The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-10-27

they'll be on top of us. Fire like HI
when they come in sight or they'll butt
US into the gulch, where not even a
coyote can PICK our carcasses.
James Ferguson was a brave man.
but for an instant his heart stood still
as the horror Of the situation dawned
upon him. Then he gripped his gun
with a firm hand and awaited the in
evitable tragedy, for he knew it would
be a duel 10 the death with the mad
dened mountain sheep and their
mighty leader-the black big horn buck
whose fame had spread all over the
Rockies.
The ridge on which the men chung
was barely a foot wide. The tooth
like upper ridge of a chalk cliff con-
nected the rocky heights above with
the lower levels of the mountain. A
sharp click of hOOfs and a bunch of
tawny sheep. led by a superb black
buck, bounded into view. On they
came, straight for the men, leaping
over the cliffs. shaking their branch
ing horns in wild fury.
Give them the ballast now said
the guide, and both rifles cracked
again and again like the rapid fire of
| machine guns. But with his band fall
/ ing and dying about him, the invinci-
| bic black buck charged on, and with
1 a rallying cry to his mates, closed in
on the guide. Ferguson saw to his
horror the big black antlers straight
/ ahead of him, and lifted upon them
| was the fighting, struggling form of
| his companion, knife in hand tossed
/ in a twinkling high in the air, then
{ falling head foremost, man and beast,
/ down into the terrible abyss.
With a sickening sensation Ferguson
I felt the stones giving way under him,
and grabbed frantically at the Jagged
rocks which jutted out above him.
/ They loosened in his hands, and to his
| inexpressible terror he went sinking
/ down into space.
And this is DEATH" he cried.
A few hours later he gave a convul-
! sive start and opened his eyes. He
/ was lying on a broad table rock with
the snowfields all about him, and the
1 prettiest creature, 1t seemed to him
that he had ever looked upOn-the girl
! J had seen in the cabin doorway
! Low kneeling at his side.
She was a fair-haired mountain girl
/ with the shy. soft eyes OF his owr
earthly love. Could it be she had come
/ back to him again in all her youth
! and beauty2 From the present back
to the past his thoughts flew fast, and
he was a boy again with his sweet
heart at his side.
Daisy" he cried. and clutched at hel
hands. THE years have been many
and weary since you gave me bacl
my ring, but now you have come bacI
to me, though I had to die to find you.
Confused and perplexed, he though
himself in heaven, and the girl will
rare tact humOred his fancy
1t was many weeks after, whei
James Ferguson, recovering from
fierce struggle with brain fever, cam
to know that the girl who had save,
his life on the cliffs was not his earl.
love. but her daughter. Then he toll,
the girl the story of his love for he
mother, and that he loved her evel
better than he had her mother. an,
begged for her love in return.
You Daisy" he said, 'can bring m
lost youth back to me. viii you. dea
love. and be the joy. the light, of m
hfe?" And her beautiful eyes grey
very moist and tender as She shyl
laid her hand in his and whispered:
Il will: for the cruel wound m
; mother gave you; I will be her atone
, ment-
Copyrighted. 1901 by W r. Hearst)