The Parma herald. (Parma, Idaho) 1903-1917, 1917-07-12

seeing, as 1t were, through the i'm
penetrable curtain of the storm where
refuge lay, herself slow-moving crust
of frozen snow, dragged to her jour
ney's end-to the tight-shut doors of
] the Calabasas barn-her unconscious
burden, and stood before them patient
! ly waiting until someone should open
for her. 1t was one of the heartbreaks
Of tragic day that no one ever knew
just when the Lady reached the door
or how long she and her unconscious
master waited IN the storm for admis-
sion. A startled exclamation from
John Lefever, who had periodically
and anxiously left the red-hot stove
in the Office to walk moodily to the
window, brought the men tumbling
over one another as he ran from his
companions to throw open the outer
door and pull the dropping horse into
the barn.
II was the Indian, Scott, who, read
ing first of all the men everything in
the dread story, sprang forward with
stifled exclamation, as the horse
dragged in the snow-covered log,
whipped a knife from his pocket, cut
the incumbered arm and white hand
free from the whif1etree, and, carry
ing the stiffened body into the office,
began with insane haste to cut away
the clothing.
Lefever perceiving it was De Spain
thus drawn to their feet, shouted,
while he tore from the blade of Scott's
knife the frozen garments, the orders
for the snow, the heated water the
warm blankets, the alcohol and bran
dy, and, stripped to his waist, chafed
the marble feet. The Indian, better
than a staff of doctors, used the cum
ming of sorcerer to revive the spark
of inanimate life not yet extinguished
by the storm. A fearful interval of
suspense followed the silence into
which the work settled, silence bro
ken only by the footsteps of men run
ming to and from the couch over which
Scott, Leftover and McAlpin. half
naked, worked in mad concert
De Spain opened his eyes to wander
from oneto the other of the faces. He
half rose up, struggling in frenzy
with the hands that restrained him.
While his companions pleaded to quiet
him, he fought them until, restored
to its seat of reason, his mind reassert- /
ed itself, and, lying exhausted, he told
them in his exquisite torture of whom
he had left, and what must be done
to find and bring them in.
While the relief wagons, equipped /
with straining teams and flanked by
horsemen, were dashing out |
Of the barn, he Iapsed into uncon-
But he had been able to /
hold SCOTS hand long enough to tell |
him he must find Nan and bring her |
in, or never come back.
1t was Scott who found her. In their
through the blizzard the three /
had wandered nearer Calabasas than .
any one of them dreamed. And on the |
open desert, far south and east of the |
upper lava beds, it was Scott's horse
that put a foot through the bottom of |
The overturned wagon box. The sus-
1ected mound of snow. with the buried
horses scrambling TO their feet, rose
Upright at the crash. Duke crouched,
under the rude shelter.
Lying where he had placed her, snugIy
between the horses, Scott found Nan.
He spoke to her when she opened her I,
staring eyes, picked her up in his
rms, called to his companions for the
Ter, without a moment of delay, TO
ife. He even promised if she would
rink the hateful draft he put to her
Ups and let him cut away her shoes
nd leggings and the big coat frozen
n her, that in less than an hour she
hOuld see Henry de Spain alive and
yell.