The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-03-09
The Elopers'
Curious P'ursuer
By JOHN Y. LARNED

| ASulAS Jill, IAdL "ASA you So]
married you run away with the gal"
$50 did"
big chaser" @..
"You beA'
"Gals old man after you?"
mo"
"Brother?"
mo"
"Mother?"
mo"
Another feller?"
mo"
1T wasn't a bar, was it."
mo; it wasn't any kind of a man 0,
beast-nothin' livin'."
what was it, then, if 1t wasn'H
alive? Couldn't nothin' dead git afte
you. Did it ketch you?"
1T come pretty nigh ketchin' u.s."
1.-Two legs or fourY'
mo legs at all; it rolled"
"You must "a been runnin' down.
hill"
mo; we was runnin' on pretty nigh
a dead level"
"Was you on foot or a-hossback?
Neither; in an automobile"
II don't know nothin' that would roll
after you except a seal.'
II tole you it wasn't alive"
"Well, what was it?''
"Gimme q segar and I'll tell you"
The curious man produced the cigar.
Jim lighted up and told his story.
That was the way he got his tobacco;
| he excited some mans curiosity, then
| gratified it for small consideration in
the shape Of a weed.
MANDY and I done our courtin' out
in the Rocky mountains. Mandy was
! fond of ridin' hossback till she heard
| Of what they called in them days boss
less carriages, and as soon as they
come to be common in the east she got
| her father to send for one for her.
1t didn't take her long to larn to run
| it, though she got spilled several times,
and the machine had to be sent down
to Denver for repairs oncet week.
"Well, when l come courtin' Mandy
her dad had jist struck vein turnin'
out 5000 to the ton Of" ore, and it
wasn't to be expected that he would
look at galoot that hadn't 200 cents
to ton of gall. Mandy didn't see it
in that light She argyed that her dad
would be rich and she could afford a
poor husband. The ole man jist tole
her that the next time l come round
I'd git the contents Of his gun.
"There didn't seem to be nothin' to
| ID HIT for op1 Mandy 70 1iVht O,,t
and we did. The ole man was away
at the time, and we didn't have nothin'
to do but put our buds in the auto, git
in ourselves and chug-chug away. 1t
was hot day, with clouds lookin' like
a mans coat that had passed through
q mowin' machine. We was goin'
down to a settlement in the foothills
to git married, and, since it looked
like rain, instead of takin' the longest
road we TUX the shortest, that run
| through Devils canyon.
1--WE was joggin' along in the can
| yon, takin' our time and thinIin' what
tame runaway match we was havin',
when we hearn behind us what sound
ed like low thunder. Mandy lowed it
was thunder, but somehow l didn't
think it was. In a few minutes we'd
made up our minds that it was tor
rent comm down the canyon. Thered
been a Gloudburst up in the mountains,
and the flood was on the way in our
direction.
"Mebbe we wasn't skeered! There
was no outlet from the canyon till
there was break in it's perpendicular
side miles below where We was. The
canyon wasn't an average of moren
twict as wide as the road, and when
a good, healthy cloudburst come down
the flood was from ten to forty feet
high, accordin' to the width Of the
walls holdin' it in, and it come like an
express train.
"Mebbe Mandy didn't put on all the
power, and mebbe we didn't shoot
along that canyon like cannon ball!
But we couldn't git on as fast as the
food, and we knew that if we didn't
reach the break below before the wa
ter reached US we was goners. The
trouble was we couldn't keep up fast
time, the road was so crooked. 1t
|
water was in sight. l looked back
just In time to see it strike one side Of
the cliff where there was a turn in
the canyon. 1t was like the head Of a
tremendous sea serpent, fingin' out
logs and stones, sometimes a whole
tree, agin the rock, as much as to say:
Git out Of the way! Don't you see
I'm tryin' to git them lovers aheadY
1T was the worst sight l ever see
wouldn't let Mandy turn to look at
it, for she had the wheel, and if she
saw it she'd likely collapse. Every
time there was turn we had to slow
up. But the flood had to slow up, too,
and in that way we gained ON it, we
turnin' faster than it. About mile
above the break we was runnin', for
the canyon was purity straight and We
knowed it was nip and tuck with us.
"Down this mile we cavorted, the
head Of the flood h0llerin' at US and