Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1902-08-29

ponies into the water. Lannigan turned
to the men on the bank shouting:
Get down stream, there BOYS. and
stand ready to do what We can to helm
EN-"
The underfed ponies met the swirling
current with a game struggle, but turned
tail to it perforce, cramping the floating
wagon sharp about, unmindful of Com
Ions frantic urging. The heavy wheels
sank to the creek bed, the wooden body
of the wagon fioated off to the stand.
ards, and. as II twisted in the current
capsized like an overweighted. leaking
rowboat. ,Conlon seized his wife about
the waist and leaped clear of the wagon
still holding, unwittingly, the guiding
lines OF the team. These wrapped them
selves around his ankles as he began to
swim away from the wreck, and swung
him down stream in the wake Of the
hampered, struggling ponies. The In
dian woman. frightened but silent chung
to his neck like a stone.
For the love of heaven, my Yoraz"
Conlon spluttered, turn me loose
minute IL We don't want to drown the
both of usl'' But she was gasping and
choking in the food. and chung closer
than ever, her fright turned to a sudden
hysteria. The lines were pulling tight
er about his feet, and when the ponies
anchores themselves against a swaying
clump of willows near midstream, Conlon
was ducked under the flood as he brought
up against the rope ends.
Turn her loosen yelled Lannigan
from the bank, well catch her down
below" Jim knew what was said and
knew. too, that the woman had the grip
of the drowning on his neck, knew that
she would be loosened only by a stun
ming blow. He cleared a Drowned arm
and swung hardened fist to strike her
free, but splashed the water at her side
instead, muttering brokenly:
by heaven, I've never struck we yet,
my woman, and I'll not now! They'll
save the two of us, or We'll go down
together"
Lannigan threw off his coat. cast aside
his boots, and called to the men to stand
by to assist. AS he swan, fighting the
current, he saw that Conlon was hold
ing his wife free. but was himself buried
| and anchored beneath the water The
old man seized the woman roughly. tore
her grip from Conlons neck, and with
difficulty steered her to the bank. He
rested there a minute before he went
back to the men gaping on the creek
side
Where have you got 'em?' queried
an excited spectator. I'VE couldn't see
| you land 'emn
THE woman's down there" Lanni-
gan pointed down stream. "She's half
lon?
"Conlon!" they chorused. ''You took
him too, didn't you? We've not seen
him.
Curse We. for a lot of blockheads'
Lannigan plunged again into the raging
yellow water. AS he reached the mid
die OF the stream he saw Conlon, sud
denly released from the binding lines,
| start racing down the current fifty feet
away. The man was unconscious, he
saw, and was drifting helplessly with the
flood. He started in chase, yelling to
the men on shore to run down and
strike in ahead. But they did not hear,
and houndered foolishly along opposite
to the swimming pursuer.
II was quarter of mile farther down
stream that Lannigan steered Conlon's
body ashore. He sent some of the men
back to look after the Indian woman
and tried to rub the life back into the
white mans veins. But Conlon was
dead, beyond human resurrection, and
they brought him, with hating steps
up to his wife. When she saw him.
stark and unresponsive to her kisses
she threw herself across his breast, cry
Ing. "Conlon! Oh. .Iim!'
Out of sight of the woman, with a
large sympathy in his Irish heart, Ian
nigan voiced the general sentiment when
he said:
GAN round tits a good thing that Con-
Ions out of 1t. He mudded everthing
he touched till we couldn't make head nor
tail of 1t, making the right wrong ana
the wrong-well I'm of opinion he tried
that. But he couldn't, not at ALI NO
more can you or me-"
But the Indian woman didn't agree
with that. BY some uncommon pu2hW
Conlon had, for her, reconclled the right
and the wrong the good and the bad ana
made confusion clear. His had been a
cluttered life yes, she would have ad-
mitted it; and yet the essential thing 10
her seemed, after ALL that she and me
girls loved Conlon, and that Conlon haa
loved them. That was simple ana
very plain to her. So she took MN
home in Lannigan's wagon, and woVi9
have only the three weeping half-oreea
girls to help bury him.