|
Copyright 1928-193, Harold Titus.
CHAPTER VI—Continued
IER, 1 |
The engine crew had been fussing
with a suspected draw bar and did not
enter the cook shanty until most of the
others had left. Soon afterward the
door opened again and Blackmore
came In.
“How near are you ready to de-
liver?” he asked Elliott with &« wor
ried frown.
“As soon as the boys, there, stoke
their own bollers!™ Ben replied lightly.
“Sure you can make {t?”
“As sure as a man can be”
“lI sure hope so, Ben. Guess you
know by now that I'm pulling for you
in this scrap. But I've got to hold you
to your contract. To the hour and let.
ter of it. Your friend Brandon has
wired Into the house, it seems, offering
any quantity of veneer stuff up to
seventy thousand at ten dollars less
than your contract calls for. Here's
a wire —sghaking a telegram—*order-
ing me to hold you to your agreement
and If you're late or short on scale
to have Brandon load tomorrow. It's
out of my hands, you see.”
Jen's mouth tightened,
“Well, it bappens, we've ducked
from under our genial friend Brandon
again. Yeah, We'll whip-saw Mr. Nick
3randon I”
Blackmore grinned and unbuttoned
his coat. He chuckled. He was glad.
He was on Ben's side for certain, and
as he lit his pipe and commenced to talk,
with an easing in his manner, a tri-
umphant sort of peace descended on
the shanty.
But even as they visited, a slender
fizure, moving through the sdarkness
with a slight limp, followed the Hoot
Owl up the grade that
climbed from the From the
wrest of this grade the pitched
sharply northward into the narrow
valley of the river where alders and
willows showed black, now, against the
snow on either side of the stream.
On the trestle this figure stood still a
long interval, listening for sounds in
the cold quiet. Then he dropped down
the bank of the stream to where the
crib work of the trestle stood, stoutly
footed beneath the muck and water.
For many minutes he was there, grunt-
ing occasionally, and when he climbed
the bank agaln he tralled something
carefully behind. . , . Across the
bridge, now, he went, after more lis
tening, and down again beneath the
north end of the trestle. More grunt-
ing; pawings in the snow, hard prod-
ding with a short steel bar, And
up again, trailing sowething carefully
once more,
Next, the man lighted a cigarette,
shielded the Hamme of the match in
cupped hands and after the
was burning applied the fire to a pair
of other objects held tightly between
thumb and . He let
them go and a pair of greenish sputters
gan crawling across the trestle , ..,
and the man was limping swiftly ap
the hill, over the crest, while the green
sputters drew apart, one crossing the
trestle toward its northernly end, the
other moving In the opposite direc
tion.
It was twenty minutes later. Ben
Elliott was pulling on his mackinaw,
preparatory to going out with the first
three cars of logs, when he stopped
suddenly, one arm In Its sleeve, as a
jolt shook the building, rattling dishes
and causing the door of the range oven
to drop open with a bang. None In
the place spoke; they looked at each
other, faces set In puzziement. Again
came a heavy Jolt, a loud detonation,
and a pan fell from its shelf with a
crazy clatter. No word, still. Without
gpeaking they leaped for the doorway
and emerged to see the crew spilling
from the men's shanty to look and listen.
“It's dinnymite!” Bird-Eye Blaine
croaked hoarsely as he ran out. “Din-
nymite fer sure! Where, Benny b'y?”
~looking earnestly into Elliott's face.
“That's for us to find out,” Ben an-
swered grimly and they followed him
as he ran with long strides toward the
direction from which the sound had
come, down the track to where It
curved and dipped to the trestle which
spanned the river.
Minutes later they came up to him,
the fastest of them, as he stood mo
tionless on the bank of the Hoot Owl,
Yooking at the mass of twisted railroad
steel and of ties that dangled from the
swinging ralls in ragged fringe; at
the scattered remnants of crib work,
at the plling standing splintered and
awry and useless in the stream bed.
Ben Elliott's bridge was gone. His
way to the siding with his veneer logs,
on the delivery of which hung the fate
of the operation, was blocked. No time
remained to team them out, there was
no other way to get them out except
by steel. And his steel was broken,
twisted, useless.
He turned to face them as they
crowded up, swearing and exclaiming
in excited volces,
“You, Houston!” he snapped to the
camp's boss. “Get those standards off
the main line, Bird-Eye, start a
fire here. You men--you three there
get a fire going on the other bank. You
teamsters, back to camp and dress
your donkeys. Bring axes, peaveys,
skidding equipment. Lively, now,
everybody! A Job of work coming
wp I”
steel long
siding.
steel
tobacco
forefinger,
ung
Blackmore, whose wind was short,
elbowed ‘through the crowd, panting
heavily.
