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

esq. vssssssssssSsss
torrent toward him and with it came
the woman.
She was almost spent. She had
been struck by log upheaved by
some mighty wave, her hands were
moving feebly, her eyes were closed,
she was drowning, dying, but indomit
ably battling on. He stopped down
and as a surge lifted ner, ne -hreW
his arm around her waist and then he
braced himself against the rock to
sustain the full thrust of the mighty
flood. Is he seized her she gave way
suddenly, as If after having done all
that she could there was now nothing
left but to trust herself to his hand
and Gods. She hung a dead weight
on his arm in the ravening Watsf
which dragged and tore at her nadly.
He was a man Of giant strength,
but the struggle babe fair to be too
much even for him. It seemed as II
the mountain behind him was giving
way. He set his teeth, he tried des-
perately to hold on, he thrust out his
right hand, holding her with the 9TH
er one, and claWed at the dripping
rock In vain. In a moment the tor
rent mastered him and when 1t did 50
it seized him with fury and threw him
like stone from sling into ths
seething vortex of the mid-stream.
But in all this he did not, or would
not. release her.
Such was the ,swiftness of the mo-
ton with which they were swept
downward that he had little need to
swim, his only effort was to keep his
head above water and to keep from
being dashed against the logs that
tumbled end over end or Whirled
sideways, or were damned into clus-
tiers only to burst out on every hand.
He struggled furiously to keep him
self from being overwhelmed in the
seething madness, and what was
harder, to keep the lifeless woman IN
his arms from being stricken or
| wrenched away He knew that below
| the narrows where the canon Wfdened
| the water would subsfde, the awful
fury of the rain would presently cease.
| II he could steer clear Of the rocks IN
| the broad he might win to land with
her.
| The chances against him were thous
sands to nothing. But what ara
chances in the eyes of God The man
| in his solitude had not forgotten I'd
/ pray. his habits stood him in good
stead now. He petitioned shortly.
brokenly, in brief unspoken words as
1 he battled through the long dragging
seconds
/ Fighting, clinging, struggling, pray
! ing, he was, swept On. Heavier and
heavier the woman dragged in an urr
conscious heap. It would have been
easier for him if he had let her go;
she would never know and he could
then escape The idea never once oe
| Cured to him. He had indeed with
drawn from his kind, but when one
depended upon him all the old appeal
Of weak humanity awoke quick re
spouse in the bosom of the strong
He would die with the stranger rath
er than yield her to the torrent o.
admit himself beaten and give up tbs
fight. So the conscious and the un
conscious struggled through the mar
J row of the canon.
Presently with the rush and hurl o
a bullet from the mouth of gun
they found themselves In a shallov
lake through which the waters still
, rushed nightly, breaking over rocks
digging away shallow-rooted trees
, leaping, biting, snarling, tearing at tn
, big walls spread away on either side
He had husbanded some of hi
!, strength for this final effort, this las
!, chance of escape Below them at tn
other end Of this open the walls cam
, together again. There the descen
was sharper than before and the Ws
= ter ran to the opening with raciE
:. speed. Once again in the torrent an
;, they would be swept TO death in spit
of ALL
Shifting his grasp to the woman
hair, now unbound, he held her wit
: one hand and swan hard with til
: other. The current still ran swift
= but with no gigantic upheaving wave
. as before. 1t was more easy to ayo1
= floating timber and debris. and on or
= side where the grouEd sloped som
:. what gently the quick water fowe
more slowly. He struck out despe
= ately for it, forcing himself away fro
=. - the main stream into the shallov
- and ever dragging the woman. W.
it hours or minutes or seconds aft
u, that he gained the battle and nearf
~ the shore at the lowest edge?
II (To BE CoNTINUED.s
,e --~----------