The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-01-18
AN ALPINE YARN.

man I found myself in the Rhope valley,
in Switzerland. I wasn't at all o prac-
teal sort of youth, like you fellows, and
I'm bound to say l was just idling about
there, staring at mountains, finding out
the places famous in history, sketching
and all the rest of it, but / enjoyed my
self uncommonly in my own way, and
so M evening I got to Brieg, which
you may or may not know is an old
town ON the Swiss side of the celebrated
Simplon pass leading into italy.
/ was a good deal too late to clash
with many British tourists. The fact is
it was December, and / had the hotel to
myself. But the winter that year was
altogether abnormally late, and there
w&s, they told me, hardly any snow ON
the pass up to Berisal. If / chose to
walk into Italy the next day, I might
easily do it, spending one night at the
hospice on the way.
The hotel proprietor who told me this
added with q wink:
But you must be careful, sare. There
is bad characters about There has been
found several dead bodies in the Saline
the last year, and they was all with
empty pockets"
l laughed ut this. l flattered myself
that my revolver and l could account
for any moderate dangers of that kind.
As for concerted brigandage, the time
for that had long gone by.
The next morning was lovely, with a
lNr-o c1-r- cr,l - El,r r~.-A --LszL IL ..-A
hide either the snow or the high Alps
or the heavens above them. I strobe out
of Brieg toward the mountains, feeling
as one does feel in youth ON the eve of
a splendid excursion.
/ had got to the last little cluster of
dark colored houses before the pines ON
the slope on the north side of the Gan
ten when a good looking Italian accost-
ed me. / was in the humor to be socia-
BILE and readily accepted his offer to rest
a moment or two in his chalet, which
was close by.
1t was here that l saw the girl who
is my wife, though she is not a girl
now, a you may suppose. l lost my
heart to her as one does now and then
to a girl. I'm not going to describe her
as she then seemed to me-you fellows
can hardly expect it-6ut I very soon
saw that she felt an interest in me, and
the realization quickened my pulse, /
can tell you.
Well, l rested longer than l intended
and was mighty vexed to have to stir at
last.
'If I might hope to call again when
l return, l said as / held the girls
hand for a moment in mine.
Her face satisfied me she was inter
ested in me, and yet when her father,
with a cheerful sort of grin, said that
he meant to accompany me for a mile
or two, ito show you the old road,
signor, which is much shorter she
made objections which struck me at the
time as very odd. made objections, /"
/ say, but 1t was a deal more than that.
She began to cry, in fact, so that I sec
onded her and tried to persuade her IA
Their that he had better stay where he
was.
The man insisted, however-politefy
enough, / must admit-and SO we start
ed, he looking rather wild, as if he
didn't appreciate that domestic scene,
and l feeling as if I'd willingly give
up the Simplon and everything else to
spend a day in that quiet chalet, with
that pretty girls gentle, kindly face
beaming upon me. There was q sadness
about the girl that won me as much as
anything else.
But we hadn't been gone more than
half an hour from the chalet when I
understood what it all meant.
By this time we were about IL, 600
feet above the Saltined stream, which
brawls from the high Alps ct the bot
ton of this fearful ravine. We were
ON the old road, just a mule track
scratched in the side of the p~erpendicu-
lar rocks only four or five feet wide and
with this alarming precipice to the
right.
One Of us had to precede the other,
and it wa ! who took the lead.
l was still thinking more of the pref
ty girl than the scenery when felt q
cruel blow on the back Of my head. 1t
laid me down in an instant, more than
half unconscious. Twas robbed-watch.
purse, Passport and all except the re-
volver, which / carried on the hip.
Then the wretch tilted me over the
rock, and IL seemed to me / was dead.
But OF course I wasn't dead, though
1t was we'll Ca in tho afternoon before
/ coald stir TO realize it. | had. caucht
in ore Of those giarled old fir trees
which grow out frogl the Simplon rocks
almost ut right angles to them. My God,
what a position it il was, t. be sure! A
fearful depth Of sharp mountain side
below me and tho Glisshorn's p~recipice
across the rayine, with the roaring
stream in the guy.
Well, gentlemen, I got out Of that
hole-I don't much care to think how
and late in the night / crawled back
to Brieg, looking, a they told me, like
a dead a But l said nothing about
my adventure, for though / owed Ca
terina's father something considerable
In the matter Of vengeance I was loath
to do anything to cause pain to Caterina
herself. You see, i knew now what
her ~entreaties had meant, and I loved