Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1906-06-02

stern.
The cry had proceeded from Ruff,
Dawes. From his solitary rock he hat
watched the boat pass him and max,
for the Lady-bird mcdaniel, and he had
! decided that the moment when the ga tn
ering gloom swallowed her up should be
the moment When he would plunge into
the surge below him. The heavily la
boring boat grew DINNER and DINNER
as each tug of the oars took her further
from him. Presently, only the figure of
Mr.. Troke in the stern sheets was Wis
ible; than that also disappeared, and as
the nose of the timber raft rose on the
swell of the next wave, Rufus Dawes
flung himself into the sea.
He was heavily ironed, and he sunk
like a stone. He had resolved not to
attempt to swim, and for the first mo-
ment kept his arms raised above his
head in order to sink the quicker. But
as the short sharp agony of suffocation
caught him, and the shock of the icy
water dispelled the mental intoxication
under which he was laboring, he desper-
ately struck out, and despite the weight
OF his irons, gained the surface for an
instant. AS he did So all bewildered
and with the one savage instinct of self
preservation predominant over all other
thoughts, he became conscious of a huge
black mass surging upon him out of the
darkness. An instant's buffet with the
current, an Intellectual attempt to dive
beneath it, a horrible sense that the
weight at his feet was dragging him
down-and the huge log, loosened from
the raft, was upon him, crushing him be-
meath its rough and ragged sides. The
log passed completely over him, thrust
ing him beneath the water, but his hand,
scraping along the splintered side. came
In contact with the loop of hide rope
that yet hung round the mass, and he
clutched it with the tenacity Of death
grip. In another instant he got his head
above water, and, making good his hold,
twisted himself, by a violent effort,
across the log.
For moment he saw the lights from
the stern windows of the anchored YES
sells low in the distance; Grumfnet Rock
disappeared on his left; then, exhausted,
breathless, and bruised, he closed his
eyes, and the drifting log bore him swift
ly and silently away into the darkness.
AT daylight the next morning, Mr..
Iroke, landing on the prison rock, found
It deserted. The prisoners cap was
lying on the edge of the little cliff, but
the prisoner himself had disappeared
Pulling back to the Lady-bird, the intel
ligent Troke pondered on the circum-
stance, and in delivering his report to
Vickers mentioned the strange cry he
had heard the night before. Its my
belief, sir, that he was trying to swim
fha bQu " ba coid 10 Lot
to the bottom anyhow, for he couldn't
swim five yards with them irons"
Vickers, busily engaged in getting I'M
der way, accepted this very natural sup
position without question. The prisoner
had met his death either by his own act
Dr. by accident. 1t was either a suicide
Dr. attempt to escape, and the former
conduct of Rufus Dawes rendered the
after explanation a more probable one
In any case, he was dead AS Mr. Troke |
rightly surmised, no man could swim the |
Gay in irons; and when the Lady-bird
IN hour later, passed the Grummet
Rock, all on board her believed that the |
corpse of its late occupant was lying |
beneath the waves that seethed at its |
base.
The drifting log that had so strangely |
'erved as means of saving Rufus |
Dawes swan with the current that was |
'unning out Of the bay. For some time |
he burden that it bore was an insen-
ible one. Exhausted with his desper-
tie struggle for life, the convict lay |
llong the rough bark of this heaven
tent raft without motion, almost without
breath. At length a VIOLENT shock awoke
i'm n - 4
hat the log had become stranded on a
andy point, the extremity of which was
ost in darkness. Painfully raising him
elf from his uncomfortable posture he
staggered to his feet, and, crawling a
ew PAGES up the beach, flung himself
lpon the ground and slept.
When he woke up it was past mid
lay, and the sun poured its full rays
lpon him. His clothes were dry in all
places, save the side on which he had
'een lying, and he rose to his feet re-
reshed by his long sleep. He scarcely
as yet, his true position.
he had escaped, it was true, but not
or long. He was versed in the history
# escapes, and knew that a man alone
IN that barren coast was face to face
With starvation or recapture. CHANGING
Up at the sun, he wondered, indeed, how
was that he had been free so long.
Then the coal sheds caught his eye, and
lie understood that they were untenant-
I'd. This astonished him, and he began
o tremble with vague apprehension. En-
ering, he looked around expecting ev-
Try moment to see some lurking consta-
,le or armed soldier Suddenly his
ylance fell uDOn the loaves which low
n the corner where the departing con-
'icts had flung them the night before
At such a moment, this discovery seem
ID like a direct revelation from heaven.
lie would not have been surprised had