The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-09-06

al Brock For long moment the
sherins wife sat motionless, paralyaed
with establishment aud fear, Then she
snatchei the whip and struck the horse
across the fiank. l, leaped forward,
with q snort. but with one hand grip
ping IT, nostrils Al threw II back upon
It's launches.
Get OUT
She looked at his face and then step
ped out upon the ice without word.
lie leaped into the sleigh and, whiri-
Ing the horse about, started at gal
lop toward the American side, You'd
better trot along home and,patch up
Bob's head IL needs ~" he called
over his shoulder. Then as escape be-
came almost certain he laughed his old
devil may care laugh and began to
soothe the fine black roadster that un-
der happier circumstances had once
been his. Fifty rods more and he would
be on American soil and within half
hours drive OF Ned Fletcher's. Then
Bob Peterson and the extradihon
treaty he hanged!
Pop, pop, pop. pop! Al gave one look
upstream at the long white ridge that
was moving swiftly down upon him.
then seized the whip and dashed the
horse into a furious run. The freshet
from the melting snow In the hills was
sweeping down the river. heaving up
the rotten Ice IN Jagged ridge as 1t
came.
Help! Helpw
The fleeing outlaw looked back at the
woman and then as the commotion
drew nearer stood up In the sleigh and
drove the horse to the utmost limit OF
Its speed.
"Al! Oh, All" came over the Ice In
piteous appeal
Al started. and the hard lines about
his mouth softened as they had not
softened for years. She had called him
just like that when they were children
playing together and the boat in which
she had hidden had gone adrift above
the falls.
"Al! All
He looked hungrily at his promised
land" not ten rods away now, then
swung the horse about and galloped
back toward the woman. The ridge Of
heaving, splitting ice drew nearer,
passed under him and left the horse
noundering In the swift current among
crunching ice cakes. He leaped from
the sleigh and dashed on, leaving the
brute to its fate. Out there where the
ice was pounding, grinding, writing,
she was crouching upon rocking cake.
and he sped straight on over the heav
ing mass toward her with nimbleness
and sureness that had saved him score
of times from pursuing revenue officers.
Quick, Al!' And as he snatched her
from her perilous position she chung to
him as though he were Al Brock Of five
years before instead of the most dan
gerous outlaw in the province
The ice was now thoroughly broken
up. 1t was as though the river were
full of wallowing white monsters fight
ing each other to the death. Even with
nothing to. impede his fight his chances
OF reaching land would be remote. He
knew that He had seen three different
men of his gang try to make the Amer
lean side at such time, and all three
had gone over the falls.
AS he leaped upon it a cake sank I'M
der him till the water reached his
knees, and she gripped him convulsive-
~. He looked at her as he had not
looked at any human being for years
and bounded on to the next cake. 1t
turned over under his foot, and he
sank to his armpits In water, scram-
bling out only moment before the ice
closed together with grinding crunch.
The jagged ice cut through his rotten
boots, and he left blood at every step.
He slipped to his knees again and
again, clinging by his battered elbows
over the edge of some tilted block,
straining to keep his charge out of i'm
danger. At last he stumbled
and fell with crash across blue
black slab whose adhering gravel cut
like the teeth of saw.
Let me help myself, AL. You're kill
ing yourself" And, scrambling to her
feet, she started away, but soon slipped
and fell with a dull thud. lying still by
4 strip of swirling water into which she
lad nearly plunged.
Al snatched her up and leaped across
he widening channel, looking at the
'alls and then at the shore, still a
quarter OF mile away. Could he
make It? Reason and his battered body |
aid no, but the white. still face at bis |
shoulder with the ugly cut across the |
'orehead cried out above reason, and |
le reeled on.
He was upon hands and knees now.
lragging her painfully from cake TO
lifting cake. The one across which he |
yus squirming collided with another,
,inning fast the bandcuff dangling at
lis wrist. He wrenched at the iron un
II IL cut into his flesh. but could not
rec himself. He started to his knees
nd cireled round and round In sudden
lanic. still cllnglng to the unconscious
woman Then the mass on which they
oated struck something with a force