“Good G4,
scotched you!"
Ben gave him a fleeting, scorching
glance.
“Scotched, h—I1!
me good and mad!”
And now began a scene the like of
which had never been recorded In the
Tincup country,
Men were there in numbers where
huge bonfires, constantly tended that
the light should be steady, flared on
the banks of the Hoot Owl. Sawyers,
cant-hook men, teamsters, tolled to
reduce the wreckage of the trestle,
snaking it out of the way, working
hastily, noisily, excitement evident In
thelr movements and shouts. Others
cut brush until the sloping river banks
showed bare and dark.
Back in the woods oll flares burned
as the steam loader puffed and snorted
and rattled, swung its boom, lifted
logs from thelr banks, tossed them
through the air and dropped them into
place on a flat car, Once loaded, the
car of logs and the jammer were trun-
dled down the mile of track to the
stream. Slow and slower the car
moved until the boom of the loader
overhung the gap where a trestle had
been. Then blocks went Into place to
secure the wheels, Elllotr gave the sig-
nal, the boom swung a half circle,
hook men adjusted thelr tackle to a log
on the single ear; up It went, around
and out over the river bank and then
down,
Elliott was below there with his
cant-hook men. They grabbed the first
stick, wrestled it loto place paraliel
with the current and others, with
mauls and stakes, gave it a firm resting
place on the bank. Another
log another and still more,
until a erude foundation for trestle
abutment had been made,
It was difficult work: dangerous
work, too, In the bad light. Intense
cold handicapped the men, also, but
they worked harder than they ever had
worked on that job.
Ben encouraged, he flattered, he ca-
Joled and he drove those men as they
never had been driven before. They
moved on a run when golng from place
to place; they seemed to try to outdo
one another when strength became es
sential. They were infected with El
liott's fire.
Standing
Elllott! They've
They've only got
on the bank within the
circle of firelight Dawn McManus
seemed to souggle close to Able
Armitage, face pallid even under the
ruddy glow of flames. Her eyes fol
lowed just one figure; that of Ben
Elliott. Commanding, resourceful, a
human dynamo, he was,
Shortly after midnight
team drove up from camp,
drew back blankets which had cov.
ered its burden, commenced putting
generous pleces of steaming steak be-
tween slices of bread and the cook
poured coffee from huge pots for the
men who swarmed around the sleigh.
A team came creaking up from the
siding, its sled laden with steel ralls,
fish plates, spikes and track-laying
tools.
Back to the decks In the woods went
the locomotive; down it came again,
bearing more logs. These were let
down to a plle which rose almost to the
track level. When It was three feet
higher nearly half the work would be
finished.
Workers staggered through the snow
bearing a steel rail. It went into place;
fish plates clattered ; wrenches set nuts
and spikes put the rall secure on ties
So when the locomotive, leaking
steam from its old Joints, Jum
bered down with its next burden, the
loader was set out on this length of
new track and began the task of filling
in the far side of the ravine, leaving
a sluliceway through which the waters
of the steam gurgled and surged.
Blackmore joined Able and Dawn on
the bank where the firelight struck
topaz lights from the snow. The old
justice turned an inquiring gaze on him
and the buyer shrugged.
“Two o'clock,” he muttered. “He's
got less than six hours left to turn the
trick.”
“It doesn't seem humanly possible,”
Able sald slowly.
“I'm beginning to think,” Blackmore
replied, “that the man Isn't human.
This thing would've stopped most men
1 know without a try. But not El
Hott I”
Three o'clock, and the foundation on
the south side of the river was In.
Four, and the jammer was swinging
logs rapidly into that gap. , . . Five,
and the heads of men working dog-
the supply
the cook
gedly on the southern erib were up to
the level of the old ties,
Daybreak found them throwing the
last load of logs Into place and the
pallid light of the early day revealed
Elliott's face drawn and gaunt and
colorless; his eyes burped brightly,
strangely dark.
“His only chance Is that the loeal’ll
be late,” Blackmore mouned to Able.
Six o'clock, and broad axes shaped
the logs on which ties would rest, and
up from the siding came a team at a
trot, and behind it another. These
were men from Tincup who had heard
of the work going on. They left thelr
slelghs and looked at the emergency
trestle and then stared at one another
and shook their heads in amazement,
Things llke that just didn't happen,
they seemed to be thinking.
