The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-22

ed and there were no more volunteers
for that particular service.
He was still peering at the place
when a cry of unmitigated anguish
came from Iris
"Oh, come Quickl Our waterl The
casks have BURST"
1t was not until jerks had torn the
tarpaulin from off their stores, and he
was wildly striving with both hands
to scoop up some precious drops col
| lected in the small hollows of the
| ledge, that he realized the full mag
nitude of the disaster which had be-
fallen them.
During the first rapid exchange of
fire, before the enemy vacated the cliff,
several bullets had pierced the tar
pauIin. By a stroke of exceeding bad
fortune two of them had struck each
of the water barrels and started the
slaves. The contents quietly ebbed
away beneath the broad sheet, and
| flowing inwards by reason of the sharp
slope of the ledge, percolated through
the fault. Iris and he, Notwithstanding
their frenzied efforts, were not able to
save more than a pint of gritty dis
colored fluid.
| The rest, infinitely more valuable to
them than al the diamonds Of De
! Beers, was how oozing through the
natural channel cut by centuries of
storm, dripping upon the headless skel-
eton in the cave soaking down to the
very heart of their buried treasure.
! jerks was so paralyzed by this ca
tastrophe that Iris became alarmed. As
yet she did not grasp its awful signiti-
canoe. That he, her hero, so brave, so
confident in the face Of many dangers,
| should betray such sense Of irredeem-
able loss, frightened her much more
| than the incident itself.
Her lips whitened. Her words be-
come incoherent.
TELL me- she whispered. IT can
bear anything but silence. Tel me,
| implore you. Is it so bad?"
The sight of her distress sobered
/ him. He ground his teeth together as
a man does who submits to a painful
operation and resolves not to finch be-
meath the knife.
at is very bad" he said; mot quite
the end, but near it
1.-The end" she bravely answered
'is death! We are living and uuin-
jured. You must fight on. If the Lord
wills it we shall not die"
He looked in her blue eyes and saw
there the light OF heaven.
God bless you, dear girl" he muir
INJURED brokenly. you would cheer
any man through the Valley of the
Shadow, were he Christian or Faint
heart"
Her glance did not droop before his
In such moments heart speaks to heart
without concealment.
I'VE still have little water she
cried. Fortunately we are not thirs-
ty. You have not forgotten our supply
of champagne and brandy?"
There was a species of mad humor II
the suggestion. Oh for another miracle
that should change the wine into Wa.
| teri
He could only fall in with her unre.
Elective mood and leave the dreadful
| truth to it's own evil time. In theil
little nook the power OF the sun haC
not yet made itself felt. BY ordinary
computation 1t was about 9 o'clock
Long before noon they would be grill
ing. Throughout the next few hour.
they must suffer the torture of Divei
with one meager pint of water {,
share between them. OF course tn,
wine and spirit must be Stunned like
pestilence. To touch either under sucl
conditions would be counting heat. ap;
oplexy, and death And next day.
He frightened his jaws before he an
/ swered-