Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-08-29
gripping Its noetrtls Al threw Il back
upon its launches.

| word.
He lcaped into the sleigh and, whirl-
ing the horse about, started at a gal
lop toward the American side. You'd
better trot along home and patch up
Bob's head. 1t needs It'll" he called
over his shoulder. Then as escape be-
came almost certain he laughed his
old devil may care laugh and began
to soothe the fine black roadster that
under happier circumstances had once |
been his. Fifty zods more and be
would be ON American soil and within
q half hours drive of Ned Fetcher's.
Then Bob Peterson and the extradi-
ton treaty be 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 q furious run The fresbet
from the melting V,ow In the hills was
sweeping down the river, heoving up
the rotten Ice in a jagged RIDGE as it
came.
"Help! Helpy'
The fleeing outlaw looked back Mt
the woman and then as the commotton
drew nearer stood up in the sleigh and
drove the horse to the utmost limit Of
its speed.
al! Oh, Alw came over the ice in
ptteous appeal.
Al started and the hard lines about
his mouth softened as hey bad 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 rome adrfft above
the falls.
al! Aw
He looked hungr4ly at his promised
land" not ten rods away now, then
swung the horse about and galloped
back toward the woman. The ridge Of
heavtng, splitting zee drew nearer,
passed under him and left the horse
foundezing 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, writing,
she was crouching upon a rocking cake,
and he sped straight ON over the heav-
ing mass toward her with a ntmbleness
and sureness that had saved him a
score of times from pursuing evenue
officers.
"Quick, ALP And as he snatched her
from her perilous position she ctung to
him as though he were AL Brock Of five
years before instead Of the most dan
gerous outlaw in the province.
The ice vas 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
had gone over the falls.
AS be leaped upon it a cake sank
under him till the water reached his
knees, and she gripped him convulstve-
ly. He looked at her as be 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
ClOSCu lOSCIAS1 WALL u S11lo4uS VI uuC1l.
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 a blue
black slab whose adhering gravel cut
like the teeth of a saw.
"Let me help myself, AL. You're kill
ing yourself" And, scrambling to her
feet, she started away, but Don slipped
and fell with a dull thud, lying still by
a strip of swirling water into which she
had nearly plunged.
AL snatched her up n leaped across
the widening channel, looking at the
falls and then at the shore, still q
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 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 handcuf dangling al
his wrist. He wrenched at the iron I'm.
til it cut into his flesh, but could not
Z free himself. He started to his knees
and circlcd round and round tn sudden
panic, still clinging to the unconscious
woman. Then the mass on which they
foated struck something with q force
that threw him over his fetter and
nearly vrenched 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 q 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.
| f1v higher now OminN1S1v still nOw