The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1917-04-25

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head with gulp, rinsed his mouth
and pulled backward. The lines
slipped from De Spain's hand Alarmed
the weakened man scrambled after
them The horse, startled, SHE'D, and
before his rider could get to his feet
scampered of In a trot While De
Spain listened in CONSERVATION, the es-
capped horse. falling into an easy stride,
galloped away into the night.
Stunned by this new misfortune, and
listening gloomlly to the retreatlng
hoof-beats, De Spain pondered the stu
alton In which the disaster left him.
1t was the worst possible blow that
could have fallen, but fallen 1t had.
and he turned with such philosophy as
he could to complete the drink of water
that had probably cost him his life.
When he had slaked seemingly I'M
quenchable craving. he dashed the run
ming water, first with one hand and
then the other. over his face. He tried
feebly to wash away some of the alkalI
that had crusted over the wound In the
front of his head and was singing and
burning In 1t. There was now moth
ing to do but to secrete himself until
daylight and wait till help should reach
hint was manifestly impossible for
him to seek 1t.
Meanwhile, the little stream beside
him offered first aid. He tried It with
his foot and found 1t slight and shall
low. albeit with rocky bed that made
wading in his condition difficult. But
hA oil he
attempt this, and, keeping near to one
side Of the current, he began to follow
1t slowly upstream. The ascent was
at times precipitous, which pleased
him, though 1t depleted his new
strength. 1t was easy in this way to
hide his trail, and the higher and fast
er the stream took him Into the noun
tains the safer he would be from any
Calabasas pursuers. When he had re-
gained a little strength and oriented
himself he could quickly get down into
the hills.
Animated by these thoughts, he held
his way upstream, hoping at every
step to reach the gorge from which
the flow issued. He would have known
but, weakening soon, he found he must
abandon hope Of getting up to it. How
ever, by resting and scrambllng up
the rocks, he kept on longer than he
would have believed possible. Encoun-
tering at length. as he struggled up
ward, a ledge and a clump Of bushes.
he crawled weakly ON hands and knees
into it too spent to struggle farther,
stretched himself on the fiattened
brumbles and sank into u heavy sleep.
He woke In broad daylight Con
sciousness returned slowly and he
raised himself with pain from his
rough couch. bis wounds were sim,
and he lay for long time on his back
looking up at the sky. At length he
dragged himself to an open space near
where he had slept and looked about.
He appeared to be near the foot of a
mountain quite strange to him. and In
rather an exposed place. He clambered
a hundred feet above where he had
slept before he found a hiding place
1t was at the foot of a tiny waterfall
where the brook, striking II ledge of
granite. had patiently followed out
shallow pool. Beside this a great mass
of frost-bitten rock had fallen, and one
Of the powders lay tilted In such
way as to roof In a sort OF cave, the
entrance to which was not higher than
n mans knee. De Spain crawled into
this refuge.
The violent exertion of reaching the
height had started the ruptured artery
anew. and his first work was crudely
to cleanse the wound and attempt to
rebandnge 1t. He was hungry. but for
this there was only one alienation
sleep-and, carefully effacing all traces
OF his presence on the ledge. he
crawled into his rock retreat and fell
again into a heavy slumber.
1t was this repose that proved his
undoing. He woke to consciousness sc
weak he could scarcely lift his head. II
was still day. A consuming thirst as
sailed him. but he lacked the strength
to crawl out of his cave, and, looking
toward his bandnged foot, he was
shocked at the sight Of how 1t had bled
while he slept
Toward afternoon his restlessness in.
creased, but he chung to his resolve to
lie still. By evening he was burning
with thirst, and when morning came
after a feverish night with his head
on fire and his mouth crusted dry, he