SAVED BY A WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20490, 15 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

SAVED BY A WOMAN.

MAN NEARLY DEAD IN SNOW.\

BRAVE TEN-MILE DASH

VAGRANT'S FORTUNATE RESCUE

By a remarkable display of courage and fortitude Miss Ncsta Bruce, of Aberdeen, a member of the Cairngorm Mountaineering Club, a few weeks ago saved tho life of a 70-year-old Irish vagrant, John Reilly, who had spent two days lying in deep snow on a hillsido.

Miss Bruce, accompanied by a gillie, was climbing the Cairnwell when she noticod footprints in the deep snow, and, following them, near tho top of the pass found a man lying exhausted in the snow. It was thought at first that ho was dying, but he rocovored a little on being given stimulants, and tho help, apparently, came just in time. In the meantime Miss Bruco walked four miles, procured a cycle, and made her way for another six miles to Braemar. A rescue party was organised, and the man was taken down from the pass on a sledge, and then removed by car to Braemar, where ho is now recovering.

What I did was nothing very much, and certainly no more than anyone would have done in my place," modestly protested Miss Bruco. "lleilly was obviously in very bad condition when I found him half buried in tho snow, and I realised that help would have to be got without delay. 1 left the gillie to revivo him with stimulants, and set out on a fourmile stumbling dash down to Glen Clunie Lpdge, along roads so snowed up. that they wero impassable to all vehicles. 1 borrowed another gillie's bicycle there, and while ho set. off to tho aid of the others, I cycled as best I could down to Braemar."

Reilly Tells His Story. " 1 was crossing tho mountain into Perthshire when a gale arose," related Reilly in hospital, " and 1 spent that day in a shed used for workmen's tools. Tho following morning 1 set out again along tho mountain path, which was covered in snow,, and succeeded in making tho top of Cairn well, when a. heavy mountain mist descended rapidly, and I lost my bearings. " I continued to walk on. but seemed to bo going round in circles. When night came I lay down to await morning. I was numbed with cold and tho bitter winds cut through me, but I managed to remain conscious. My provisions gave out and I felt life slowly leaving me. Next morning I felt bewildered. I prayed that I: might bo rescued and my prayer was answered." Tho first thing Reilly asked tho rescuo party for was a pipo of tobacco.

For centuries the Cairngorms have been tho scene of romance and tragedy. Many of tho cairns that climbers meet have been erected to tho memory .of those who lost their lives there by accident or violence. Ono marks a spot where tho bodies of soldiers lost in the great stor/i of 1804 were found, and, the superstitious declare that they still haunt the place. Site of Love Tragedy. At Leac Staingean a stone marks tho site of a love tragedy. There was a girl named Mary Macintyre, known as the " Flower of Glen more," whose family wished her to marry a farmer, but her heart was with a, lover in Kincardine. Ono day her brother, hearing that sho was to meet her lover at a certain spot, locked her in her home, dressed himself in her clothes, and went to tho rendezvous after dark and stabbed her lover to tho heart.

Local legend has it that on moonlight nights the maiden, who died of a broken heart, .can still .be seen at the trysiing place on tho Cairngorms singing a lament over her lover's grave. Travelling tinkers :in.. that district havo declared •• that--»t night they have been visited by tho " spectre of tho Bloody Hand."