The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-11-24


earzaeu ! nor ssour nempen
with ne aidSof Q rusty shovel he
had hacked this into two equa1 lsngthsl!
one of these myths he proceeded to
make fast around his own waist then
around Roses. The ether he lett 70
beS similarly employed by Nan and
Judith. For II was agreed that they
must climb, and while the cli6s offered
no problem to daunt a mountain climb
er Of any pretensions, it was considt
cred best that the fugitives should be
hitched up IN pairs against any pos.
slbility of slip. The pairing had
been determined by the fact that
Barcus boosted some slight experience
In mountaineering, while Rose was
plainly the most exhausted OF the two
women, the least able to help herself
in an emergency.
He had worked his cautious way.
with the girl in tow. to a point mid
way up the face Of the clif, following
long diagonal that provided the cas-
lest climbing, when Alan stole back
10 Judith and reported that, on the
evidence OF observation and belief, he
was convinced that the pursuit had
turned back-perhaps for want OF am
munttion, perhaps to execute some
less hazardous attempt upon the lives
OF the fugitives.
Without delay, then, he made the
free end of the rope fast around his
own waist. and, following the way Bar
Gus had chosen, began the ascent
Twothirds of the climb had been
ACCOMPLISHED, and Rose and Barcus
had arrived In safety at the top be-
fore the temptation to look down
proved irresistible.
Immediately beneath his heels the
face of the cliff was deeply followed
out, leaving drop of so feet to
shelving ledge of shale as steep as
roof. whose eayes-perhaps another
fifty feet below-jutted out over an
other fall of hundred feet.
Alan shuddered and swallowed hard
before resuming the ascent.
Another 90 feet brought him to
q ledge quite six feet wide, offering
broad and easy path 20 sac summit
He gained this with prayer OF heart
felt relief and was on the point OF
rising to his feet when a cry OF horror
from Barcus and scream OF terror
from Rose, watching over the upper
edge. warned him barely in time to
enable him to snatch ut and grasp q
knob of rock before Judlth's weight
tautened the rope between them and
terked Alan's legs from under him.
His feet and legs kicked the empty
mir beyond the lip of the ledge, he
lay face downward, clutching desper-
ately the knob of rock, praying that It
might not come away in his grasp,
that his grasp might hold, that Barcus
might arrive in time to save them
both. The rope was cutting into his
waist like dull knife. The drag OF
Judith's body was frightful. He could
feel her swinging like a pendulum at
tho end of its 80 feet, and could
imagine but too wildly what would
happen If the rope should prove
faulty.
The fall Of 20 feet to the shale
roof was nothing. What would fol-
low would, however, spell death. The
IMPACT OF her body would set the
shale in motion, like an avalanche
and beyond the caves was only empti-
ness and the bowlder-strewn bed OF
the chasm, hundred feet below
The sweat poured from his face like
rain. His eyes started in. their sock.
cts, the blood drummed in his ears
with a roar resembling distant thun.
dor. His fingers grew numb, his throat
dry.
He felt that no could not hold on
another instant when, abruptly, that
torture was no more. The rope had
been relieved Of its burden. He heard
n scream from below echoed by one
from above, then the thump of Judith's
body falling on the shale, then the
sIithering rumble of the landslide
gathering momentum.
>Barcus, at length arrived, assisted
him to a place of security. Spent
and faint and sick with horror, he lay
prone and shuddering.
Only the assurance of Barcus that
Judith had somehow escaped being
precipftated over the caves OF the
shale roof reused him and gave him
nerve enough to resume the climb
It was true, when he found courage
to look and see for himself; she lay
within three yards OF the brink SUI
pine, her face uplltted to the sun, I'M
stirring; she dared not stir; single