Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-01-24

4 down and down and down. After
while it got dark. No moon, no stars
Nothing but clouds and gray noun
tain above, and dark trees below,
and black gorges, and roarfn' floods,
and the rocky footpath crawlin' down
among 'em.
AT last found myself on a smooth,
solid highway. 1t was glorious coast.
in'-the road doublin' up sharp on
the edge of the cliffs and wrigglin'
away in the blackness. just a faint,
gray line. But hair-raisin'i No fen.
ces-rock wall on one side, and jump
in'-off places on the other. After ]
caught myself two or three times
on the edge of a precipice, / got off
and walked again. My eyes had be-
gun to see roads in the air.
Then the rain came on-a deluge.
/ crawled into a hole alongside the
road and stayed there for an hour or
two. Then it stopped rainin', and
moved on, scratchin' with my heel
to feel whether l was on the road.
But at last the lights on Merlin
gen sparkled up through the pines.
could see better now, and jumped on
my bike, and slid down that old noun
tainside regardless. Then that hub
brake got red-hot-it always does go
in down mountain sides-and there
was the cause of my catastrophe.
When a hub-brake gets hot you've
got to pour water on it. / saw that
cold, white column streakin' down
from the tail OF the Rosenlaui glacier,
reachin' up out of sight and down out
of sight-straight as the rain-pipe
from the roof of house where good
sensible people live and are happy
without travelling.
Il never thought of the force of
that water Just stopped with a JERK
at the inside of the road, where an
iron grating hung over the chute, and
swung the bike over so the ice water
would hit the hub.
THE water hit it all right. Grabbed
the bike, and bent it double, and
chuckej it through the hole inside
the grating-and me with it,
1T happened so quick, you see, i
couldn't let loose. | remember bein'
snatched and crammed through a
hole, and then droppin' downtown
and sort o. wonderin' how long it
would take that ice water to reach
the boilin' point when we struck
Hades.
WE'LL didn't land in Hades.
woke up in-the top of a tree. You
needn't laugh. 1t wasn't funny, The
top of a tree way down at the foot
OF the mountain-me hangin' limp and
numb across the branches, kind O.
wonderin' what had happened, and
whether I was alive. After a while
l noticed little stars twinklin' through
the boughs up above. then a bunch of
lights off to the left-and it dawned
on me that there was place called
Meiringen.
Il rubbed some of the deafness out
O. me, and felt myself all over Then
few more clouds drifted off my
brain, and realized that cold spray
was dashin' over me, and there at
my feet was a white, roarin' basin,
where that solid water column had
chewed a hole in the granite and
was hammerin' away like it wanted
to bore clear to hell.
Il saw then what had happened to
me. I'd slid down that toboggan slide
like a wet spider, and instead o.
bein' mashed on the rocks, I'd simply
been ducked and tossed up into a
handy tree.
Then all at once a chill struck me
that wasn't the chill of the water. 1t
made me crazy, | guess, and l turned
and ran-anywhere to get away from
that horrible roar. / stumbled over
powders, and thrashed through bush
es, and scrambled and leaped and
rolled. And so at last, somehow, /
reached the town. And they dried
me, and doped me, and mended me-
and here | am"
Jones' | exclaimed, your adven-
ture is the GROWING glory of your
trip. A man might travel and look
for trouble for nine lives, and not
have such an experience. Think of
the story you've got to tell your
friends back in Zanesvillei"
He looked at me with the sorrow
deepening around his eyes, and said
brokenly:
THE browning misfortunei There's
limit to all things. It's Gods own
truth-and they won't believe it'll
The Outing MAGAZINE.