Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-03-05
CHAPTER xIII-continued.

"God bless you'll So he WILL" cried
Mr.. Stage. You've got more sense
than any of US, Mandy"
"And I'll have the chapel bell rung,"
she said.
''Huh what's that for?'
"The wind will carry the sound out
across the cove. The boy, Chef, will
recognize the sound of the bell and 1T
will give him an idea of where home
Is"
"You do beat all !" exclaimed Joseph
Stage, starting to leave the house.
"Find a cap of Chefs, Mrs. CORN
! ley" she commanded. "Don't you see
Mr.. Stagg has no hat2 He'll catch his
death of cold"
"Why, never thought" He turned
to speak directly to Miss Amanda, but
she had gone back into the room and
was putting on her outer wraps. Mrs.
Gormley, red-eyed and weeping,
brreught the cap.
Mr.. Stage plunged down the steps
and kept on down the hill to the water
front There was an eating place here
where the waterside characters congre-
gated, and Mr.. Stage put his head in
| at the door.
"Some of you fellers come out with
me on the Ice and look for little girl
and boy and dog" said Mr.. Stage.
Like enough, they're lost in this storm.
| And the ice is going out"
They all rushed out of the eating
house and down to the nearest dock.
Even the cook went, for he CHANGED to
know Carolyn May.
sand let me tell you, she's one rare
| little kid" he declared, out Of Mr..
| Stages hearing. "How she come to be
| related to that hard-as-nails Joe Stage
| Is puzzler."
The hardware dealer might deserve
| this title in ordinary times, but this
was one occasion when he plainly dis
played emotion.
Hannah's Car'lyn, the little child he
had learned to love, was somewhere on
| the ice in the driving storm. He
would have rushed blindly out on the
! rotten ice, barehanded and alone, had
| the others not halted him.
Joseph Stagg stood on the dock and
shouted at the top of his voice:
"Princel Princei Prince!"
The wind must have carried his
voice a long way out across the cove,
| but there was no reply.
Then, suddenly, the clear silver tone
Of bell rang out. It's pitch carried
through the storm startlingIy clear.
There was a movement out in the
cove. One field of ice crashed against
another. Mr.. Stagg stified a moan
and was one of the first to climb dorn
to the level of the ice.
"Have a care, joe" somebody
warned him. This snow on the ice
will mask the holes and assures some
thing scandalous."
But Joe Stagg was reckless Of his
own safety. He started out into the
snow, shouting again:
"Princel Princel Here, boy Here,
boyp
There was no answering bark.
The changing of the chapel bell was
q comforting sound. Joseph Stage did
not know that, unable to find the sex
ton, Amanda Parlow had forced the
church door and was Juggling at the
rough rope herself.
Back and forth she rang the iron
clapper, and it was no uncertain note
that Changed across the storm-driven
cove that afternoon. 1t was not work
to which Carolyn Mays pretty lady"
was used. Her shoulders soon ached
and the palms of her hands were raw
and bleeding. But she continued to
toll the bell without a moments sur
cease-on and on, till her brain SWAN
| and her breath came chokingly from
her lungs.
"Joel Joel" she muttered each time
that she bore down on the bell rope,
ant the iron tongue shouted the word
for her, far across the snow-blotted
cove.
Carolyn May was not the first Of the
trio caught out on the moving ice to be
frightened. Perhaps because she had
such unbounded faith in the good in
tentions of everybody toward her, the
child could not imagine anything real
ly hurting her.
"Oh, isn't this fun!'' she crowed.
bending her head before the beating OF
the storm. 'Do hang on, Princey.'
But Prince could not hang on so
well, now that they faced the wind. He
slipped off the sled twice, and that de-
layed them. Under his skates, Chef
could feel the ice heave, while the
resonant cracks followed each other
like a file-fre of musketry.
Goodness mel" gasped Carolyn
! May, "the ice seems to be going all to
pieces, Chef. l hope it won't till we
get back to the shore"
I'm hopin' that. too," returned the
boy.
He had quickly realized that they
were in peril. but he would not let
Carolyn May see that he was fright
ened-no, indeed
The boy unstrapped. the skates swift
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