Then came a battered cutter, with
old Tim Jeffers driving alone, to see
what was to be seen.
“Heard the shots in town last night.”
he told Able. “Come mornin’ I drove
this way."
‘he old justice nodded grimly,
“You guessed, then
Tim spit angrily. “The lad was get-
tin' too close to his mark to sult some
folks, it seems.”
Seven o'clock, and men staggered
up the embankment bearing a rail
AE
|
ill
RF
)
Her Eyes Followed Just One Fig-
ure: That of Ben Elliott
Five minutes Iater it rang and sang as
the spike went home, and another, the
last, was brought up.
‘he gap was bridged, the last spikes
were going In; the particular Job was
done, but tension screwed up and up,
as a fiddle string is tightened. .
It was seven-thirty, and far off a lo
comotive screamed
“The local!” Blackmore gasped
“She's at Dixon. in a half bour,
pow. H-l, the boy's licked!”
A half hour! A half hour in which
to move six standard cars laden with
a heavy scale of saw logs over that
grade! Two trips, Ben Elliott had
estimated it would take Two trips
for the leaking old locomotive to
drag them the three miles to
the siding and puff its way back and
trundle the other three over the hill
and down the slope. It was a half
mile climb from river to summit with
a better than four per cent grade. A
good locomotive of even small tonnage
might take them over at once; but not
the old ruin that stood sending its
plume of smoke Into the morning alr
up the track yonder. And If those logs
were not put down for the train even
now screaming its way toward the sid-
ing, Ben Elllott was beaten.
He straightened, flinging away his
maul, saw the last nut tightaped on
the final fish plate and then, holding
up both hands, face fixed toward the
locomotive with its string of cars
waiting areund the bend and up the
hil to the northward, he began to
run,
Holding them there? When the
trestle was ready? Men wondered
why, audibly, excitedly, stirred from
their weariness by this strange move.
Instead of high-balling them on, Elliott
was holding them back!
‘Come on; we'll drive it!” a team-
ster cried and his glad at once swarmed
with men as his horses started toward
cap and the train at a heavy gallop,
CHAPTER VII
The cars of veneer logs were
coupled, thelr air hoses dangling, be
Elliott is arrested and
tide him over.
he bad
————
WNU Service.
cause the Hoot Owl never boasted alr
brake for Its trains. The locomotive
panted asthmatically and leaking
steam tralled off into the forest. Me-
Iver, the engineer, stood beside his cab,
wiping his hands slowly on a bull of
waste and his fireman hung out the
gangway as Ben came running up.
“You'll have to take 'em , . . all
over at once,” Elliott panted. ‘Local'il
be there in . . fifteen minutes!
If they're not at the siding In time for
the local, we lose! You've got to run
for It, Mac, and pick up enough speed
going down to carry you over.”
Meclver rolled the waste and eyed
his employer. Then he shook his head
slowly.
“Tough luck for you!” he sald. “But
with that rotten steel on a cold morn-
in’, and no telling what that trestle’ll
do when weight hits it ., . .* He
shook his head again and looked El
lott in the eye, “I got kids,” he said
simply. “So's the fireman.”
Some of the irate glare which had
been in Ben's face dwindled. He, too,
stared briefly down the track.
“Kids, yes,” he sald softly. “I can't
ask a man with kids to try it, Mac.
No hard feeings. I'll take a shot my-
self.”
Teams clinked up, then, horses frost
covered. Ben surveyed the crowd that
pressed about the and swung
up to the step.
engine
“I'm going to take her over myself.”
he said. “If 1 get across that hump,
with this load pushing me, I'll need a
brakeman. ['m not going to ask any-
one of you to ride,
up. But if do get
I can't alone at
Without frost on
Maybe we'll pile
the
the mill
the
There's fifty
i
dollars In it for the man
we to top,
stop her
with
air, steel,
we'll go Into the pond.
who'll ride
r looked hard at him, and then,
almost in uni turned
To watch was to know
what was lr. their minds: the dangers
of that curve, with rusty steel so cold
son, their faces
down the track,
the problematical str@ngth of the tres-
tie they had built through the night.
“Fifty dollars against a
broken neck.” Ben sald and his volce
trembled a bit. He drew his watch.
“We've got eleven or twelve minutes
to catch the local. | . I'll urge no
man, Fifty dollars and
a long chance. Any takers?
