Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-02-12

with good stimulation of excited horror,
| cried: \
"Oh, Hetty! John Cameron has fallen
over the edge of the cliffp'
| John Cameron" exclaimed the girl,
hoarsely, turning very pale and catching
the boys shoulder TO support herself
Are you sure?"
YES; if you crawl to the edge and look
over you may see him on a rock a good
ways down"
Hetty with difficulty depressed a femi-
nine desire to shrek. She was trembling,
and her teeth chartered as if with cold.
@Where is he? Show mer' she gasped.
Gust beyond that little red oak. Watch
where I pitch this stone. Therer'
She watched the fight of the little
ston, marking where it dropped just be-
yond the edge of the hill. and did not
notice how Danny. behind her, Rugged
himself and grinned in enjoyment of the
reflection that, small as the missile was,
it would be certain to keep John lively.
''YOu can find him, easy. I'm going
for help" and the lad was off like
shot.
Hetty stood hesitating, wishing to go
forward, yet so filled with dread and hor
ror that her limbs seemed to weaken and
become powerless to obey her viii. Of
all the men in the world, must it be John
Cameron to whom this dreadful thing
should happen. John Cameron, so strong
and handsomei John Cameron, who
would never know now how she would
grieye for him! How willingly she would
have offered herself to fate in his stead!
] i.
anticipation of the horror they We're to
see, had no tears in them, for her tears
were in her. heart, swelling it to burst
ing. but a low moan that ended in a sob
welled from her lips. Near the brink of
the abyss, she dropped upon her hands
and knees, and crawled forward to look
over the edge.
John Cameron's keen hearing caught
the rustling of her movements among the
leaves, and naturally supposing the sound
made by his tOrmentor, preliminary to
another bombardment, hastily aimed at
the stone in the tree and fired, eXclaim-
ing as he did so:
There! Col dern YOU
A woman's shrek answered the report
of his rife. Then succeeded silence-only
silence.
He stood as if petrifed by astOnish-
ment, holding his breath to listen, while
gradually a white horror overspread his
face. The voice was surely a woman's.
He huskiIy shoued
"Hello, up there. Are you hurt?"
There was no answer, not sound of
any kind but the violent beating of his
own heart. The suspense quickly be-
came unbearable. AT one end Of the ledge
upon which he was perched grew large
tree, rooted among the rocks, but so in
securely, as it appeared, that its own
weight threatened to tear it loose and
precipitate it into the valley. It's upper
branches were on a level with the hill
top, but several yards away from the
cliff, owing to the angle at which the
trunk projected. Under ordinary cir
cumstances, John would as soon have
thought of jumping down to the creek as
Of climbing that tree, for the enormous
leverage of his weight, among those up
per branches might very well prove too
much for its scant hold upon the earth
to bear. But in his present state of anX-
ious excitement, approaching desperation,
he did not even think twice of the danger.
He recognized it, but that was all. Up
the trunk he went, almost as nimbly as
squirrel could, feeling it culver and
crack, but caring nothing for those dan
ger signals, so long as he might reach
point high enough to see what his bullet
had done. His climbing was necessarily
done with his back toward the cliff.
When he felt that he had attained a suffi-
cient altitude, he stopped; but then a sud-
den dread of what he was about to see
suddenly overpowered him that for
minute he could not nerve himself to turn
his head mad look. At length he did so,
and almost fell from his perch. His worst
fears were realized. Face downward
among the leaves, lay the body of a wom-
an motionless-scant doubt, dead-killed
by his bullet. Who she was he could not
tell; but that did not matter. His deed
was murder, anyway; and he felt that
the best thing he could do would be to
let go all holds and drop. Better do that
than be hanged.
ITO be cOntinuedO