Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-05-24

uSnI no longer OF q man against ma
ture, but only of an indomitable soul
against a 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 pOnmeI. and
chung to it for a few PAGES more. But
he fell at last, and could no longer rise
from the ground. The storm swept IN
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 white
tree, beat his hands together with idi-
otto effort, hooked the middle point
of the whifietree 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 whiffietree.
He drew the tugs stiffly 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 Lazy once
more started, dragging slowly benin
Iov. EIo
human being. Less than an hour be-
fore it had been a 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.
The fearful pain from the tortured
arm, torn at times almost from it's
socket, the gradual swapping of strain
ing hgaments, the constant rupture of
CapillarieS and veins sustained his
consciousness for a while. Then the
tOrturing pain abated, the rough drag
ging shattered the bruised body less.
1t 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 a poignant happiness to summon
her picture to his fainting senses; he
knew he should hold to life as long
as he could think of her. Love,
stronger than death, welled in his
heart. The bitter cold and the merci-
less wind were kinder as he called her
image from out Of the storm. She
seemed to speak-to lift him on her
arms. Ahead, distant mountains rose,
white-peaked. The sun shone. He
rode with her through green fields, and
great peace rested on his weary
senses.
Lady Jane, pushing on and on, en-
lightened by that instinct before which
the reason of man is weak and pitiful,
seeing, as it were, through the i'm
penetrable curtain of the storm where
refuge lay, herself a slow-moving crust
Of frozen snow, dragged to her jour
ney's end-tO the tight-shUt doors of
the Calabasas baTn-her unconscious
burden, and stood before them patient
Iy waiting until someone should omen
for her. It 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
LIS T. L
sion 4 startled exclamation from
John Lefever, who had periodically
and anXiOusly left the red-hot stove
n 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.
1t was the Indian, Scott, who, read
ing first of all the men everything in
the dread story, sprang forward with
a Stifed exclamation, as the horse
dragged in the snOw-covered log,
whipped knife from his pocket, cut
the incumbered arm and white hand
free from the whiffietree, 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 SCOTS
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, a 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, a silence bro
ken only by the footsteps Of men run
ming to and from the couch over which
Scott, Lefever and McAlpin, half
naked, worked in mad concert.
De Spain opened his eyes to wander
from one to the other of the faces. He
half rose up, struggling in a 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.