Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 114 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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ee canyon. If you can get upon ledges, do so; but risk none less than twenty feet high. Steady, men! Now is the time to show your coolness. Madden, for God’s sake! do not attempt to turn that wagon! Don’t you see that we will be in hopeless confusion? Stop, men! If you dare to disubey me, I will shoot you where you stand! —Wuit, Mrs. Fay! Stay in the wagon until your husband comes for you. You cannot es- cape unaided.—Ho! herders! drive the stock down the canyon—down the canyon! Do not let them come this way!—they will trample our children to death! ost!” ee ee + panic. In many cases, no doubt, the frightened oxen became unmanageable; but their drivers, too, lost presence of mind; and the leader, whose commands had heretofore always received prompt obedience, now saw men cramp their wagons round so short in ihe narrow jass as to overturn them, while frantic women, gathering their children in their arms, leaped from the wagons and ran hither and thither in aimless bewilderment, taen came the mad rush of ter- rified cattle, jostling and leaping upon each other, and trampling everything under foot in their blind stampede! Shrieks, prayers, oaths, and the bellowing of brutes, blended, in an awful Babel, until the black heavens were rent by a blinding flash of lightning, and the detonating thunder-crash rocked the everlasting bills and swallowed up all pigmy sounds in its universal roar! Captain Gunnison saw that all authority was at an end—his voice could no longer be heard, nor would his counsels be heeded. His duty to those who had intrusted ae a ) es, selves to his care now being fully discharge bad a right to look to himself and—his his!—for where was there a riva) claimant? He had seen little Lilian Amberleigh caught from the arms of her mother; and for the child he rejoiced; for with that bold rider she stood a better chance for life than any who were left in that death canyon. But with the shrisk of the mother ringing in his ears, and the sigbt of ber falling as if strick shock, his heart then stood still almost unmanned en to the earth by a lightnin had given a great bound, anc ky a sinking agony that im. Now he wheeled his horse, and in a moment had gathered the limp form in his stout arms; then away !—forcing a path through the horde of rushing cattle, and thunderivg down the canyon on the trail of that peerless rider who had pointed the way! Then down fell the pall of {tmpenetrable loom, as if the demons of destruction must t hide their battle-ground from the light of day! Next came the furies of the hurricane, rush- ing down the canyon like loose hordes of raven- ous wolves—howling among the crags and caverns—shrieking among the pines, that writhed beneath the lash of the tempest like liv- ing things in torture—swooping down upon the now disordered train of wagons, some over- turned, some inextricably interlocked, a mass of dire confusion, with madly ng brute creatures and equally frantic ge sap 1 AL gh ing the white tilts from their fastenings, and sending them whirling away into the dar like frightened ghosts! 2 ee swirling sheets of rain, and pelting ail!’ Last, a nameless horror. Out from the blackness of the upper canyon it comes!—a demon! impersonal, unreasoning irresistible!—a monster, with tossing mane of snow-white foam and spray! a mighty roar that makes the granite cliffs quiver! an insati- able maw in which all things perish!—charging down that way of death, until it overwhelms and ingulfs the doomed band, and the feeble cries of God’s creatures are swallowed up and hushed forever! Then on it rushes, bearing on its black and foam-dappled bosom the wreck of animate and dashing them in its fiendish widers and jutting ess inanimate tings, das sport against opposing crags! And, throned on a pinnacle of rock, canopied by the black mantle of night and_ with the lightnings his torch-bearers—crowned with his coronet of hissing reptiles, robed in his ermine of snow-white hair and beard, and sceptered with a wriggling serpent, stood the Ghost of the Canyon, filling the intervals of the bellowing thunder, rushing waters and roaring winds with his weird cries—a veritable King of Chaos reveling in the destruction of a world! CHAPTER IV. THE LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE. A MOMENT ago the Gentleman from Pike had stood alone in the world, a stern, hard man bound to the rest of d only by a tie o hate. But at the moment when that hate was | wrought to the highest pitch of bitterness, he found within the circle of his arms a creature , whose helplessness, whose innocence, whose in- | fantile beauty appealed tohim im an entirely ' The Gentleman fro Great Gid! we're Oh! it was a sight to pares the stoutest heart! No one man could stem the tiue of that terrible different way, stirring new springsin his being. o was he destined to be led back to kindred humanity by the hand of a little child! But first came life!—escape from the jaws of that swift following vampire! and glancing back over his shoulder, ho saw that he would be certainly overtaken beforo the wildest ef- forts of his gallant steed could bear him out of that death-trap! < ty own worthless life I might yield up,’ he reflected, bitterly; ‘‘but not hers! not the dawning existence of this little angel!” So he rode on, gazing despairirgly at the un- moved cliffs on either hand, racking his brain for an expedient, where it seemed as if there were none. And still the. monster gained upon him— nearer'—ever nearer!—howl.ng in its rage, laughing in its glee, yet ever nearcr!—ok! to fatally nearer! * But there must bo en ercape!—there shail be an escape!” he cried aloud, in his new found incentive to live, And still his eyes shot burning glances through the gloom and driving rain and pelti: g hail; und still the roar of thut pursuing Cemou goaded Lim on nearly to distraction. Then, when ke was a]most in the clu‘cbes of Wty his cye discovered a doubtful way to safety. Only one endowed with almost superhuman strength might accomplish the fateful task; but that little Lundle cf Lelpless innccence, appeal- ing ie his heart, prompted him to superhuman Oo * “T can doit!” ho cried—‘' tosare her! But, oh! my noble horse, I must abandon—na,, sacrifice you!—you who have been ever faith- ful!—you whose sure-footed speed has snatched me from death ascoreof times! But, Invinci- ble, I would give my life for hers! You, then, will not grudge yours? I know you wiil not!” His hand fell upon the rein, drew the horse to the canyon wall, and there halted him. In spite of that swiit-coming terror, which would have mace another animal unmanage- able, the trained steed stood siill, though he trembled in every limb. With lightning agility the man sprung erect, £0 that he stood in the saddle; tossed the child upon a narrow ledge above his head; and, ringing frcm his horse’s beck, caught the eave of the slippery shelf with his fingers; then shouted: “Go, Invincible! go! Good-by, my noble fellow! I shall never see your like again!” Obedient to his master’s word, the noble steed sprung away down the canyon, and was soon lost in the gloom, while the sound of his fiying hoofs was swallowed up in the roar of the on-coming flood. Exerting a remarkable strength, and display- ing great suppleness, the man drew himself up on the ledge, But he was not yet beyond the reach of the water, Rapidly unwinding a coil of slender rope from his waist, he tied one end abcut the bocy of the child, the other being secured to his own person, Into a crevice in the rock above his head he thrust the strong blade of his bowie-knife; and after almost superhuman effort gained a fcotin on it; then, from this vantage-ground manage to get the tips of his fingers over the edge of another ledge. Now ensued a terrible struggle—an exhausted man drawing himself up the slippery face of the rock, with the rush of the mighty flood eke upon him, so that he dared not look round, an Lelow him the helpless babe for whom he was putting forth these t exertions! A movement of the child in her fright, and she might slip from the socge where she lay; or, if washed away by the flood, she must inevita- bly drag him from his hold by the rope that bound them together! But he had calculated that chance. He would save her or perish himself! But at last, fortified by the indomitable pluck with which his little charge had inspired him, his iron muscles won; and the hero lay panting and exhausted on the ledge, Not an instant too scov; for there came a shrill cry from below, and a wrench on the rope which nearly dragged him from his shelf; and he knew that the monster had tossed its form- less hands upward and snatched his prize from her narrow resting-place. In his d ir the man cried aloud: “Great God! I beseech thee!” Following the way led by this intrepid rider, Captain Gunnison did not hope to gain the en- trance to the canyon; he remembered a sloping ledge which they had passed, and hung his life —and hers /—upon’ the chance of reaching it rsh yg they were overtaken by theall-in g All sounds, save the earth-rocking crash of the thunder, were now lost in the continuous roar of the rushing waters, with which the smooth walls of the canyon reverberated with that peculiar effect noticed by one standing be- side a ponderous bell in a steeple. The rider could scarcely hear the regular vrs Fe Yes!