He saw Dawn McManus standing
behind the group. Her face was white,
dark eyes wide and frightened,
No man moved for a moment. Then,
quite simply, without a word, Tim
Jeffers péeled his heavy sheepskin coat,
took a peavey from a man beside him
and advanced,
“Never mind the fifty, El
It's my neck™
len smiled,
though he
and strain that he must have cracked
and cried had he not smiled. He sald
no word. He swung up to the cab as
the safety valve popped and stean
commenced blowing off
Ben threw more coal into the fire
box, looked at his water gauge, shoved
the reverse lever down Into the corner
and opened the throttle, The little old
locomotive gave a sharp, an almost
startled, bark as valves released their
power, sending from its stack a great
puff of cumulous vapor into the still
morning air. The drivers spun and
ghe lef go a rapid series of exhaust
coughs. He shut off; opened again,
and this time the tires found purchase.
The slack came out, the cars moved
and, journals squealing, belching and
stuttering, they broke over to the down
grade,
then. It
were so weary fri
goemed as
itn effort
TO BE CONTINUED.
Bank of Venice, Formed
in 1157, Was First Bank
Recognition was given even in an-
clent civilization to the benefits ob-
tained from the organization of a sys
tem designed to facilitate pecuniary
transactions. Promissory notes, bills
of exchange and transfer checks not
unlike the modern bank check were
used in Assyria, Phoenicia and Egypt
long before they gained fuller devel
opment in Greece and Rome. It was
not until after the ascendancy of Athens
and Rome that banking came under of-
ficial regulation. In its earliest form,
banking consisted primarily of money
changing, which was Important due to
the lack of uniform coinage and to the
need for receipts and money transfers
used to evade the danger of robbers,
The progress of banking was checked
during the Middle ages; but with the
revival of trade in the Eleventh and
Twelfth centuries its p ce Was re-
sumed.
is generally given as the first bank;
century, It was destroyed by the
French Invasion of 1707. Keeping de |
positors’ money safe but accessible was
perhaps first. oeddertaken ona large
scale by the Bank of Amsterdam.
founded In 1000. Indianapolis News,
Use Shell Currency
A falr portion of the worlds com:
merce, especially in remote sections of
Africa and In several of the South Sea
island groups, is still carried on by
means of shell currency.
TREMENDOUS
TRIFLES | |
8
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
ASSASSIN
6 EORGE WASHINGTON, an as
passin. . fmpossible I” you
exclaim. But it's true, if we can be-
lieve a document that Washington him-
self signed.
On May 28, 1754, his Virginia ml
litla made a surprise attack on a party
of Frenchmen at Great Meadows In
western Pennsylvania. They killed ten,
including the leader, Coulon de Jumon-
ville, and took twenty-one prisoners
who claimed that Jumonville was an
envoy sent to warn the English off
the French lands. Since England and
France were not at war, they said the
attack was a violation of tnternational
law. Papers found at the time proved
that they were also scouts for a French
force sent to drive the English out of
that country.
Five weeks later, that force, com-
manded by Jumonville's brother, Cou-
lon de Villiers, besieged Washington's
little army at Fort Necessity, Reject-
ing two demands for a surrender,
Washington held out untli they put
into writing the articles of capitulation,
It was a soggy, rainy day and the
French note was “written in a bad
hand on wet and blotted paper.” In
it Villiers twice stated that the French
were not attacking the Eng with
whom they peace, but were
only punishing “L’assassinat du Sieur
de | le.” Thi was read to
of a candie,
rain and again
nan who read
a Dutchman,
hh was mea-
were wt
whose knowledge of Fre
ger.
ated si:
The word * * he trans-
So
realizing
to an “ i .
It was a trifling error of interpreta-
tion but the French,
excuse for
blon" seized
officer's “confession.” It
small part In bringing
which raged In both Europe and Amer
fea for seven years and ited §
France's losing all of her territory |
North America to England,
- * *
POLKA DOT
D° YOU like to wear polka dot
dresses, or, if you're a man, is a
necktie?
men, One
dancing mas
first “dark
history.
n8Eass
who welcomed an
Al
s colonial
no
mfiict
war Frith “Dp idious
upon
played
on the
resu i !
n
polka dot scarf your favorite
If so, you ean thank two
of them was a Hungarian
ter and the other
horse” in American politica
In 1830 that dancing master—hi
has not
:
ing
Rr
wie the
story
weserved hb
tour in
* he saw a
yr
»
aixkin
where it Imm
larity, and
for the In f
Fourteen years later over in Amer
fea, the Democratic party was trying
to nominate a candidate for President
at Baltimore. There was a deadlock.
