The Carlisle independent., 1908-12-17

climbed until he came out upon the | gleaming side of the mountain; l thence he made his way slowly west l ward, passing around upheaving l masses of dark stone, across slopes i that were smooth as white satin, and. ] still further up the mountain side, | found little hollows, evidently lined with brush but now filled with snow,
 simply big, gllstening dimples in the
 mountains fat face; but he saw no
 deer.
 Finally. being weary of laboring
 through what was very much like an
 infinite bed of glittering down. he | reached a point on the steep slope
 apparently a quarter of a mile or so | directly north of the cabin. As he
 stood there debating if he should
 return to the draw or attempt to
 find a more direct route to the floor | of the gulch, he suddenly felt himself
 moving His first thought was that sn earthquake was swaying the 1 mountain or that he himself had been
 seized with vertigo. Then with wild | thrill he perceived that a strip of
 snow 200 feet wide and perhaps 500
 feet in length was moving down the mountain side!
 Donald's gray eyes dilated with sud 1 den fear and horror. He was thrown | headlong in the snow, hearing as he
 fell the crunch of stones that were l S1ft nd 10 l crash and rending of stumps and roots as they parted from their sock l cts in the earth. With every pulse | leaping in alarm he got to his feet, topping and reeling and shouting for aid as he glanced about him. The next instant he was again thrown headlong He was upon the back of a steed beside which the fabled Horse of Death was as an insect. Something
 went through his brain like sheet 1 of flame, in it a picture of Sumpter
 sitting by the open fire of pine logs
 down in the cabin. book in his hand.
 undreaming of this ruthless monster
 rushing down to crush him.
 The next moment Donald was again
 upon his feet, pitching and elutching
 at the air and shouting. In that mo- ment he saw a very amazing thing, l though everything was both amazing 1 and not amazing as in some sort of in- i describable dream. A hundred feet | to the rear of him, almost at the up- | per tip of the avalanche, he saw
 bear rolling and tossing on the hurl- l ;r1 of q f.
 ing bed among the rocks or decaying
 tree-roots. the animal was pitching 1 about. now upon it's feet then upon it's
 back, helpless as fly upon an ocean surge. Donald never knew why, but
 he shouted at the bear, and he never could recall afterwards exactly what | it was he shouted. He says now that he thinks he commanded the bear
 not to roll down upon him, which was
 certainly absurd.
 In his mind were many glancing 1 thoughts In such moments the men,
 tality of man sometimes seems as q
 diamond with many facets. He thought of the Christmas tree to be ! lighted in the parlor at home in Den
 yer. of how tired he was of corned- l beef, of where they would bury him
 when they took him crushed and dead | from the snow at the bottom of the | gulch, whether or not his school fel-
 lows if they now saw him would
 shout Slide, Donald. slide!" as they used to when he was running the
 bases when playing ball, and many
 other things, all, seemingly, in 6 single moment.
 | It must have been a very short
 period in which he was leaping and | tumbling and whirling about on the mighty toboggan, for the avalanche
 ran down the mountain side like a
 swiftly hurrying snake, save that it's
 undulations were up and down instead
 of sidewise as with serpent. It
 seemed to Donald he had scarcely | drawn six breaths before the snow slide shot from the precipice above the cabin Swift as was his flight he was conscious that the slide had leaped
 from the canyon wall, for throughout
 a few seconds there was no noise and
 he seemed being borne upon bed of feat ~- through space, then there was
 4o-r as of mufled thunder and he
 was wallowing deep in snow.
 The mental picture that had flashed
 through Donald's mind of his young
 uncle sitting by the fire engrossed in
 a printed romance. had been true to
 the fact. Sumpter had awakened to
 the coming of the avalanche only
 when it neared the brink of the wall, 1 70 feet above the cabin. His book 1 dropped from his hand and he made 3
 leap for the door. The next moment a
 bear crashed through the roof and
 smote the floor in front of the fire,
 leaving the luckless animal lifeless
 Sumpter's face blanched as he stared
 at the strange object, then he thought l of Donald and hurriediy pushed his
 way out of the door. The snow about
 the cabin was up to his neck and the roof was piled deep with it, but the 1 bulk of the slide had leaped clear over l fha little hduca hoauino fba bottom