonished rescuers with bland
and gentle inquiry-"I-I think l can
engage to support her happily during
the remainder of her natural lifer'