The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1921-02-17

| size was coming nearer; ana her own
voice sounded louder. "Here. Snow
bird" he called again. She heard him
then: he could tell by the startled
tone Of her reply The next instant
she was at his side, her tears drop
ping on his face
-~ With tremendous effort of VIII be
recalled his speeding faculties. 81
don't think I'm badly hurt" he told
her very quietly. "a few ribs broken
and leg. But we'll have to winter
here on the Divide. Snowbird mine."
"What does it matter, if you liver"
she cried. She crawIed along the pine
needles beside him, and tore his shirt
from his breast. He was rapidly sink
ing into Inconsistencies. The thing
she dreaded most-that his back might
be brOken-was evidently not true.
There were, as he said, broken ribs
and evidently one severe fracture Of
the leg bone. Whether he had sus-
tanned internal injuries that would
end his life before the morning, she
had no way of knowing.
At this point, the problem of saving
her fathers life fell wholly into her
hands. His broken body could not be
| carried over the mountain road to
| physicians in the valleys. They must
| be transported to the ranch. It would
take them full day to make the trip,
even if she could get word to them at
once; and twenty-fOur hours without
| medical attention would probably cost
her father his life. The nearest tele-
phone was at the ranger station,
twelve miles distant over mountain
trail. The telephone line to Bald
mountain, four miles off, had been dis
connected when the rains had ended
the peril of the forest fire.
1t all depended upon her. Bill was
driving cattle into the valleys, and he
and his men had in use all the horses
on the ranch with one exception. The
remaining horse had been ridden by
Dan to some distant marshes, and as
Dan w@~ld shoot until sunset, that
meant he gould not return until ten
o'clock. There was no road for a car
to the ranger stSAscn, only rough
steep trail, and she remembered, with
a sinking heart. that enc Of Bills mis-
sions in the valley was to procure a
new lighting syst en-. By no cOnceiv-
able possibility could she drive down
that mountain road in the darkness.
But she was somewhat relieved by the
thought that in all probability she
could walk twelve miles across the
mountains to the ranger station in
much less time than she could drive,
by automobile, seventy miles down to
the ranches at the foothills about the
valley.
Besides, she remembered with
gladdening heart that Richards, one
of the rangers, hsid been a studeE4 Mt
a medical college and had taken q po-
sition with the forest service to re-
gain his health. She would cross the |
ridge to the station, phone for a doc
tor in the valleys, and would return |
on horseback with Richards, for such |
first aid as he could give. The only |
problem that remained was that Of |
getting her father into the house.
He was stirring little now. Evi. |
IDENTIFY consciousness was returning to
him. And then she thanked heaven
for the few simple lessons in first aid
that her father had taught her "a the
days before carelessness mad come
upon him. One OF his lessons had
been that Of carrying an unccD9cious
human form-a method by which even
woman may carry, for shCs& dis.
lance, a heavy man. It was apY1|oxi-
matelv the method U sed in carrying
wounded in No Mans Land: the body
thrown over the shoulders, one arm
through the fork of the legs to the
wounded mans hand. Her father was
not a particularly heavy man, and she
was an exceptionally strong young
woman. She knew at once that this
problem was solved.
The hardest part was lifting him to
her shoulders. Only by calling upon
her last ounce of strength, and tug
ging upward with her arms, was she
able to do it. But It was fairly easy,
In her desperation, to carry him down
the hill. What rest she got she took
by leaning against IL tree, the limp
body still across her shoulders.
1t was a distance Of one hundred
yards in all. No muscles but those
trained by the ou doors, no lungs ex.
cept those made Jtrong by the noun
tain air, could h ave stood that test. :
She laid him on his own bed, on tho
lower floor, and let his broken limbs
the best she coul I. She covered him
up with thick, fietcy blankets, and set
a bottle of whisky beside the bed.
Then she wrote u note to Dan and
fastened it upon one of the interior
DOORS
She drew on her hob-naiIed boots
needed sorely for the steep climb
and pccheted her pistol. She thrust o
handful Of jerked venison into tha
pocket VI her coat and lighted the lam ..
-ern. 11he forest night had fallen, soft
and vibrant and tremulous, over the .
heads Of the dark trees when she :
startea out.
(TO RE CONTTNIJEDN