Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1914-11-07

E4zzxs S;43e y, E...l
PrecipItatlng Both Into That Savage
Welter.
morning. tell you l know saw
her only few hours ago. She passed
US In a canoe with one of her guides
while we watched in hiding on the
banks. Not that alone, but another OF
her guides told mine she was here
with you. She had sent him to South
Portage for quinine. He stopped
there to get drunk-and that's how
my guide managed to worm the infor
nation from him"
Alan passed hand across his eyes
Il don't understand" he said DULY
1T doesn't seem possible she
could"
A shot interrupted him, the report
Of rife from a considerable distance
upstream, echoed and re-echoed by the
cliffs. And at this, clutching fran.
tically at his arm. the girl drew him
through the door and down toward the
river.
"Oh, come. comet" she cried wild.
ly. There's no timel"
But, why? What was that?"
judith is returning. l left my
guide up the trail to signal us. Don't
you know what 1t means IL we don't
manage to escape before she gets
here?"
But how?"
According to the guide the rivers
the only way other than the trail"
THE current is too strong. They
could follow-pot US at leisure from
the banks"
But downstream-the current with
US"
Those rapids?"
I'VE must shoot them!"
Can 1t be done"
1T must bel"
Two more shots put a period to
his doubts and drove it home. He
offered no further objection, but
turned at once to launch one of the
canoes.
AS soon as 1t was In the water, Rose
took her place In the bow, paddle in
hand, and Alan was about to step In
astern when a fourth shot sounded
and a bullet kicked up turf within a
dozen feet A glance discovered two
figures debouching into the clearing.
He dropped into place and, planting
paddle in shadows, sent the canoe
well out with a vigorous thrust.
Two strokes took 1t to the middle
of the pool where Immediately the
current caught the little craft In its
urgent grasp and sped it smoothly
through more narrow and higher
banks. A moment more and the
mouth of the gorge was yawning for
them.
With the clean balance of an ex-
perienced canoeman, Alan rose to his
feet for an instantaneous reconnois-
sance both forward and astern. He
looked back first. and groaned In his
heart to see the sharp prov of the
second canoe glide out from the
banks. He looked ahead and groaned
aloud. The rapids were a wilderness
of shouting waters, white and green,
worse than anything he had antici-
pated or ever dreamed Of
But there was now no escaping that
ordeal. The canoe was already spin
ming between walls where the water
ran deep and fast with a CLASSY sur
face.
The next instant 1t was in the Jaws;
and the man settled down to work
with grim determination. pitting cour-
age and strength and experience
against the ravening waters that tore
at the canoe on every hand. whose
mad clamor beat back and forth be-
tween the walls of the gorge like vast
bellowings of Internal mirth.
He fought like one possessed
There was never an instants grace
for judgment or execution; the one
must be synchronous with the other,
both instantaneous, or else-destruc-
ton.
The canoe wove this way and that
like an insane shuttle threading some
satanic loom. Now it hesitated. nuz-
cling a gigantic boulder over which
the water wove a pale green and
glistening hood, now In the space of
a heartbeat 1t shot forward twice its
length through sea of Dreaming
waves, now plunged wildly toward
what promised instant humiliation
and cheated that only by the timely
plunge Of paddle. guided by luck or
instinct or both.
The one ray Of hope In Alan's mind.
when he surveyed before committing
himself and the woman he loved 70