The Argosy, June 1904 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

54 might a stub or tree branch before he realized what 1t was. “ Englebock!” eried the American. The man seemed completely buried —excepting for that appealing hand. Ile seized the latter more firmly. and {ried to draw the arm out. But the weight of the sand was too much; he could not start ihe body. This discovery shocked his wits to live. They grew more active. Inglebock was buried under the ava- lanche which had swept on and left kim free. How long he had been thus covered Lynn did not know; but surely life could not yet be extinet. With that he went down on his knees and began to dig into the sand with might and main. He had nothing but his bare hands for scoops, and the sand was treacherous and filled in about him almost as fast as he scooped it out. But he persevered. ]lis nails were torn off, his fingers cut till they bled. Ie scarcely felt the pain in his anxiety to save the man be- Jow him. Ife touched his shoulder. One arm was laid bare. Tle worked his hands heneath the prostrate body, ana, gct- ting a grip upon it, bent his back to the dask of lftting Enelehock owt into the wit. Had another landshde oceurred he would probably have been hurled, with his burden, to the foot of the hill and buried under such a mass of sand that a second escape would have been utter- ly impossible. Luynn did not think of this. it did not retard his exertions. Slowly and painfully he drew Engle- hock to the air. His head and shoul- ders were completely out at last. Then he rested and glanced up the slant to the summit of the hill. He was choked with dust, and every part of his body was in pain. Could he drag ihat burden up the bluff? ‘{'o go down the hill would be danger- ous. At the foot was a great mass of so{t sand, in which he would surely sink knee-deep and perhaps become wedged atogether. And he could not leave I ‘nglebock. How he reached the plain above fi- na he could not have told; but reach PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG Go THE ARGOSY. it he did, and with the man who had fallen with him in his arms. At the moment of the caving of the bank the two had been in a mood to leap at each other’s throat; now one had risked his own life, and expended every ounce of his strength, in saving ihe other from death. lor Captain Englebock was not dead. Lying outstretched upon the sod, re- moved some distanee from the crum- bling edge of the bank, the body of the seaman began to give signs of return- ing life. At first, when he got his own breath after the ‘climb, Lynn had opened the man’s shirt and felt for his heart. The tremor of that organ was searecly per- ceptible. The American stretched out the man’s arms and w ork ed them up and down as one would in resuscitating a drowned person. Soon the other gasped. Then Lynn knew that he was really saved. lie had time then to attend to his own aijunes. And they were neither few nor slight. Tlis hands were cut almost to pieces, and the blood dripped from them con- tinually. Although he had no broken bones, his body was racked with pain from the strain he had undergone. His clothing was in tatters. He had flung aside his coat when he began dig- ging Englebock out of the sand. His vest was a rag; his shirt had no siceves; his trousers “hung from his limbs as Robison Crusoe’s must have after his struggle in the surf. But the peril which had menaced them caused Lynn to think but little of his appearance. When the seaman began to gasp he hurried to him and aided him in sitting up. The man had a terrible coughing spell first of all; Ivnn had already had his. he sand and dust had laccrated the lungs and bronchial tubes. “What was that?” gasped the sea- man at last. “ Take me to the house —take me to the house.” He seemed too confused to be left alone. o Well, come on and get on vour pins, > quoth Lynn, helping him up. ‘We're a pair of lame buel cs, but where MICLOO® ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED