Adventure Magazine Cover — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

96 aided him in doing this. His shirt was by this time reduced to a few strings, but he preserved these carefully, for they were very useful as binding-thongs. After adjusting his new shields he crawled on again for another mile, when he came to the edge of a rather deep ravine. He decided to wait for daylight before cross- ing it. Struggling through those deep gulches in the dark was a hideous task. There were stones, mud and thickets of big weeds and sprouts and _ briers—veritable jungles sometimes, through which a strong man, walking erect, would have difficulty in penetrating; and when crawling you never knew when you were going to put “your hand upon a snake. A @ feo wait tar daw Dal hes timc seemed interminable. He had eaten nothing for over thirty hours, and fierce hunger was gnawing his vitals. He was very thirsty, too, and his wound was throbbing with pain that was indescribable. Several times he heard animals padding about in the brush, and for a time some wildcats screamed and yowled farther down the gulch; but nothing molested him. At daybreak he crawled down the steep side of the ravine. He was pretty stiff from his hour of inactivity, and his right leg was so swollen and sore that he could bear hardly, any weight on the knee. He gulped water ravenously when he crossed the little creek at the bottom of the glen. Climbing out on the other side was a nerve-racking job, and he had to take a long rest after doing it. Sitting against a tree, he cut some new shields for his hands out of a deerskin vest which he had fondly cherished. He also cut his hat into two pieces and made there- from pads for his knees, for his moccasins were worn out. As he started again, he saw before him a knoll which had been ravaged by a fire during the previous year, leaving on it only a few stunted remnants of trees. He might have gone around it, but it looked as if it would furnish a good outlook over the surrounding country, and he decided that he must ascend it, for he was becoming a little uncertain as to his location. In an effort to travel more nearly in an air line he had left the river considerably to his right HE HAD little more than an hour Adventure and was therefore in a district not entirely familiar to him. At the expense of much labor and pain he crawled to the top of the hillock and was rewarded by a rather extensive view. By the topography of two familiar bends in the river and some neighboring hills, he was able to estimate that he must be still at least eight miles by the nearest route from Bullitt’s Lick; and it was of course im- possible for him to travel by the nearest route. He had not come more than half way! But the unparalleled grit of the pioneers was exemplified in Henry Crist. He had no thought of giving up. All day long he toiled northeastwardly through the forest. He estimated his progress while actually moving at less than half a mile in an hour— and before nightfall it was doubtless slower than that; while enforced rest periods con- sumed many half hours of his infinitely precious time. His wounded leg was frightfully swollen and black; by noon he was dragging it after him, unable to bear any weight at all upon the knee. During the day his vest was gradually consumed in the manufacture of shields for his hands and his one good knee. His feet were now bare, and the lower portions of his trousers were torn to shreds from being dragged over rough ground and through briers and bushes. That night he made a little progress, but spent nearly half the time in resting. A very small thicket could stop him now and compel him to make a detour. At dawn he tried to pull himself together for a final effort to reach the Lick. He knew that he must reach it that day if he was to reach it at all. The whole day was a hideous nightmare— worse than anything that had gone be- fore. He moved forward only by inches. Every rag that he could interpose between the stones and his torn hands and legs was rapidly worn away, and finally he had nothing left. For the better part of the day he left bloody prints upon the ground behind him. The sufferings of his own shattered body now . struggled for domination in his thoughts. He found his brain taking curious little flights. At times he almost forgot how he had been brought to this condition. Only by exercise of the most indomitable will-power could he hold COMICHOOLS. CoM