The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-12-24

glare. /
With a gesture of horror, Alan Law
fed the place.
While the sounds Of his flight were
still loud. a grinnins half-breed guide
stole like a shadow to the log, laughed
derisively after the fugitive, picked up
and ~pocketed the card. and set out
In tireless, ~cat-footed pursuit.
An hour later, topping a ridge Of
rising ground, Alan caught from the
hollow on Its farther side the music Of
clashing waters. Tortured by thirst,
he began at once to descend in reck-
less haste.
What was at first a gentle slope COW
cred with waist-deep brush and car
peted with leaf-mold, grew swiftly
more declivitous, a messy hillside, as
steep as a roof, bare Of u~nderbrush,
and sparely sown with small cedars
through whose ranks cool blue water
twinkled far below.
The shelving moss-beds afforded
treacherous footing; Alan was glad
now and her of the support of a CO.
dar, but these grew ever smaller, and
more widely spaced and were not al
ways convenient to his hand. He
came abruptly and at headlong pace
within sight OF the caves of q cliff
and precisely then the hillside seemed
to slip from under him. !
His heels flourished In the air, his
back thumped a bed Of pebbles thinly
overgrown with moss. The stones
gave. the moss-skin broke, he began to
slide-grasped at random a %youngish
cedar which stayed him i~mperceptibly,
coming away with all its puny roots,
caught at another, no more substan-
tial-and amid a shower Of loose stone
shot out over the edge and down q
drop of more than thirty feet.
He was instantaneously aware OF
the sun, a molten ball wheeling mad.
ly in the cup Of the turquoise sky.
Then dark waters closed Over him.
He came up struggling and gasping,
and struck out for something dark
that rode the waters lear at hand
something vaguely resembling a
canoe.
But his strength was largely spent,
his breath had been driven out of him
by the force of the fall, and he had
swallowed much water-while the field
OF his consciousness was stricken with
confusion.
Within a stroke of an outstretched
down again.
Instantly one occupant OF the
canoe, a young and very beautiful wo-
man in a mans hunting clothes, spoke
a sharp word Of command and, as
her guide steadied the vessel with his
paddle, rose in her place 80 surely
hat she scarcely disturbed the nice
balance of the little craft. and curved
her 1.-THE body over the bow, head
foremost into the pool.
Mr.. Law had, in point Of fact, en-
dured more than he knew; more than
even a w~eathered woodsman could
have borne without suffering. Forty
eight hours Of such heavy woods
walking as he had put in to escape
the forest fire, would have served to
PROSTATE almost any man; add to this
ignoring a dozen other mental, nerv-
GUS and physical s~trains) merely the
fact that he had been half-drowned.
He experienced a little fever, a little
delirium, then blank slumbers OF ex-
haustion.
He awoke in dark of night, wholly
that thirty-six hours had
passed since his fall. This last, how
ever, and events that had gone before.
he recalled with tolerable c~learness-
allowing for the sluggishness OF a
drowsy mind. Other memories, more
vague, Of gentle ministering hands, Of
q face by turns an angels, a flowers,
a fiend's, and & dear woman's, trou-
bled him even less materially. He
was already sane enough to allow he
had probably been a bit out Of his
head, and since 1t seemed he had been
saved and cared for, he found no rea-
son to quarrel with present circum-
stances.
Still, he would have been grateful
for some explanation Of certain phe-
nomena which still haunted him-euch
as a faint, elusive scent of roses with
q vague but importunate ems of a
woman's presence in that darkened
room-things manifestly absurd . -.
With some difficulty, from a dry
throat, he spoke, or rather whis-
pered: "Water!"
In response he heard someone nov
over a creaking floor. A sulphur
match spluttered UNANIMOUSLY. A can
die caught fire, Observation-Disclosures
Of course!-the figure Of a m in
hunting shirt and skirt. Water
splashed noisily. Alan became aware
of someone who stood at his side, one
hand offering a glass to his lips, the
other gently raising his head that he
might drink with ease.
Draining the glass, he breathed his
thanks and sank back, retaining his
grasp on the wrist of that unreal
hand. 1t suffered him without re.
II sietancp The INFLAMMATION evan