Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-05

Drenched with rain, they were fore
ed to draw back under a projecting
rock. In another moment the two
storms, meeting in the gap, rushed
together. AS If an unseen hand had
touched q thousand granite springs
above the gap, every slender crevice
spouted a stream that shot foam
ing out from the mountainside. The
sound of moving waters rose in a
dull, vast roar, broken by the un-
seen boom of distant falls, launch
ing huge masses of water into cav
erns far below. The storm-laden
wind tore and swirled among the
crowded peaks, and above all the
angry sky moaned and quivered in
the rage of the elements.
1t was only the lulls between the
sharp squalls that enabled them to
cover the trail before daylight. When
they paused before Ell Captain the
fury of the night seemed largely to
have exhausted itself, but the over
charged air hung above the noun
tains, trembling and moaning like a
bruised and stricken thing. Light
ming, playing across the inky heav-
ems, blazed in constant sheets from
end to end of the horizon. Under it
all the two refugees, high on the
mountainside, looked down on the
flooding gap.
Their fight was almost ended.
Only the sheer cliff ahead blocked
their descent to the aspen grove.
Hardly a moment passed after they
had started until the eastern sky
| lightened before the retreating
storm, and with the first glimmer of
| daylight the two were at the begin
ming of the narrow foothold which
lay for half a mile between them
and safety.
The face of Ell Captain presents,
midway, sharp convex. Just where
| it is thrown forward in this keen
angle, the trail runs out almost to a
knife-edge, and the mountain is so
nearly vertical that it appears to
overhang the floor of the valley.
They made half the stretch of this
angle with hardly misstep, but the
advance for a part of the way was
a climb, and De Spain, turning once
to speak to Nan, asked her for her
rifle, that he might carry it with his
own. What their story might have
been had she given, it to him, none
can tell. But Nan, holding back, re-
fused to let him relieve her. The
dreaded angle which had haunted
De Spain all night was safely turned
on hands and knees. and, as they
rounded it toward the east, clouds
scudding over the open desert broke
and shot the light of dawn against
the beetling arete.
De Spain turned in some relief to
point to the coming day. AS he did
so gust of wind, sweeping against
the sheer wall, tipped him sidewise
and he threw himself on his knees to
avoid the dizzy edge. His rife, which
lay under his hand on the rock
slipped from reach. In the next in
stant he heard it bounding from rock
to rock, five hundred feet below.
Greatly annoyed and humiliated
he regained his feet and spoke with
a laugh to reassure Nan. Just as she
answered not to worry, little sing
ing scream struck their ears; some
thing splashed suddenly close al
hand against the rock wall; chips
scattered between them. From be-
low, the sound of a rifle report
cracked against the face of the cliff
They were so startled, so completely
amazed, that they stood motionless
De Spain looked down and over
the uneven floor of the gap. The
ranch houses, spread like toys in the
long perspective, lay peacefully re-
vealed in the gray of the morning
He could dicover no sign of life
around any of the houses. But in an
| other moment the little singing
scream came again, the blow of the
heavy slug against the splinterine
rock was repeated, the distant re-
port of the rife followed.
Under fire." muttered De Spain,
He looked at Nan. Wed better
keep moving" he said. Come! who
ever is shooting can follow us a hun
dred yards either way" In front OF
| De Spain fourth bullet struck the
rock. Man." he muttered, I've got
you into a fix. If we can't stop that
fellow, he is liable to stop us. Can