The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-09-01
gripping its nostrils AL threw it back
upon its launches

to soothe the fine black roadster that
under happier circumstances had once
been his. Fifty rods more and he
would be OH American soil and within
a half hours drive of Ned Fletcher's
Then Bob Peterson and the extradi-
ton treaty he 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 furious run. The freshet
from the melting snow in the hills was
sweeping down the river, heaving up
the rotten ice in jagged ridge as it
came.
Help! Help
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. Az 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 were children
playing together and the boat in which
she had hidden had gone adrft above
the falls.
cal. AL"
He looked hungrily at his promised
land not ten rods away now, then
swung the horse about and galloped
ri ho 4
heaving, splitting ice drew nearer,
passed under him and left the horse
floundering in the swift current among
crunching ice cakes. He leaped from
the sleigh and dashed on, leaving the
brute to its fate Out there where the
ice was pounding, grinding. writhing,
she was crouching upon rocking cake,
and he sped straight on over the heav-
ing mass toward her with a nimbleness
and sureness that had saved him
score of times from pursuing revenue
officers.
'Quick, Az And as he snatched her
from her perilous position she chung to
him as though he We're 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 waliowing white monsters fight
ing each other to the death. Even with
nothing to impede his fight his chances
of raDching 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 Il time. and all three
had gone over the falls.
AS he leapcd upon it a cake sank
under him till the water reached his
knees. and she grippetl him conclusive
ly. He looked at her as lie had not
looked at any h,,man being for years
and bounded on to the next cake. 1t
turned over under his foot, and he
sank to his :rmpits in water. Scr;l.n-
bling out only moment before the ice
closed together with grinding cyunch.
The jagged ice cut through his rotten
boots, and he left blood at every step
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 Il crash across Il blue
black slab whose adhering gravel cut
like the teeth of Il saw.
LET me help myself. Al. You're kill
ing yourself" And. scrambling to her
feet, she started away, but soon slipped
and fell with Il dull thud, lying still by
a strip of swirlng water into which she |
had nearly plunged.
Al snatched her up and leaped across (,
the widening channel, looking at the /!
quarter OF mile away. Could lie !
make it? Reason and his battered body ,
said no, but the white, still face at |
his shoulder with the ugly cut across
the forehead cried out above reason. ,
and he reeled on
He was upon hands and knees now.
dragging her painfully frOmk cake to !
fitting cake. The one across which be
was squirming collided with another.
pinning fast the handcuff dangling at
his wrist. He wrenched at the iron I'M
til it cut into his flesh, but could not
free himself. He started to his knees
and circlcd round and round in sudden
panic, still clinging to the unconscious
Then the mass on which they
aOated struck something with force
that threw hiEl over his fetter and
nearly wrenched the piniOned arm
from its socket. A glance about him
revealed the truth. They were strand
I'd upon a submerged ledge, and the
&c was rapidly piling up about them.
A cake Of ice as large as half bar
eel crashed down within yard of his
head, and he tugged at his
nanacle until his wrist bled in anoth-
n desperate attempt to free himself.
Then he crouched and waited. Behind
him the jagged white wall rose stead
~ higher, now ominOusly still. now
yroaning loudly as the whole mass
slipped forward Il few feet upon the
edge. They might lie there in this
heltering half circle which screened
hen from view and perish from the
old that would set in with the night