fear was for
her; that the idea of seeing her, in all her bright young beauty, dashed
in pieces, crushed and mangled, had overpowered all sense of his own
personal doom.

She seemed to read his thoughts, and, like one in a dream or nightmare,
she almost unconsciously stretched forth her hands to him with a gesture
which seemed to appeal to him to save her.

Instantly he arose to his feet, calm, strong, resolute.

His face was as pale as hers, but there was a gleam in his eyes which
told her that he would not spare himself in the effort to save her.

"Will you trust me?" he murmured hoarsely in her ear, as he caught her
trembling hands in his.

Her fingers closed over his with a frantic clutch; her eyes sought his
in desperate appeal.

"Yes! yes!" Her white lips framed the words, but no sound issued from
them.

The car had now attained a frightful velocity; a moment or two more and
all would be over, and there was not an instant to lose.

The young man reached up and grasped with his strong, sinewy hands the
straps which hung from the supports above his head.

"Quick now!" he said to his almost paralyzed companion; "stand up, put
your arms about my neck, and cling to me for your life."

She looked helplessly up into his face; it seemed as if she had not the
power to move--to obey him.

With a despairing glance from the window and a groan of anguish, he
released his hold upon the straps, seized her hands again, and locked
them behind his neck.

"Cling! Cling!" he cried, in a voice of agony.

The tone aroused her; strength came to her, and she clasped him
close--close as a person drowning might have done.

He straightened himself thus, lifting her several inches from the floor
of the car, seized again the straps above, and swung himself also clear,
hoping thus to evade somewhat the terrible force of the shock which he
knew was so near.

He was not a second too soon; the crash came, and with it one frightful
volume of agonizing shrieks and groans; then all was still.

The car had been dashed into thousands of pieces, burying beneath the
_debris_ twenty human beings.

A group of horrified spectators had gathered in the street at the base
of the plane when it was rumored that the car had lost its grip upon the
cable, and had watched, with quaking hearts and bated breath, the awful
descent.

When all was over, kind and reverent hands began the sad work of
exhuming the unfortunate victims of the accident