The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-07-13

to him. He was prepared to With
draw instantly should circumstances
warrant. and he was careful SO to con-
ceal himself as to give no possible OPP
portunity for her to discover his
scrutiny.
With beating heart and eager
eyes he searched the spot. There lay
the bear and little distance away
prone on the grass, clothed but Wheth-
er in her right u1ind or not he could
not tell, lay the woman. For moment
as he bent a concentrated, eager gaze
upon her he thought she might nave
tainted or that she might have died.
In any event he reflected that she had
strength and nerve and will to nave
dressed herself before either OF these
things happened. She lay motionless
under his gaze for so long that ne
finally made up his mind that COM
mon humanity required him to go 60
her assistance.
He rose to his feet on the instant
and saw the woman also lift hersel1
from the grass as if moved by a SINH
lar impulse In his intense preoccu-
patton he had forgot to observe the
signs of the times. A sense OF the
overcast sky came to him suddenly as
it did to her, but with a difference.
He knew what was about to happen
his experience told him much more
as to the awful potentialities OF the
tempest than she could possibly mag
inc. She must be warned at once,
she must leave the canon and get up
on the higher ground without delay.
His duty was plain and yet he did It
not. He could not. The pressure
upon him was not yet strong enough.
A half dozen times as he watched
her deliberately sitting there eating,
he opened his mouth to cry to her,
yet he could not bring himself to IT.
e strange timidity oppressed MIN
halted him, held him back. A man
cannot stay away five years from men
and women and be himself with them
in the twinkling of an eye. And when
to that instructive and acquired reluc
lance against which he struggled IN
vain, he added the assurance that
whatever his message he would be
unWelcome on account OF what mad
gone before; he could not force him
self to go to her or even to call TO
her, not yet. He would keep her un-
der surveillance, however, and II the
worst came he could intervene in time
to rescue her He counted without
his cost, his usual judgment beWil-
dered. So he followed her through
sshe trees and down the bank.
Now he was SO engrossed in her
and SO agitated that his caution slept,
| his experience was forgotten. The
| storm in his own breast was so great
that 1t overshadoWed the storm brew
| ing above. Her way was easier than
his and he had fallen some distance
behind when suddenly there rushed
upon him the fact that a frightful and
| unlocked for eloudburst was about te
occur above their heads. A lightning
| flash and a thunder clap at last ar
rested his attention. Then, but moi
until then, he flung everything to the
winds and amid the sullen and almos'
continuous peals Of thunder he sem
cry after cry toward her which were
lost in the tremendous diapason O
sound that echoed and re-echoet
through the riffs of the mountains.
wait" he cried again and again
"Come up higher. Get out Of thu
canon. You'll be drowned"
But he had waited too long TIL
storm had developed too rapidly; sh
was too far ahead of and beneath him
She heard nothing but the sound of
voice, shrill, menacing, fraught wit
terror for her, not a word distinguish
able; scarcely to her disturbed sou
even human voice, it seemed Xix
the wierd cry of some wild spirit c
the storm. It sounded to her owe
- wrought nerves SO utterly inhuma
:, that she only ran the faster.
: The canon swerved and then dol
bled back, but he knew its direction
. Losing sight of her for the moment b
. plunged straight ahead through th
o trees, cutting off the bend, leapin
J. with superhuman agility and strengt
J. over rocks and logs until he reache
o point where the rift narrowed b
4 tween two walls and ran deeply. Thel
= and then the heavens opened and Il
=. floods came and beat into the ope
4 NAV of that vast crevice and filled
n in an instant.
10 AS the deluge came roaring dow
) bearing onward the sweepings ar
is scourings of the mountains, he caug
d a glimpse of her white desperate ia,
rising, falling, now disappearing, no
e coming into view again, in the foam
IN midst of the torrent. He ran to Il
1t cliff bank and throwing aside his g.
" he scrambled down the wall to a CT
If tain shelf of the rock over which t
Sc rising water broke thinly. Ordinari
to it was twenty feet above the Gre
at bed. Bracing himself against a jagg
Or projection he waited praying. T
- capcp vac horn ca narrow that