Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-11
Perpendicular Walls Form Prison After Dangerous Tunt

rounded the pool, dispeIling any doubt
that the water might he drinkable.
We had apparently failed to discover
it, owing to the. fact that the water
hole was situated in a crevice In the
main wall, completely screened from
the floor OF the gulch. by an almost i'm
penetrable growth of bush.
Running along the margin OF the
cliff. i reached the crevice about the
| spring, and in another minute was
| dropping down from ledge to ledge.
half falling, half sliding at, times in
| my haste to get to it. In 10 minutes
was down the cliff and fiattened out
on the rocks like horned toad, Gag
erly gulping down the water.
Then yelled. Hey, Jacki Fletcher.
I've found water and fired my pistol
four times in quick succession. l
stood there with my hands cupped be-
hind my ears awaiting his reply. but
no sound came from the gulch. Where
was Jack? Why didn't he answer?
In another instant l was bounding
like wild antelope along the floor Of
the gulch toward the base of the cliff
where we had made our way out.
Reaching the foot of the cliff We had
climbed. / was still yelling Jack.
rock and all but stumbled over the
PROSTATE form of my companion.
He was lying face downward with
his head in a pool of blood between
two jagged boulders-and to all APP
pearances he was dead. It was as
much as I could do to lift his 225
pounds of Drawn and muscle from be-
tween the rocks and drag him out to
fiat place where | could stretch him
on his back.
Then l tore open the front of his
shirt and pressed my ear to his heart.
1t was beating, although somewhat
feeble and weak. l rolled back his
eyelid and touched his eyeball, and 1t
moved. He was alive, and it was up
to me to keep him alive if it was with
in my power.
A glance up the face of the cliff con-
WINGED me that he had lost his footing
in making the descent-probably only
few minutes after leaving me--and.
falling on to the rocks below, he had
sustained injuries that might be fatal
or otherwise. Fortunately l possed
fair knowledge OF surgical first aid,
and Immediately stripped off the pros
trate mans clothing for the purpose
of determining the extent OF his In.
juries.
The pool of blood about his head, j
found. was from an ugly scalp wound
that was undoubtedly painful, but not
serious I examined him from head to
foot for broken bones, but could md
none except under a terrible bruise on
his side, where / decided that he had
three broken ribs.
II RAN to camp and returned with
our box of first aid requisites.
when / started to dress his wounds
With a ball of lint at the end of a
twig, l began painting his injuries
with iodine.
When / touched his cuts with the
chemical he groaned aloud. and just
as / put the last six stitched In the
wound on his head he opened his eyes.
For the next half hour ] feared that
the injury to his head had permanent
ly injured his brain, for he talked like
a mailman.
Eventually l had all his injuries
dressed and bandaged, and by that
time he became little more rational.
But he was practically helpless so far
as doing anything for himself was
concerned, and the problem OF effect.
ing our escape was complicated by his
condition.
/ returned to camp, and moved the
entire outfit back to where he was. l
then went TO the water hole had dis
covered, came back with pail OF
water and babe Fletcher drink all he
wanted. In his bewildered condition,
] believe to this day that he almost
thought he was seeing things" when
[ brought the water
For several moments he sat there
staring into the pail. Then he felt the
water, smelt 1t, and at last showed his
head into the bucket, and drank until
! feared he would injure himself.
Toward the middle Of the afternoon
I went up the cliff and spent the rest
of the daylight assembling the ma.
chine. With all the water l needed
to drink, the work progressed much
more rapidly than before. and by sun
down I had the motor installed. and
the machine set up with the eXecep.
ton of putting in a miscellaneous lot
of parts that could easily be accom-.
| plished during the forenoon OF the
day to come.
/ returned to our new camp in high