The Irish standard., 1917-06-23
9 NAN 6tf' .
MUSIC NJ 0UNIAlN
E ffdnk SpedrTndN~
Author Of Whispering Smith,

4Ao M VvSAA
He bent low in his saddle under the
unending blasts. He buffeted his legs
and arms to fight off the fatal cold. He
slipped more than once from his seat,
and with a hand on the pommel
tramped beside the horse to revive his
falling circulation, there would come
time, he realized, when he could no
longer climb UP again, but he STAYED
that issue off to the last possible mo-
ment OF endurance, because the Lady
made better time when he was on her
back. When the struggle to remount
had been repeated until nature could
no longer by any staggering effort be
made to respond to his will, until his
legs were no longer a part of his be-
numbed being-until below his hips he
had no body answerable to his COM
mands, but only two insensible masses
Of lead that anchored him to the
ground-he still forced the frozen feet
to carry him, in feeble, monstrous
gait beside the Lady, while he dragged
with his hands on the saddle for her
patient aid.
One by one every thought, as if con-
gealed in their brain cells, deserted his
mind save the thought that he must
not freeze to death. More than once
he had hoped the insensate fury of the
blizzard might abate. The Lady had
long since ceased to try to face it
like stripped vessel before hurri-
cane, she was drifting under it. De
Spain realized that his helpless legs
would not carry him farther. His
hands, freezing to the pommel, no
longer supported him. They finally
slipped from it and he fell PROSTATE in
the snow beside his horse. When he
would cry out to her his frozen lips
could humble no words. It was the
fight no longer Of man against ma
ture, but only of an indomitable soul
against cruel, hateful death. He
struggled to his feet only to fall again
more heavily. He pulled himself up
this time by the stirrup strap, got his
hands and arms up to the pommel, and
chung to it for few PAGES more. But
he fell at last, and could no longer rise
from the ground. The storm swept un-
ceasingly on.
The Lady, checked by the lines
wrapped on his arm, stopped. De
Spain lay moment, then backed her
up step, pulled her head down by
the bride, clasped his wooden arms
around her neck, spoke to her, and.
lifting her head, the mare dragged him
to his feet. Clumsily and helplessly
he loosened the tugs and the whifle.
tree, beat his hands together with idi.
otto effort, hooked the middle point
Of the whifaetree into the elbow of his
left arm, brought the forearm and
hand against his shoulder, and with
the hitching strap dashed his forearm
and upper arm tightly together around
the whif1etree.
He drew the tugs stifay over the
Lady's back, Embossed the cinches of
the saddle, pushed it off the horse and,
sinking into the snow behind her,
struck with his free arm at her feet.
Relieved Of the saddle, the Lady once
more started, dragging slowly behind
her through the snow a still breathing
human being. Less than an hour be-
fore it had been man. 1t was hardly
more now, as the Lady plodded on,
than an insensate log. But not even
death could part it again from the
horse to which De Spain, alive, had
fastened it.
1o ,.f,,1 tn \
arm, torn at times almost from it's
socket, the gradual swapping of strain
Ing ligaments, the constant rupture of
capillaries and veins sustained his
consciousness for while. Then the
torturing pain abated, the rough drag
-ing shattered the bruised body less.
It was as if the Lady and the storm
together were making easier for the
slowly dying man his last trail across
the desert. He still struggled to keep
alive, by sheer will power, Pickering
sparks Of consciousness, and to do so
concentrated every thought on Nan. 1t
was poignant happiness to summon
her picture to his fainting senses; he
knew he should hold to life as long
as he could think CT her. Love,
stronger than death, welled in his
heart. The bitter cold and the merci-
less wind We're kinder as he called her
Image from out of the storm. She
seemed to spcak-to lift him on her
arms. Ahead, distant mountains rose,
white-peakcd. The sun shone. He
rode with her through green fields, and
great peace rested on his weary
senses.
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