Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-07-11

y Or course you Will understand now
did it. clapped hand on his mouth,
put pistol at his head, gagged ard
tied him. Then I got my Tophet, and
away went to the spring The girl
was waiting. There We're few words. ]
gripped her hand, gave her another pis.
tol, and then we got away ON a fine
moonlit trail. We had not gone a mile
when I heard faint yell far behind.
My game had been found out. There
was nothing to do but to ride for it now,
and to fight, if necessary. But fighting
was not good, for might be killed, and
then the girl would be caught just the
same. We rode on-such ride-the
horses neck and neck, their feet pound
ing the prairie like piston rods, rawbone
to rawbone, a dingdong gait. I knew
they were after US, though / saw them
but once Oh the crest of a divide, about
three miles behind. Hour after hour
like that, with 10 minutes rest and now
and then at a spring, or to stretch our
legs. We hardly spoke to each other,
but God Of love, my heart was warm
to this girl, who had ridden / so miles in
"a hours. Just before dawn, when ]
was beginning to think that we should
easily win the race if the girl could but
hold out, if it did not kill her, the chest
nut stuck a leg into the crack of the
prairie, and horse and girl were on the
ground together. She could scarcely
move, she was so weak, and her face
was like death. I put pistol to the
chestnut's head and ended it. At that
the girl stopped and kissed the poor
beasts neck, but spoke nothing. AS !
helped her on my Tophet put my lips
to the sleeve of her dress Mother Of
God, what could a man do, she was Sc
noble!
Dawn was just breaking oozy and
gray at the swell of the prairie over the
Jumping Sand hills. They lay quiet and
shining i'll the green brown plain, but
I knew that beneath there was churn
which could set those swells of sand in
motion and make deadly sport of an ar
my. Who can tell what it is? A food
under the surface, tidal river-what:
No man knows. But they are sea mon
sters on the land Every morning at
sunrise they begin to eddy and roll, and
no man ever saw a stranger sight.
Bien, looked back. There We're four
horsemen coming on about three miles
away What was there to do? The girl
and myself on my tired horse were too
much. They saw also and hurried Oh.
There came to me great idea. must
reach and cross the Jumping Sand hills
before sunrise. 1t was all deadly
chance.
"When we got to the edge of the
sand, they We're almost mile behind.
I was all sick to my teeth as my poor
Tophet stepped into the sand. God, how
I watched the dawn! Slow, slow we
toiled over that velvet powder. AS we
reached the farther side I felt that it
was beginning to move. The sun was
showing like the lid of an eye along the
plain. I looked back All four horsemen
were in the sand, plunging on toward
us. By the time we touched the brown
green prairie on the farther side the
sand was rolling behind us. The girl
had not looked back. She seemed too
dazed I jumped from the horse and
told her that she must push on alone to
the fort; that Tophet could not carry
both; that I should be i'll Eo danger.
She looked at me, l cannot tell how,
then stopped and kissed me between the
eyes, have never forgotten. I struck !
Tophet, and she was gone to her happi- |
ness, for she reached the fort and her
lovers arms.
''But I stood looking back upon the
Jumping Sand hills. So was there ever
sight like that-those hills gone like a
smelling floor, the sunrise spotting it
with rose and yellow and three horses
and their riders fighting what cannot
be fought. What could I do? They
would have got the girl if I had not led !
them across, and they would have killed
me if they could. Only one cried out,
and then but once in long shrek. |
But after all three were quiet as they
fought until they were gone where no
man could see, where none cries out SO
we can hear
There was a long pause, painful to
BEAR The trader sat with eyes fixed |
Sumbly as q dogs on Pierre. At last
Macavoy said: ''She kissed ye, Pierre
-aw, yis, she did that! Jist betune the
eyes. Do yes iver see her now, Pierre?'
But Pierre, though looking at him,
made no ansWer.-Gilbert Parker.