The age-herald., 1898-04-10

"Take a seat, Elsie" he said, "and make yourself comfortable"
 Aren't you going down?" Elsie asked him.
 "No, I ain't. I'm going to wait here till they break their necks, or get run over by that Cincinnati Southern express-must be about due here by now-then I'll go ana fetch what's left of them-and the basket.
 Well, did think you were more gall lant than that, Joe," said Elsie. with sar- castle emphasis. All the same. she too set tied herself on the grass to watch the competitive exhibition of acrobatics going on below them.
 Well, I reckon 1t won't take three of us to bring up that little bit of a basket, said Joe, beginning to chew at a stalk or grass
 Here comes the train, sure enough" Elsie cried.
 A long whistle interrupted her exclama- tion, and out of the tunnel that opened where the hill rounded, only score or two of. yards away from them, the express came changing and roaring at full speed. Just then Scadleigh turned quickly to see where Mcknight was; mass or shaie, either shaken by the vibration of the ap- preaching train, or disturbed by Scadleign sudden movement, fell to the bottom of the steep incline, and Scadleigh rolled down with it.
 As the express rolled by, passengers idly looking through the windows of the cars saw on the verge of the precipice above them a terrified girl staring wildly down upon them; by her young man apparently paralyzed for the moment; half way down the embankment, another young man who, by his gestures was trying to communi- cate with some one on the level or the track. Conductors and trainmen leaned over the platform guards and looked in- tently along the rail on the inside. There was a. bump and rush of steam; the air brakes were being applied.
 When half a. dozen train hands some minutes later reached the spot running from where the brakes had at last brought the trains speed down to a safe jumping off rate, they found Mcknight and Joe Benton stopping over Scadlelgh, who lay in the drain that separated the road bed from the face of the cutting.
 "Is he dead?'' one of them asked.
 "No, he's only tainted" Joe answer d.
 'Well, serve him right"
 And the disgusted officials pulling out their watches turned and hurried back to catch their train. thinking only of the time lost through this absurd approach to fatality.
 'EIis ankle Is sprained," Joe shouted up to Elsie "You go on to the slope over the tunnel, and we'll get him up all right"
 It was not a very severe sprain in truth. but poor Ben Scadleigh had gone through the most terrible experience of his life while he slid down-as 1t seemed to him
  of the great monster that rushed at him from out of the tunnel. In that little mos ment he had not remembered that the dran would be sure to catch him. He awoke to consciousness, after what seemed long and terrible dream of clanking wheels laundering over him, in the shallow. mud dy channel. The other two men dashed some handfuls of water in his face, and then he recovered sufficiently to ask, "ls my hair gray?'
 The laughter that greeted this question was a welcome sound to him. Mcknight and Benton were wandering along the drain, trying, if possible, to find some old pieces of timber that might serve to make an extempore litter on which to carry away their wounded comrade, but nothing light enough for the purpose was to be found
 AS for Elsie Cabel, she was thoroughly subdued by the mishap, for which she felt herself mainly responsible. When Scad- leigh had been slowly helped up to the top of the gentle slope over the tunnel she found outlet for her psnitent feelings in bathing his face with her handkerchief dipped at a spring close by. Mcknight and Benton watched this treatment, and one at least of them was hoping that the girl would put off yet a little longer the choice she must sooner or later make De- tween the three This accident had cer- tainly given Ben Scadleigh an unfair ad- vantage.
 "Joe." said Mcknight to his lanky rival a few days later, as they both left Elsie at her gate after escorting her home from her evening visit to the envlable invalid Scadleigh, q guess Ben has beaten both our times. We might as well quit. What do you say?"
 "Oh. I don't know about that" said Joe. "We might wait little longer"
 You and I ought to come to some un- derstandng about this thing Joe How long do you propose to wait?'
 That's right. old man. I like to hear fellow talk business" Joe laughed back Suppose we say, till Easter. Then. if FL sic won't take one of us by that time we leave the field to Scadegh."
 So these two business-like youths made this compact with the understanding that each should do his best to win Elsie, the capricious, in the meanwhile. This ar rangement left them clear ten days siege activity.
 Judging by appearances, however, Scad- leigh's chances were by far the pest. Ei- sic visited him every day, bringing him iellies the work of her own hands. ard f1owers-but not anemones, for she had un- dergone revulsion of feeling that made her vow never to look upon an anemone again.
 Considering the privileges he enjoyed as an invalid, it was not wonderful that Scad- leigh made no haste to be up and about. It would have been worth scalpfui of graz hairs, even, to have Elsie sitting by hi. couch by the hour, chatting with him and treating him with a marked deference as one who had been her knight even to the death. But a, time came when the doc- tor could no longer allow his patient to spend night and day lounging. so Scad- leigh had to own that the swelling of hs ankle was gone, and that he could walk as well as any other man who had not taken exercise for two weeks.
 It was only three days before Easter ana Joe Benton was enjoying few minutes tete-a-tete with the lady of the three beaux. having gained much time over his rival Breck Mcknight.
 'eYou put me in mind of that woman Tn the poem." he said-"the one that made the fellow jump into the arena"
 'sWhat woman?-why?"
 "she dropped her glove down where the dogs. or lions or whatever they were, hay- ing fight And then this fellow jumped down and got il"
 .'oh. And who reminds you of the fel- low, Joe?" :,
 "Ben scadleigh. of course. Only"
 "Only what?"
 "Ben didn't get the glove"
 s,II,u And what did this woman do