The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-22

bruises 10 arm and leg, he managed
to cross the jagged crevice which
partly separated the jutting rock
pier from the main face of the cliff.
Then, laboriously and doggedly, he
dragged himself up the splintered
slope, still being forced around to
the right, till there fell away be
low him a gulf int (Which it was
not good for the nervous to look.
Feeling that fate very different
from that of Lots wife might be
his if he should let himself look
back too indiscreetly. he kept his
eyes upon the lofty goal and pressed
on upwards with a haste that now
grew a trifle feverish 1t began to
seem to him that the irony of the
eagles changeless stare might per
haps not be unjustified.
Not till Horner had conquered the
steep and, painting hut elated gained
the yer yfoot of the pine, did the
eagle stir. Then, spreading his wings
with a slow disdain, as if not dread
but aversion to this unbidden visitor
bade him go, he launched himself
on long, splendid sweep over the
gulf. and then mounted on a spa
cious spiral to his inaccessible out
look in the blue. Leaning against
the bleached and SCARED trunk of
the pine, Horner watched this ma
jestic departure for some minutes,
deep the cool and vibrant air. Then
he turned. and scanned the face of
the mountain.
There it lay, in full view the nest
which he had climbed so far to find.
1t was not more than a hundred
yards away. Yet, at first sight, it
seemd hopelessly out of reach. The
chasm separating the ledge on which
it clung from the outlying rock of
the pine was not more than twenty
feet across; but its bottom was ap-
parently somewhere in the roots OF
the mountain. There was no way of
passing it at this point. But Hor-
ner had faith that there was a way
to be found over or around every
obstacle in the world, If only one
kept on looking for it resolutely
enough. TO keep on looking for a
path to the eagles nest, he struggled
onward, around the outer slope of
the buttress, down a ragged incline,
and across narrow and dizzy sad
dle-back,' which brought him present
ly upon another angle of the steep,
facing southeast. Clinging with his
toes and one hand, while he wiped
his dripping forehead with his sleeve,
he loked up and saw the whole
height Of the mountain, unbroken
and dauntirg, stretched skyward
above him.
But to Horner the solemn sigh was
not daunting in the least.
"Gee,' he exclaimed, grinning with
satisfaction. Il hev' circumvented
that there crevice, sure's shootinl
Of the world below he now had a
view that was almost overpowering-
ly unrestricted; but OF the mountain,
and his scene of operations, he could
see only the stretch directly above
him. A little calculation convinced
him, however, that all he had to do
was to keep straight on up for per
haps hundred ana fifty feet, then,
work around to his left, and descend
upon the nest from above. Incidental
ly, he made up his mind that his re-
turn journey should be made by an
other face of the mountain-any 9TH
er, rather than that by which he had
rashly elected to come.
II seemed to Horner like a mile,
that last hundred and fifty yards,
but at last he calculated that he had
gained enough in height. At the same
time he felt the slope growing easier.
Making his way toward the left, he
came upon a napr-w ledge, along
which he could move easily side
wise, by clinging to the rock. Pres
emily it widened to path by which
he could walk almost at ease, with
the wide, wide solitude, dark-green
laced with silver water-courses,
spread like a stupendous amphithe-
ater far below him. 1t was the will
derness which he knew so well in
detail, yet had never before seen as
whole; and the sight, for few
moments, held him in a kind of awed
surprise. When he tore his gaze
free from the majestic spectacle
there some ten or twelve yards be-
low his feet, he saw the object of
his quest.