Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1912-08-08


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 a beating heart and eager
eyes he searched the spot There lay
the bear and a little distance away
prone On the grass, clothed but wheth-
er in her right mind or not he could
not tell, lay the woman, For a moment
as he bent a concentrated. eager gaze
upon her he thought she might have
tainted or that she might have died.
In any event he reflected that she mao
strength and nerve and will to nave
dressed herself before either OF these
things happened. She lay motionless
under his gaze for 80 long that ne
finally made up his mind that com
mon humanity required him to go to
her assistance.
He O to his feet on the instant
and saw the woman also lift herself
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 1t
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,
vet he could not bring himself to 1t.
A strange timidity oppressed him;
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 n a
whatever his message he would be
unwelcome on account OF what haa
gone before; he could not force him
self to go to her or even to call to
her, not yet. He would keep her IN
der surveillance, however, and II the
worst came he could intervene In time
to rescue her. He counted without
his cost, his usual judgment Devil
dered. So he followed her through
the trees and down the bank.
Now he was so engrossed In hel
and SO agttated that his caution slept
his experience was forgotten. Tn
storm In his own breast was SO grea'
that 1t overshadowed the storm brew
ing above. Her way vas easier thai
his and he had fallen some distance
behind when suddenly there rushed
upon him the fact that a ~frightful ant
unlocked for ~cloudburst was about t.
occur above their heads. A llghtnini
fash and a thunder clap at last al
rested his attention. Then, but no
until then, he flung everything to tn
winds and amid the sullen and almos
continuous peals of thunder he sen
CRY after cry toward her which wer
lost in the tremendous diapason c
sound that echoed and re-echoe
through the riffs Of the mountains,
wait" he cried again and agaii
Come up higher. Get out OF tn
canon You'll be drowned"
But he had waited too long. Tt
storm had developed too rapidly; 81
was too far ahead Of and beneath hir
She heard nothing but the sound of
voice. shrill, menacing, fraught vii
terror for her, not a word %distinguis
able: scarcely to her disturbed so
even a human voice, 1t seemed III
the wierd cry Of some wild spirit
. the storm. 1t sounded to her ove
~ wrought nerves so utterly inhum'
= that she only ran the faster.
The canon swerved and then dc
= bled back, but he knew its directic
), Losing sight of her for the moment
=. plunged straight ahead through t
trees. cutting off the bend, leapf
%. with superhuman agility and strene
! over rocks and logs until he reach
!. a point where the rift narrowed
tween two walls and ran deeply. The
= and then the heavens opened and |
floods came and beat into the or
~ NAV of that vast creyice and filed
IN in an instant.
As the deluge came roaring do,
- bearing onward the sweepings q
ne scourings of the mountains, he caut
id a glimpse Of her white desperate I;
rising, falling, now disappearing, n
,ro coming into view again, in the foa
midst of the torrent. He a to
III cliff bank and throwing aside his Z
he scrambled down the wall to a {
tain shelf of the rock over which
40 rising water broke thinly. Ordinal
~ II was twenty feet above the or
bed. Bracing himself against a jag
or projection he waited praying. /.
nm canon was here so narrow that
could have leaped to the other
and yet 1t was too narrow for him
at reach her II the water did not sw
IA her toward his feet. It was all dom
a second. Fortunately a projection
~ tha other side threw the force Of