The Jasper news., 1917-03-08

down and II was growing dark. Re
was aware nt intervals that no wa
stea,lying himself like drunken man.
His efforts to guide the horse only be.
wtldered the beast, and the two tras-
eled on maudIin curves and doubled
bnck ON their track until De Spain de-
clded that his sole change Of reaching
any known trail wns to let go and give
the horse his head. A period Of uncon-
sciousness, q blank In De Spain's mind,
soon followed. How long he rode In
this way, or how far, he never knew.
He was reused to consciousness by the
unaecustomed sound OF running winter
underneath his horses feet.
IN was pitch dark everywhere. The z
horse nfter the hard experience Of the
evening was drinking a welcome druft.
De Spain had no conception of where
he could be, but the stream told him he
had somehow reached the range,
though Music mountain itself had been
swallowed no In the night. A sudden
and uncomfortable thirst seized the
wounded man. He could hear the wa
ter falling over the stones and climbed
slowly and painfully out of the saddle
to the ground. With the lines In his
left hand he crawled toward the water
and, lying fiat on the ground beside the
horse, put his head down to drink. The
horse, meantime, satisfied, lifted his
head with Il gnlp, rinsed his mouth.
and pulled backward. The lines
slipped from De Spain's hand. Alarmed,
the weakened man scrambled after
| them. The horse, startled. shled, and
before, his rider could get to his feet
scampered off in trot. While De
Spain listened in CONSERVATION, the es-
capped horse, falling into an easy stride.
galloped uway into the night.
Stunned by this new misfortune, and
listening gioomily to the retreating
hoof-beats, De Spain pondered the situ-
alton in which the disaster left him.
1t was the worst possible blow. that
could have fallen, but fallen II had.
and he turned with such philosophy as
he could to complete the drink OF wnter
that had probably cost him his life.
When he had slaked n seemingly un-
quenchable craving. he dashed the run
ming water, first with one hand md
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 stinging 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 It.
Meanwhile, the little stream beside
him offered first aid. He tried II with
his foot aud found 1t slight and shall
low, albeit with rocky bed that made
wndlng in his condition difficult But
he felt SO much better he was nble, to
attempt this, and, keeping near to one
side of the current, he began to follow
It 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 trnil, and the higher and fast
er the stream took him Into the noun.
talns the safer he would be from any
!, Calabasas pursuers. When he had re-
gained little strength and orIenied
, himself, he could quickly get down into
! the hills.
Animated by these thoughts. he held
his way upstream, hoping ut every
step to reach the gorge from which
the flow issued. He would have known
this by the sound of the faillng water.
but. weakening soon, he found he must
abandon hope of getting up to 1t. How
ever, by resting and scrambling up
v l,n 10 has ha
, would have believed possible. Encoun-
tering at length, as he struggled up
ward, Il ledge and clump of bushes.
he crawled weakly on hands and knees
: into 1t, too spent to struggle farther.
J stretched himself on the flattened
brambles md snnk Into heavy sleep.
!, He woke In broad daylight. Con.
sciousness returned slowly and he
!, raised himself with pain from his
= = rough couch. His wounds were sufr,
and he lay for long time on his bnck
{ looking up at the sky. At length he
dragged himself to nm open space near
: where he had slept and looked about
He appeared to be near the foot OF q
mountain quite strange to him. and In
rather an exposed place. He clnmbere,
9 hundred feet above where he hnt
7 slept before he found hiding place
: 1t was at the foot oe tiny waterfall
= where the brook, stirling n ledge Of
= granite, had patiently followed out i
= shallow pool. Beside this.a great mass
= of frost-bitten rock had fallen, and on,
2 of the powders lay tilted In such Z
y way as to roof In a sort of cave. tn,