—unscathed !—with her still clasped over m Pike. clash of his horse’s iron-bound hoofs on the ring» ing rocks. Already he felt the chill breath of the des- troyer on his cheek, when that pathway leading up to possible safety loomed into view, ‘** Onc more effort,” he shouted, *‘and we can defy the hungry billows!” But the swash of the water was at his very heels!—the wind-driven spray swept over and around him!—an inarticulate prayer quivered on his lips!—he thought himself already ingulf- ed!—when he swerved his horse to one side, and felt the noble beast mounting that narrow as- cent in great bounds, every one of which bore him further out of the clutches of the swirling meelstrom! his breast!—he had reached the Llessed goal! He was dizzy with the lifting of the crushing weight of that terrible suspense; ard bis swell- ing heart—not his dry lips—sent up a prayer of thanksgiving to the merciiul Preserver! | Bat, half: way up, the ledge became too nar- row for the blindly-rushing steed. ’ Captain Gunnison felt Lis leg crushed against the wa lof the canyon; then the horse, rebound- ing from the rock, swerved outward, and lost Lis footing! An Syn horsemen, the captain leaped cff toward theo inside; and while the animal went toppling down into the canyon-bed from which le had just escaped, the man alighted upon bis feet, but was overborne by the weight he car- ried in his arms, and fell upon his face on th slippery rock, > ‘ : o scramble again to his feet, and limp up the precarious pathway until it became so narrow, that even he could proceed no turther, was the work of an instant. Then he turned, just in time to see the grandest, yet most appalling spectacle be had ever witnessed—a wall of hissing foam, filling the narrow defile from side to side, rushing onward witb a speed that would overmatch the fileetest horse, and swallowing up everything that lay in its path! Seen in the alternate gloom and Jurid light- ning-glare, amid the howling winds and crash- ing thunder, and pelting rain and hail, it was a spectacle to quail a heart of steel! It passed! Then came that which sickened the heart of the man with horror!—the wreck of what an hour ago had had w.ity and purpose, life and boundirg hope!—wagons and cattle, human beings and household furniture, all mingled in horrible ccenfusion!—some reine Sema in atever frail death, a few a Be feebly to w support chanced witbin reach! ith a prayer for their safety, Capt. Gunnison | turned to meet a new danger to himselr, Another billow, higher than first mad ; the one which further on swept little Lilian from her ledge, came rolling toward him, lick- ing the canyon wallsas if determined that noth- fin et he e3ca ak ushing up the incline that had promised him security, it mounted to his waist! Frantically he tried to cling to the bare rock; but in the giant grasp of the monster his feetJe strength was as nothing: and triumpbanrly it swept him away, tosink beneath the icy flood! The waters, jearing to be cheated of their rey, became demons of fury. They shrunk rom his clutch, and left emptiness beneath ‘his tread. They buffeted him with their formless hands, made confusing Babel in bis ears, and, when he would have gasped to relieve the furnace glowing in his breast, rushed pell-mell into his mouth, as if eager to seek the seat of eC. Now strange lights thrilled along his nerve of vision; strange sounds flowed down the avenues of hearing; strange intelligences came to every wondering sense; and when at last the waters arted above his head, and the air of heaven anned his cheek, he scarce realized that he was indeed returned to the bleseed elixir of life! But nature was quick to resume her sway, and, without knowing just how, he found him- self clinging to the trunk of a tree, and coughin the iti! apd Php from his lungs, and HWalised that he was being borne. with lightning speed between walls of rock that rose sheer to the lowering heavens. ' Eagerly he strained his eyes on ahead, until suddenly the walls fell away cn either hand— he had reached the mouth of the canyon! In safety ? His soul yet thrilled with the question, when there was a shock; he was torn from the tree that had sustained him so long and so well; then camo 4 stinging sense of agony that seemed to pervade his whole being, and—oblivion! CHAPTER V. A FIGHT WITH FIENDS. WHEN the flood caught Jules St. Auburn, he was overwhelmed and torn from the back of his horse. As he struggled to the surface of the roo rr m he —_ ee and | red stunne what prov: © & wagon-body which, at rst jeopardizing his life, afterward proved his salvation. ey taagw | Words cannot depict the horrors ‘of thet times he was sucked under by ' Passage. A score of miGbvooks (E(0) (E(0) ¢