Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-02

laugh and moved with head down
straight toward the approaching horse
and as the animal came opposite sprang
and caught the bride.
al Brockt' For a long moment the
sherif's wife sat m~otionless. paralyzed
with establishment and fear. Then she
snatched the whip and struck the horse
across the flank. 1t leaped forward,
with a snort. but with one hand grip
ping its nostrils Al threw 1t back upon
Its launches.
"Get out!"
She looked at his face and then step
ped out upon the Ice without a word.
He leaped into the sleigh and, whirl-
ing the horse about, started at a gal
lop toward the American side. you'd
better trot along home and patch up
Bob's head. 1t needs It'll" 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 IN
der happier circumstances had once
been his. Fifty rods more and he would
bO On LII iSdh sui aho III a hoA
hours drive of Ned Fletcher's. Then
Bob Peterson and the ~extradition
treaty be hanged!
Pop. pop, pop, pop! AL gave n 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 a Jagged ridge as 1t
came.
"Helpi Helpr'
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.
All 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
heaying, splitting ice drew nearer,
passed under him and left the horse
laundering 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 a rocking cake.
and he sped straight on owe the heav-
ing mass toward her with a nimbleness
and sureness that had saved him a score
of times from pursuing revenue officers.
"Quiek, 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 a time. and all three
had gone over the falls.
AS he leaped upon 1t a cake sank un-
der him till the water reached his
knees, and she gripped him conclusive
ly. He looked at her as he had not
looked at any human being for years
and bounded on to the next cake. 1t
turned oyer under his foot, and he
Sank to his armpits In water, scram-
bling out only a moment before the ice
closed together with a 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
mediate danger. At last he stumbled
and fell with a crash across a blue
black slab whose adhering gravel cut
like the teeth of a "a W
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
q strip of swirling water into which she
had nearly plunged.
AL snatched her up and leaped across
the widening channel. looking at the
falls and then at the shore, still a
quarter of a mile away. Could he
make it? Reason and his battered body
said no, but the white. still face at his
shoulder with the ugly cut across the
forehead cried out above reason. and
he reeled on.
He was upon hands and knees now,
dragging her painfully from cake to
fitting cake. The n across which he
was squirming collided with another
pinning fast the handcuff dangling at
l. 49,. na