The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-08-22

him, he sprang over the two interven-
ing rocks to the short.
The moon was well up. 1t would
have betrayed him had there been eyes
to see He hurried around to the front
of the cabin, raised the latch, entered
and closed the door Knowing how
well the visitor who had just preceded
him had blinded the windows, he did
not hesitate to light the candle.
The table, with its unwashed dishes
and leftover food, still stood near the
south window, just as he had left it
the morning before. Matching up some
cold Biscuits and strips of friend bacon,
he hurriedly made six sandwiches and
stuffed them into his pockets. A
small looking glass hung on the wall
near the table. He paused before it
long enough to examine the bandag e
around his head. A small spot of rel
stained it through, but the cut seemed
to have stopped bleeding. He winked
his swollen eye wider open and blew
out<the candle.
Resting at the spring long enough to
eat two Of his sandwiches, he drained
gourd of water. crossed the branch
below the falls and hurried away up
A mile and more north of the water
fall Wolf Run bends west to double
and twist and loop through a tangle Of
hills and gulches known as Fox Den,
the widest and most inaccessible dis
trict of the Flatwoods. The PEARL
hunter had heard of the place He re-
solved to take his chances there. But
1t would be difficult to say whether
because of the broken and tangled
wildness of the place. Possibly an
other, though no less weighty. element
entered into the consideration. The
spot was no great distance above the
three gabled cabin
Making a wide detour, therefore, even
well beyond the pond where he dug the
elecampane roots, he picked his wav
down into this tangled labyrinth of
cliss and scar, wading for more than
a quarter of a mile, as a last precau
ton, down the branch and into the
very heart of the jumbled fastness-
the citadel of welves and foxes.
Away up the bare front of a cliff
his eye, as he waded, Ikhted on the
mouth of what appeared to be a cleft
in the rock. Wolf Run washed against
a narrow ledge at the very foot of
this cliff. He leaped out of the water
upon this ledge. 1t looked like an i'm
possibility to climb the cliff. for II
was well-nigh perpendicular. But
there was no other way to reach the
cleft. He spread himself fiat against
the face of the rock and strained from
crevice to crevice. 1t was a prodig ous
task. but al tasks have an end-either
at the bottom or at the top. The
Pearlhunters task finally ended at the
top. 1t had to.
The strata gaped apart half the
height OF man, leaving a wide-open
scare in the face of the cliff. He
stretched himself in the mouth of II
and struck match, shad ng the
light from the outside as much as nos
sible with his body. Tt was perhans
ten feet deep. and seemed to be closed
at the back by the dipping together of
the two starta. It looked like home IN
the bruised and weary Pearlhunter.
Rolling back as far within the OMEN
ing az the converging strata Womb
comfortably allow. he dropped his bat-
tered head upon his arm TO sleep the
rest Of the night away, secure in the
consciousness that nothing could nos
sibly happen until the next morntDo
when the sheriff went to the Jail with
his fiat basket Of breakfast.
(To Be Continued Tomorrow