The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1907-09-12
gripping Its nostrils AL threw 1t bacl
upon its launches.

to soothe the fine black roadster tina
under happier circumstances had once
been his. Fifty rods more and b,
would be ON American soil and within
half hours drive of Ned Fletcher's 8
Then Bob, Peterson and the extradi
ton treaty be hanged!
|, Pop, pop, pop, popl AL gave one lool
upstream at the long white ridge tha
was moving swiftly down upon him
then seized the whip and lashed the
horse into furious run. The freshet
from the melting snow in the hills was
sweeping down the river, heaving uI
the rotten ice in a jagged ridge as il
| came.
Help! Help!"
The fleeing outlaw looked back al
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, All" 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 adrift above
the falls.
"Al! ALI
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
| houndering 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 wrthing
she was crOuching upon a 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, Al!' And as he snatched her
from her perilous position she clung 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 q time and all three
had gone over the falls.
AS he leaped upon it a cake sank
under him till the water reached his
knees, and she gripped him convulsive-
ly. 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 moment before the ice
closed together with grinding crunch.
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 a crash across blue
black slab whose adhering gravel cut
like the teeth of u 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 dull thud, lying still by
a strip of swirling water into which she
had nearly plunged.
AL snatched her up and leaped across
the widening channel, looking at the
falls and then at the shore, still a
quarter of mile away Could he
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 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 1t 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
LnNn llluS5 OA Mulln luGJ
hoated struck something with a force
that threw him over his fetter and |
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 half bar
rel crashed down within yard OF his
companions head, ana he tugged at his |
manacle until his wrist bled IN anoth-
Ell desperate attempt to free himself.
Then he crOuched and waited. Behind
him the Jagged white wall rose stead
lily higher, now ominously still, now
groaning loudly as the whole mass
slipped forward 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
them at any moment.
He put his free arm under her head
and raised IL from the wet ice. The
low sun illumined the tumbled mass
OF reddish brown hair ANA revealed
with startling clearness the premature
lines about her eyes and mouth. He