The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-05-11

| just now the stage was as far from
them as Drogheda.
! Like many rough frontiersmen
saltwater Pete was a diamond In tn,
raw. So far as could be he made ,
hopeless and impossible situation com
Portable. His Judgment told him tina
they were caught In a trap from which
there was no escape, but for the sake
of the women he put cheerful face OF
things.
LUCKY we found this cabin. hi
growled amiably. "By this time wee
"a been up Salt creek If we hadn't
Seeing as our luck has stood up so far
reckon wen be all right. Mighty
kind of Mr.. Last Tenant to leave us
this firewood. We amt SO worse off. :
eff we only had some food" Mrs
Olson suggested.
"Foodr' Pete looked at her in as.
sumed surprise. "Huh! What about
all that live stock / got in the stable
I've heard tell, ma'am, that broncho
tenderloin is a favorite dish with them
there French chiefs that do the cook
ing. They kinder trim it up SOS its
most as good as frawgs' legs.
Sheba had never before slept on
bare boards with a sealskin coat for a
sleeping bag. But she was very tired
and dropped off almost instantly.
Twice she woke during the night, dis
turbed by the stiffness and the pain
of her body. When she awakened for
the third time it was morning.
1t seemed to her that the hard, whip
sawed planks were pushing through
the soft flesh to the bones. She was
cold, too, and crept closer to the stout
Swedish woman lying beside her. Pres
emily she fell asleep again to the
sound Of the blizzard bowling outside
When she wakened for the third time
1t was morning.
In the afternoon the blizzard died
away. AS far as the eye could see,
Sheba looked out upon a waste of
snow. Her eyes turned from the desc
lation without to the bare and cheer
less room in which they had found
shelter. In spite Of herself a little
SILVER ran down the spine of the girl.
Had she come into this Arctic soIi-
tude to find her tomb?
AS soon as the storm had moderated
enough to let him go out with safety,
saltwater Pete had taken one OF the
horses for an attempt at trail break
ing.
''Me, I'm after that plum pudding.
I gotta get feed of oats from the
stage for my bronchs too. The scenery
here is sure fine, but 1t amt what
you would call nourishing. Huh!
Watch our smoke when me and old
Baldface git to bucking them drifts"
He had been gone two hours and the
dusk was already descending over the
white waste when Sheba ventured out
to see what had become of the stage
driver. But the cold was so bitter
that she soon gave up the attempt to
fight her way through the drifts and
turned back to the cabin.
Some time later saltwater Pete
came stumbling into their temporary
home. He was tagged to exhaustion
but triumphant. Upon the table he
dropped from the crook Of his numbed
arm two packages.
1.-THE makings for a Christmas din
ner," he said with a grin.
Mrs. Olson thawed out the pudding
and the chocolates In the oven and
made a kind of mush out Of some
oats Pete had saved from the horse
feed. They ate their one-sided meal
in high spirits. The freeze had saved |
their lives. If it held clear till to-
morrow they could reach Smiths |
crossing on the crust of the snow.
Saltwater broke up the chairs for
fuel and demolished the legs of the |
table, after which he lay down before
the stove and fell at once into a sod
den sleep.
Presently Mrs. Olson s1ay down on |
the bed and began to snore regularly. |
Sheba could not sleep. The boards
tired her bones and she was cold.
sometimes she slipped into cat maps |
that were full Of bad dreams. When
she Weakened with start it was to find |
that the fire had died down. She was
from lack of cover. Out |
city the girl replenished the fire and |
lay down again.
When she Weakened with start 1t |
was morning. A faint light sifted |
through the single window of the |
shack. Sheba whispered to the older
woman that she was going out for q |
little walk.
AS she worked her way down the |
gulch Sheba wondered whether the |
news Of their loss had reached Ku-
siak. Were search parties out already |
to rescue them? Colby Macdonald /
mad gone into the blizzard years ago to |
save her father. Perhaps he might
nave been out all night trying to save
ner fathers daughter. Peter would 20, |
or course--and Gordon Elliot. The |
work in the mines would stop and |
men would volunteer by scores. That |
was one fine thing about the North. |
lt responded to the unwritten law |
that a man must risk his own life to |
save others.
From little knoll Sheba looked |
down upon the top Of the stage three |
hundred yards below her, and while |