Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-10-05

been his. Fifty rods more and he
would be on American soil and within
half horr's drive of Ned Fletcher's.
Then Bcb Peterson and the extradi.
ton treaty De hanged!
Pop, pop, pop. pop! Al gave one look
upstream at the long white ridge that
was moving swiftly down upon him,
then seized the whip and dashed the
horse into a furious run. The freshet
from the melting snow in the hills was
sweeping down the river, heaving UP
the rotten ice in a jagged ridge as it
came.
"Help! Helpr'
The fleeing outlaw looked back at
the woman and then as the commotion
drew nearer stood up in the sleigh and
drove the horse to the utmost limit of
its speed.
"Al! Oh, ALP came over the ice in
piteous appeal.
Al started and the hard lines about
his mouth softened as they had not
softened for years. She had called him
just like that when they We're children
playing together and the boat in which
she had hidden had gone adrift above
the falls
al! AL"
He looked hungrily at his promised
land" not ten rods away now, then
swung the horse about and galloped
back toward the woman. The ridge of
heaving, splitting ice drew nearer,
passed under him and left the horse
toundering in the swift current among
crunching ice cakes. He leaped from
the sleigh and dashed on, leaving the
brute to it's fate Out there where the
ice was pounding grinding, writing,
she was crouching upon a rocking cake,
and he sped straight on over tn" heav-
| ing mass toward her with nimbleneSs
and sureneSS that had saved him q
score of times from pursuing revenue
officers.
"Quick, ALP And as he snatched her
from her perilous position she chung to
him as though he were Al Brock of five
years before instead of the most dan
gerous outlaw In the province.
The ice was now thoroughly broken
up. 1t was as though the river were
| full of wallOwing white monsters fight
| ing each other to the death. Even with
nothing to impede his fight his chances
of reaching land would be remote. He
knew that. He had seen three different
men of his gang try to make the Amer
lean side at such a time, and all three
had gone over the falls.
As he leaped upon it cake sank
under him till the water reached his
knees, and she gripped him conyulsive-
~. He looked at her as he had not
looked at any human being for years
and bounded on to the next cake. 1t
| turned over under his foot, and he
sank to his armpitS in water, scram-
| bling out only a moment before the ice
| closed together with a grinding crunch
| The jagged ice cut through his rotten
boots, and he left blood at every step.
I He slipped to his knees again and
| again, clinging by his battered elbows
| over the edge of some tilted block,
straining to keep his charge out Of i'm
mediate danger. At last he stumbled
and fell with a crash across a blue
black slab whose adhering gravel cut
| like the teeth of saw.
'TIet me help myself, Al. You're kill
| ing yourself" And, scrambling to her
feet, she started away, but soon slipped
and fell with dull thud, lying still by
| a strip of swirIing water into which she
had nearly plunged.
AL snatched her up and leaped across
the widening channel, looking at the
| falls and then at tho shore, still a
| quarter Of a mile away. Could he
make it? Reason and his battered body
said no, but the white, still face at
his shoulder with the ugly cat across
| the forehead cried out above reason,
and he reeled on.
He was upon hands and knees now,
dragging her painfully from cake to
| fitting cake. The one across which he
was squirming collided with another,
pinning fast the handcuff dangling at
his wrist. He wrenched at the iron un-
| til it cut into his flesh, but could not
| free himself. He started to his knees
| and circled round and round in sudden
| panic, still clinging to the unconscious
woman. Then the mass on which they
| 1oated struck something with force
nearly wrenched the pinioned arm
| from its socket. A glance about him
revealed the truth. They were strand
ed upon a submerged ledge, and the
ice was rapidly piling up about them.
A cake of ice as large as a half bar
rel crashed down within yard of his
companions head, and he tugged at his
manacle until his wrist bled in anoth.
er desperate attempt to free himself.
Then he crouched and waited. Behind
him the jagged white wall rose stead
| lily higher, now OminOusly still, now
grooming loudly as the whole mass
slipped forward a few feet upon the
ledge. They might lie there in this
sheltering half circle which screened
them from view and perish from the
cold that would set in with the night.
The mass might topple over and crush