Year: 1876




ridor OF the prison.


/ tried to hold Ruth in my arms, for il
her frenzy to reach her child she had flung
from it at the risk of her lite. They will
not dare to hurt her: God will protect
| her innocent life was all | could say
when a random ball from below struck
| the wndow-frame, and, glancing off,
stunned without wounding the wretched
mother. She fell. Jared by the shock,
| aud drew her as well as could behind
! the door, on the other side of which lay
the two bleeding prisoners who had tried
| to take her husbands life.


GrOans, shouts, curses, yells and pistol
shots sounded in the hall and on the stairs
only the back of the chair remained in
Testers grasp, but heaps of men felled by
its weight and crushed by their strue Cling
fellows had tumbled down and been kick
ed over the broken baustrale to the hall
below.


The guards had rallied from their sur
prise, and sparing the escaped for the sake
OF the precious shield they bore, turned
their ire upon the escaping. cutting them
off until the whole corridor below was
blocked with wounded, dead and dying.
One more man appeared at the clerk 5
door; he was power ful fellow with a
horse-pistOl and stone-hammer Lester
staggered back from q flying iron bar
aimed at his head by q villain he struck
at without reaching. and who had bound
ed down the stairs to receive his death
from the guards musket at the door. The
prisoner with the horse pistol saw MS ad-
~
blasphemous rage, aimed at MIN AS he fled.
Recovering himself, Lester struck for his
arm, but not soon enough to stop the fire :
the charge reached its object, but not his
heart, as it was meant to do. 1t glanced
aside, and Mr.. Denham's pistol dropped :
his ii hit arm fell MANNED at his side but
the field was clear and Lester, catching
the fallen pistol, went down the stairs
over the bodies in a series Of flying leaps


:.Wheres my wife?" exclaimed Mr.
Denham, turning round dizzily and trying
to steady his head with his uniniured hand
Tell her I've gone tor Nellie;" and he
made an effort to rush alter Lester but.
reaching the top of the stairs, dropped sud-
denly upon 4 convict's body stretched there
b. his own pistol. Then | saw by the
reddish hole in his trowsers Just below
the knee that he had been wounded be-
fore, though he did not know it, ard was
now streaming with blood


"Wheres Nell? where's Edward 20 ask
ed Ruth, sitting up with a ghastly face,
and looking at me i'll 4 bewildered stare


"Al right all safe tell the lady" cried
a clear, exuting voice from below "here's
sweet little Miss Nellie, without scratch
on her"


1t was Testers shout from the yard,
and it rang through all the building


"Do you hear, Ruth do you hear ?" |
screamed, beside myself with Joy and
thankiulness "lIe has saved Your husband
a dozen times, that hero ana now he
brings back your child to you Oh what
noble fellow how envy him his feel
ings.m


lie was in the room by this time with
Nellie in his arms; he heard me and gave
me Just one look. | never saw him again,
but never shall forget it, tor it revealed
the long agony of a blighted life that mo-
ment struggling into hope again through
eXpiation lie did not wait lor Ruths
broken cry Of gratitude, but was gone as
soon as the child was in her arms.


Come, boys" heard him cry cheer
lv outside, '.lend a hand to help the gov
ernor to his room he's got a scratch or
two, and the doctors coming to dress
them He win be all right again before
we can get things set straight round here"


Governor Denham's wounds were not SO
Slight as Lester hoped. but they were not
dangerous, and when, to prevent my
aunt's alarm for my safety Gor the news
OF 'the break" spread rapidly through the
town. | parted from my friends before
nightiall aud rode back to the hotel as
had come, left three Of the most eXcit-
edly grateful and happy people behind me
had ever seen.


IL suppose it is no use to urge it further
Ruth darling" said her. husband as we
parted ''but | really wish you would go
to San Francisco with our friend and let
Nellie have a chance to forget the shock
she has endured You need the change
too, ii you would ever think Of Yourself"


lit is because | DO think Of myself that
| prefer to remain where ! am happiest,
said Ruth decidedly. "As for Nell she is
a pioneer child, and will soon be as merry
and fearless as ever. But Jenny dear. we
owe you an apology for the novel dinner
party we have gwen YOU w Hcu YOU
come back it will seem like irighttul
dream, and not reality, we shall all be
so quiet and orderly again"


AS we stood alone in the hall, from
which every sign of the late terrible con-
tlict had been removed save the blood
stains that had sunk into the stone beyond
the power of a hasty washing to obliterate,
Ruth said in q low whispering tone that
was full Of pent-up feeling. II told you
that Lester was a murderer condemned
for life, Jenny, but there were extenuat-
inc circumstances in connection with his
crime. That is not his name we call him
by: do not even know his real one, but
| am convinced that he belongs to educat-
ed and reputable people, and thai he suf-
ters the keenest remorse for the wild life
that led him 50 terribly astray. He be-
came desperately attached to q Spanish
GIRL, who was married as child to bru-
tai fellow who deserted her, and she
thought him dead. She and Lester were
to be married, | believe, when the missing
husband reappeared and tormented them
both. The girl he treated shockinglv,
and it was in a fit Of rage at his abuse of
her that Lester killed him; but appear
ullCtS WCiC an luC NCCO, anu lC
was convicted Of murder in the second de-
gree and sentenced for life Edward is
kind and discriminating, and he ptied
him. Lester told his story freely, and my
husband gained his lasting gratitude by
taking care of the wretched girl and pay
ing her passage in a vessel bound tor her
native town in Mexico The only favor
we could show him here was to separate
him from the wretches in the common
prison by making him 'trusty' or prison
servant. lie understood our motive in
doing SO, and was very thankful and most
reliable. What we owe him to-day you
know he makes light of it, protesting
that he only picked up Nell from the
gulch where the escaped convicts had
dropped her on their way to the hills; but
he cannot lessen the debt: it is not to be
calculated even"


The subsequent report proved that
twenty-eight prisoners had conspired to
effect the break, and by secreting the
tools they wrought with in their sleeves
passed in on Saturday from the wall build