Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-07-26

OF his head. All grew dark before him.
He tottered, lost his balance, and fell.
His hands, clutching at the empty air,
caught projecting limb and he held to
it with desperate strength. AS he hung
dangling over the gulf. dizzy and stupi-
fed, he heard harsh voice above cry
out: You fired too soon, you fool. Let
the rebels have it now, men! Blaze
away at the bushes"
A struggling discharge Of musketry
followed the words, and then Nathan's
fingers slipped. He shot downward
fifty feet to the bushy top of tree that
grew siantw,se from the side Of the
gorge. This broke the violence Of his
fall, but it did not stop him. He bound
ed from branch to branch, and fell the
remaining distance TO the creek, plung-
ing head first beneath the surface.
The instinct OF life was strong within
the lad, and his struggles soon brought
him to the surface, choking and gasp
ing He was too bruised and stunned
to swim a decent stroke, but by feebly
padding he managed TO keep his head
above water.
That was all he thought about in the
dazed condition, and withou. making
an attempt TO reach either shore he
drifted with the sluggish current for
twenty yards or so. Then he saw con-
ical rock close ahead, rising several feet
out OF mid-stream, and by an effort he
reached it and clasped his arms around
the top.
There he chung for fully five minutes,
while strength returned and his MIND
cleared. He had not heard a sound
since he fell. and he wondered if all his
companions were dead. He listened IN
vain. looking up the distant blue vault
of the sky. The silence OF death rested
on wood and stream.
A sharp pain suddenly recalled the
fact that he had been shot, and he put
one hand to his head in fever Oh ap-
prehension. His fingers were red win
blood when he looked at them, but MS
fear was gone. The bullet had merely
| grazed his brow, leaving narrow SKIN
wound. This discovery put new lie
into him, and he determined TO get TO
shore and search for his friends IL they
were still alive. But as he was about 10
let go of the rock, he heard noise from
the north bank in which direction ne
was facing Here the slope was less
prec,pttous than above, and was dense
" timbered.
Some person was descending toward
the stream at a recklessly rapid speed.
Ioosened stones rolled down TO the wa
fer with a splash. Here and there,
amid the trees and bushes, dark form
showed at intervals Was 1t friend or
foe? Nathan asked himself, and all TOO
soon the question was answered.
The noise suddenly ceased, and from
out the fringe of laurel at the base OF
the slope peered a mans face-a ND
eous countenance with but one eye, and
with skin like wrinkled parchment
slashed by a qu.llful of purple ink IL
needed not a glimpse of dingy buck
skin Jacket with hore buttons TO tell
Nathan that this was the terrible simon
Glass.
The face was followed by a long-bar-
relied musket, but the ruftian ala not az
once raise 1t to his shoulder lie sIareI
keenly at the lad for moment anu
then grinned like fiend
"No mistakee about It; that's him.
be muttered aloud Die, you dirty
rebelr' he added, leyeling the gun anu anu
souinting along the tube with his one
eye. "a. 60 in
distinctly that they caused HIM no Won
der but the sentence that ,IoWeu