Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., 1904-09-13
CHAPTER XXI.
LIKE A BIRTa IN THE AIR.

81 v the shore, and finding a
a suggestion Of path up the
cliff, elambered slowly over
the stones, until he stood on the mar
row shelf of rock at the foot of the
tower. He threw his head far back
and looked up along it's slanting sur
face. The clouds had broken now, and
though the sky was still adrift with
them racing before the wind, he coult.
see, around the black edge of the cren-
ellated top, a star or two.
AS he gazed upward that peculiar op-
ticaI delusion which seizes people who
look up at the sheer pitch of a lofty
building came upon him. 1t seemed
to him as though the castle we're
swaying toward him; as though in an
other moment it might fall and crush
him. He lost all sense of the consid-
cradle inclination of the tower, or if
there were any variation from the
perpendicular; 1t seemed to him to
slope back over his head, instead of
away from him. 1t was an appalling
sight He stood at gaze a second or
two and looked straight before him.
"This will never do he murmured,
"if hesitate longer l shall be lost"
He leaned his forehead against the
wall and closed his eyes, breathing a
prayer at the same time, and having
recovered his calmness thereby, he
slowly and cautiously began the as
cent. He put his foot on the first pro-
jecting stone and reached across the
rough surface until his fingers clutched
another jutting block. Then he swung
himself into the air.
He looked neither up nor down. nor
sidewise, but stared straight at the
wet stones in froat Of him as he mo.
notonously plcdded up. He dared not
look elsewhere, in fact. He found the
angle between the tower and the wall
presently and with infinite care he
made his way painfully upward. Once
he glanced quickly above him. The
goal was miles away. yet it seemed
as II he had been crawling up those
rocks for hours.
Once his foot slipped on round
damp stone, and it was only by a SUI
perhuman effort, aided by little
larger projection which happened to
be under his right hand, that he kept
himself from falling. But presently
as he fearfully made the slow ascent
his courage returned to him. He for.
got the danger and began to feel HIM
self immune from it. England and
her service came back to him, Anne
sprang into his mind. She was there
perhaps, behind that window, from
which the light streamed out into the
darkness, waiting for him, dreaming
of him; he should see her in a mo.
ment.
The thought lent him wings, he for.
got the dizzy depths below him, the
unscaled heights above him, he forgot
his imminent deadly peril, he forgot
himself, in fact. However. he relaxed
none of his precaution. as he pain.
fully wormed himself up the face o1
! the tower. With each step he was
drawing nearer to Anne, that was the
burden of his thoughts.
Presently his head struck the pro-
! lection at the foot of the balcony sur.
rounding the oriel window. Here wa.
the most difficult part of the ascent
but he was full of confidence now. A
| few more cautious efforts and hi.
| hands clasped the coping of the bal
cony. Slowly, painfully, he drew him
self up, swung his feet over the wall
and dropped softly down to the stone
floor.
He was trembling under the strair
he had undergone; and until that mo
ment he had not realized what it hac
been; cold perspiration had broken on
on his forehead, his hands were bleed