The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-11-26
PROF. HUGO'S THANKS
BY DAVID A. CURTIS.
Copyright, 1896. ]

anu Uucu SUfdlSutcucu up, llSUculuS. no
never did anything in a hurry.
Again the cry sounded 1t was girlish
voice, and it sounded from down the
mountain. He was half way up the side.
"Help! Help! Quickr'
Il better go, maybe" muttered the pro-
lessor in his queer German speech, and
then he raised his voice and shouted:
Fear not! l comet"
One could not say he hurried even then,
but there was no hesitation, and there was
not misstep.
Presently he stopped and listened. Hear
ing nothing, he called out: "Where you
are now? Call out to me again.
Fright here. Oh, come quickp' an
swered the voice. only few yards to the
right. Stepping around a bowlder that
was lodged on the mountain side, he saw
young girl lying fiat on the grass. Be-
fore she could speak he understood her
peril.
She was almost at the edge of cliff not
less than 40 feet in height, and below her
was a mass of jagged rocks. The slope on
which she lay was steep, and the short
grass that coyered it was so dried and
burned by the sun that it was as slippery,
almost, as ice. Moreover, the soil in which
it grew was hardly more than sheet of
forest mold over smooth rock, and there
was no chance for her to get even slight
hold by digging her fingers into it.
"You are hurt? No?' he asked quickly.
'No sir,'' answered the girl as coolly
as if she had been lying on a sofa. "But
every time try to move slip a little nearer
the edge, and there is nothing to keep me
from falling over if slip any farther"
"That is right" said the professor, land
it is good for you that hear. Lie still
now, and will soon up get you"
TWAS not so easy, however, as it looked
and as he at first thought it was. On
either side of her he could get within some
20 feet of where she was without ventur-
ing on the treacherous grass himself and
so losing his own foothold. But, though
he could have held out stick or impro-
vised rope that she could reach across
that distance, it would not do to pull her
along the edge without some stay from the
upper part of the slope, and that was fully
50 feet above her.
II could go TO, n rope he said present
~, after he had studied the situation a
moment, "but how far away is some
house? I do not know"
"It would take you an hour to go and
get back" said the girl. "Can you not do
something else9 If had only little thing
to hold on to- could crawl back, but I
dare not
"No, no, Franklin interrupted the
professor. "You must lie still. 1 will
something do"
Opening his knapsack, he fumbled in
side of it for a moment and drew out a
stout gray flannel shirt This he tore into
strips, and knotting the strips together,
he had in little while string long
enough to reach across the dangerous
slope. AS he worked he chatted with the
girl who was cool enough now that some
one was near to aid her.
She had been picking berries, she told
him, and, although she knew the ground
we'll and understood how treacherous the
grassy slopes were, after the late summer
sun scorched them, she had slipped from
pure carelessness, and, falling, she had slid
out of reach of the bushes Struggling to
rise, she had slipped farther and farther
toward the edge until she realized that
her only chance Of safety was to lie still
and call for help.
"And was so thankful when heard
you answer" she said "for did not know
but 1 would have to lie here till they
missed me at home and came out to search
for me-
eyes, it was good that I study the rocks
today" said the professor "But now lie
still some more till my rope shall touch
your fingers. Then do not too hard pull
it, for it is not so strong. But it will help
you little and you can up the hill creep
carefully" And he tied a small stone to
one end of the string and slid it down TO-
ward her till she grasped it, he holding
the other end.
1t was very easy then for her, having
something to steady her, to make her way
upward to where he stood, at the edge of
the slope, holding the string firmly. All
went well till she care within reach Of his
oUtstretched hand, when, rs he stopped to
lift her to her feet, his own footing gave
way, and he fell headlong beside her on
the slippery grass.
He strove in vain to stop himself, grasp
ing frantically at the grass which broke as
he clutched it. Carried swiftly by the mo-
mentum of his fall, he slipped smoothly
down to the very edge and over it, falling,
with loud cry, sheer over the cliff.
The girl called out twice, but there was
no answer, and with terrible fear lest
she should find only a lifeless body she
fastened around by the nearest practicable
way to the foot of the cliff.
He was not dead, as he found immedi-
ately. But when he tried to rise he could
not.
"My leg is broken" he said, "and am
bad hurried on my inside. You must now
to me bring help, for am as you were"
eyes, yes" answered the girl. II will
CO. But how can you stay alone? 1t will
be more than an hour before I can get
anybody here who can carry you to the
house,
each! That is bad, +" said the professor.
"But will do as can best. If you will
look my knapsack in and give me the little
flask there, can wait, but be not longer
as you can help"
81 will be as quick as can," said the
girl after she had brought the knapsack to
him and given him drink.
TWAS long hour for the poor professor,
and before it was over he had tainted, de-
spite his flask, SO that when John Bascom
Io~o1 So + IL,