Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1925-01-09

west In that direction she believed
the Blue Lake ranch lay, though at
best it was guess. But going west
ward she could follow the course of
the bigger streams, and soon or late,
If her strength held, she would come
to some open valley where men ran
stock. Now, she would go down into
the little meadow lying q mile away
yonder and seek to find something to
eat. If she could but dig few wild
onions, wild potatoes, they would keep
her alive. West she would go, If for
no other reason than because thus she
would be setting her back squarely
upon the cavern where Quinnion and
Ruth were
The sun rolled into clear sky and
warmed her. She made her way
down the long flank Of the mountain
and into the tiny meadow. For up
ward of two hours she remained there,
nibbling at roots which she dug up
with broken stick, seeking edible
grOwths which she knew, finding lit
tie, but enough to keep the life in her,
the heart warm in her breast. Then
She went on, over ridge again, down
into a canyon and along the stream
which rose here and flowed westward.
BY noon she was faint and sick and
had to stop often to rest, her legs
shaking under her. Again she made
scant meal. She had stumbled on a
tiny field of wild potatoes and ate
what she could Of them, thinking long
ingly Of a match for a fire. The match
which Ruth had dropped she still had,
but she carefully reserved it now,
thinking how perhaps a trout, caught
in a pool, might save her life.
In her already half-starved condi-
ton and with the demands constantly
put on her strength, she would grow
weaker and weaker If help did not
with the glory Of freedom.
1t was heart-weary, trembling Ju-
dith who late that afternoon made her
way upward along another ridge,
seeking anxiously to find from this
lookout some landmark which she had
SOukHt III vain AlSllls III uCl
blouse were the few roots she had
brought with her from the field dis
covered at noon. Lying in a little
patch of dry grass, resting, she
watched the day go down and the
night drift into the mountains, filling
the ravines, creeping up the slopes,
rising slowly to the peak to which
she had climbed, seeping into her
soul. Never had the passing of the
day seemed to her so majestic a
thing, truly filled with awe. Never un-
til now had the solitudes seemed so
vast, so utterly, stupendously big.
Never until now, as she lay staring up
into the limitless sky, having given
up the world about her as unknown,
had she drunk to the lees of the cup
Of loneliness.
SO great was the WEAKNESS of her
tired body that as she lay still, watch
ing the stars come opt one by one,
she was half-resigned to lie so and
let death come to find her. 1t seemed
to her that here In the rude arms Of
Mother Earth human life was
matter of no greater consequence
than the down upon a moths wing.
But she rested little and this mood,
foreign to her intrepid heart, passed,
and she sat up, again resolute, again
ready to make her. fight as long as life
beat through her blood. At last she
took the one match from her pocket.
She scarcely dared breathe when,
with dry grass and twigs piled against
a rock, her dress shielding them from
the wind, she rubbed the match softly
against her boot A sputtering fame
making the blue light of burning sui
phur, died down, creating panic in
her breast, then flared, cracked, licked
at the grass. She had a fire and she
knew how to use 1t
! When a log was blazing, assuring
her that her fire was safe, she rose
swiftly and went in search Of the
tree she meant to burn. She found
a giant pine, pitch-oOzing, standing in
a rocky open space where there was
little danger Of the fire spreading
Tagged out and eager as she was, she
had not come to the point of forget
ting what a great forest fire meant
She went back to her burning log
for a blazing dry branch which she
carried swiftly to the tree. Then she
piled dry grass and dead twigs logs
as heavy as she could carry, bits of
brush. The flames licked at the tree,
ran up it, seemed to fall away, sprang
at it again, hungering. Now and then
a long tongue of fire went cracking
high up along the side of the tree.
Judith went back to a spot where, in
"a ring of boulders, there was another
tgrassy plot, threw herself down and
Gay staring at the tongues of fire
(which were climbing higher and high
Ter. !
Some one would see her beacon. A
forest ranger, perhaps, whose duty II
was to ride fast and far to battle with
the first spark threatening the wooded
solitudes; perhaps some crew In q
logging g-camp, than whom none knew
better the danger of spreading fires;