Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-10-04

gripping its nostrlls Al threw It back
upon its haanChes.
Get OUT
She looked nj his face and then
rtcr'ed out upon the Ice without a
word
lie lcaped into the sleigh ami, whirl-
lag the horse about. started at gal
- toward thc American side. You'd
4 ter tlut along hone and patch up
: obs head. II needs h." lac called
over his shoulder. Theu rs escape he
came almost certain lac laughed his
odd devil may care laugh and began
io soothe the fine black roadster that
under happier circumstances had once
been his. Fifty rods more and lac
would be ON American soil ami within
a half hours drive of Ned FletcherS.
Then Bob Peterson and the eXtrddi-
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 ana dashed the
horse into furious run. The frcshct
from the melting snow in the hills was
sweeping down the river, heuNins NJ
the rotten ice in Il jagged ridge as it
came.
Help! Help
The fleeing outlaw looked back at
the woman ana then as the commntion
drew nearer stood up In the sleigh AMI
drove the horse 10 the utmost limit of
its speed.
Al. oh. AL" came over the Ice In
piteous appeal.
Al started and the hard lines about
his mouth softcued 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 gallopei
back toward the woman. The ridge of
heaving. splitting ice drew nearer,
passed under him and left the horse
foundering in the swift current among
crunching ice cakes. He leaped from
the sleigh and dashed on leaving the
brute to its fate ont there where the
ice was pounding, grinding, writing,
she was crouching upon rocking cake,
and he sped straight on over the heav-
Ing mass toward her with nimblcneSS
and sureness that had saved him a
score of times from pursuing revenue
officers.
Quick, AL" And rs he snatchcd her
from her perilous position she clung 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 wallowing white monsters fight
ng each other to the death. Even With
nothing to impede his flight his chances
of reaching land would he remote. He
knew that. lie had seen three different
men of his gang try to make the Amer
lean side at such 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 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 a 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. clnging 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 blue
black slab whose adhering gravel GU
; like the teeth of Il saw.
Let me help myself, Al. You're Kill
ing yourself" And, scraTihling to he
!. feet, she started away. but soon slippe,
> and fell with dull thud, lying still by
q strip or SWlrllnS water mo NHICn al'
had nearly plunged.
Al snatched her up and leaped acroS
the widening channel, looking at TIT
falls and then at the shore, still ;
quarter of mile away. Could h'
make it? Reason and his battered bod,
said no, but the white, still face Il
his shoulder with the ugly cut ucros
the forehead cried out above reason
and he reeled on.
He was upon hands and knees now
dragging her painfully from cake L
fitting cake. The one across which h
was squrming -collided with another
pinning fast the handcuff dangling Il
his wrist He wrenched at the iron III
til it cut into his flesh, but could no
free himself. He started to his knee
and circcd round and round i'll Sudde
panic. still clinging to the unconSciou
woman. Then the mass on which the
floated struck something with fore
that threw him over his fetter AM
nearly wrenched the piniOned arm
from its socket. A glance about hin
revealed the truth They were stranC
ed upon a submerged ledge. ana til
Ice was rapidly piling up about them.
A cake of ice as large as Il half ban
rel crashed down within Il yard of hi
hnnl MI h1 trrrnnl n IA