Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-08-19
CHAPTER VII.
From the Jaws of Death.

Lorimer may have been the one
thousandth man who could have es-
capped while the other nine hundred
and ninety-nine would have found a
certain death in the turmoil OF fren-
Zied waters crashing among merci-
less spurs of rock and moving bould-
ers.
s. Whether by the hazard Of blind
fortune or because of providential
interference he emerged from the
jaws of death, just as one lone man
in desperate battle may come
througl a barrier of steel and hail
of hurting shot and find himself
among the living.
The flood had seized Lorimer and
rolled him with force against
which the strength of giant would
have been futile.
For an instant, through no effort
of his own, he had come to the sur
face and caught one gasping breath
before sinking again.
In his ears there was a roar of
bursting guns, and his chest felt as
if the weight of tons were crushing
it. Then came sense of falling
falling as if forever-during which
one more merciful breath came to
him before he sank and lost con-
seriousness.
The water beneath the falls
swirled him around and played with
him for an instant. Relenting, it
tossed him upon great rock that
slanted down into the circular pool.
Then the body moved. The breath
came to pinched, white nostrils; the
eyes opened and closed and opened
again.
For a moment they looked about,
perhaps with the same CHASTITY as
constituent that lis seen on the face
Of a man shot in battle whom the
fierceness of pain strikes only a few
seconds after the missile has done its
work.
The anguish of suffering came to
him as the gathering clearness of his
mind enabled him to realize it.
he had but to crawl on hands and
knees to emerge altogether from
the numbing, lev water in which he
had been half submerged.
At this moment the energy of de-
slair, the instinct to fight, the primal
tendency the wild thing to seek
escape with claw and fang from the
grasp of the enemy-all this return
ed to the man
Chattering teeth mattered no Ion
ger; the agony of the bruised BODY
and lacerated skin were not consid-
cred
He found himself under a ledge of
projecting rock which had doubtless
hidden hlm from Mashkaugan's ewes.
A few staggering steps brought him
to a part of the bank where the
great, bare, curling roots of conf
fers, growing above, gave him a
nance to pull himself up desperate
y until he reached place of safety
farther down the stream where the
high floods of spring had cast up a
tangled mass of driftwood, now
'oached bv sun and rain
Chance he'd saved him orce. A
little circumstance that would ha re
been of trifing import to. ore in tie
midst CT civilization again brought
him out of jeopardy.
One of the first lessons the woods
taught him was this: that, whatever
else he might neglect, he must al
Wcvs have dry matches
From his pocket he pulled out u
box made from brass shotgun cart
lie, closed by a tightly fitting
wooden plug.
Birch-barE was plentiful, and un-
der his trembling fingers there soon
rose a small, clear fame, en- which
he piled dry wood until h he'd a
treat roaring blaze, before which he
az down exhausted, while q steam
cloud rose from his garments.
In a short time he wcs rested and
took off most of his clothing, wh;ch
he carefully dried. TIE cod that
h. | taken hold of h.rn, s~l which
fer some time had cHucc1 him TO
stagger like a drunlen man, WIS
leaving him, and he began to feel
hungry.
1t was then that the notion struck
him that he was alone. In sudden,
wild panic he called until he was
hoarse, and stopped ;bruptly.
Gle was behind me and must have
stumbled with that canoe SO that it
touched me and pushed me over.
Then he must have looked for me;
but, as he thought | was dead, of
course he hurried away"
The realization of his desperate
plight came to Lorimer as a stag
cring blow that stunned him. He
was only too well aware of Indian
superstitions that make them fear
people when their end has come sud-
denly, and sends them fleeing in ter
ror from places where bodies have
disappeared.
They claim that Atshoum, chief of
evil spirits, whom they also know as
the Matshi Manitou, the bad god, has
seized upon them for dread purposes
of his own.
Lorimer sank to the ground again,
weakened far more by the conster-
nation brought upon him by these
tn lights than by the awful expe-
rience he had just been through in
the rapids.
Yet the inherent power Of his race
had only been shattered for time.
Hope rose again-the desire of the
white man in the vigor of his years
for death that shall only overcome
him in the lust of battle.
The night was coming, and Lori
mer broke some balsam- boughs for
bedding. In the great pile of drift
ed wood he found pieces which, once
alight, would burn long and smolder
for hours. These he placed on his
fire.
Finally exhausted nature had the
upper hand, and he slept soundly for
some hours until the chill of night