Suddenly 44 votes were announced
for James Knox Polk Tennessee,
who had served as speaker of the
house of representatives but otherwise
bad a colorless politica: career,
This started a stampede which re
suited in the first geiection of a “dark
horse” in convention history, When
the news of his nomination was flashed
from Baltimore to Washington over
that new-fangled instrument, the tele
graph, amazed citizens in the Capital
exclaimed, “Who is Polk?”
As It turned out, he was the next
President. For he defeated Henry Clay,
the Whig nominee. During the cam-
paign, the Hungarian dancing master's
new dance came into this country. Be
cause of the similarity of its name to
that of the Democratic nominee, it be
came the official campaign amusement.
Articles of various kinds were named
for it and for him and that's
why we wear polka dot designs today.
» » -
A CIGARETTE
lintel
it ti
{8 origin.
of
OOK over a cigarette the next time
you smoke one. It's not so very
long, nor very thick Probably the
fraction of a cent that it costs you will
never be missed. But such a trifle as
a smouldering cigarette costs the Unit
ed States three billion dollars in fire
losses every year! Experts estimate
that the average smoker throws away
at least a third of tbe cigarette, and
if the little trifle Is not put ont , . .1
In 1629 the Puritans tried to pass a
law agaipst the oplarting of tobacco
whole code of prohibitive ‘aws. It was
a losing fight, however. So Massachu-
setts set a tax on its use
day, going to or coming from the meet
ings, or within two miles of the meet
ing house, shall pay 12 pence for every
such default” As aimost the whole
community lived within the two miles
limit, this caught them all
Even today there are still some
states in the Union that forbid the sale
of tobacco on Sunday, Wl It all de
pends on what you like And If you
like to smoke, remember the three bil
tion dollars and put out your stubs
@ Western Newspaper Union
| No Better Investment
Than Well-Kept Garden
The ideal garden is planned and
| managed, as was the first of all gar
dens, by man and wife together,
Man is useful for the forking and
spading, and for some of the heavier
work, but it is the housewife who
knows the comparative value of veg-
etables, and the need of varlety in
the garden produce,
fhe knows what herbs must be
grown for flavoring, what quantities
of early roots, peas, beans and sweet
corn ought to be planted,
Buch weighty problems as the thick
or thin sowing of lettuce seed, of rad-
ishes, onions: of the best
way of guarding caulifiower and cab
bages from defiling butterflies, are to
be settled only by patient consulta-
tions together,
And the satisfaction growing
one's own “garden stuff” and enjoy-
ing It at meal time is simply lmmeas
urable by purely practical standards,
AS a measure economy, 88 a
means of real relaxation, as adding
to the pleasures of the dining table,
as Increasing the beauty and actual
value of the farm and of the whole
neighborhood, one of the best Invest
ments about the place is a neat, prets
ty, well-tended garden !—Montreal
Herald,
of early
of
of
To
Quick, Safe Relief
For Eyes Irritated
By Exposure
CRT LT
and Dust —
RINE,
LRT]
AES
Naming No Names
To become tor Demos
thenes pm mouth
tone. ~
sre
Sometimes we ww i ¥11 wi
orators would try cobbles
Boston Herald,
Regular Elimination
The proper use of Thedford’o
Black-Draught, (for constipation)
tends to leave the bowels acting
regularly. It is a fine, reliable long-
established family laxative.
“1 have used Thedford's Black-
Draught fully thirty years,” writes
Mrs. J. E. McDuff, of Elgin, Texas
*1 had trouble from constipation is
why I first began the use of it, and
us it gave perfect satisfaction I do
hot see any reason to change.”
Another good thing about Black-
Draught that helps to make it so
popular—it is NOT expensive.
THEDFORD'S BLACK-DRAUGHT
PROSPECTIVE MOTHERS
Lynchburg, Va ~"Before
my fst
was bon In wo
always been well” —M ig
2nd. St, ojo J. EK. Noel. All druggint
A Yor TI Skins
May be kept Clear and
Wholesome by GT
WATCH YOUR
KIDNEYS!
Be Sure They Properly,
Cleanse the Blood
OUR kidneys are constantly fil
tering impurities from the blood
stream. But kidneys get function
ally disturbed—lag in their work
fail to remove the poisonous body
wastes,
Then you may suffer nagging
backache, attacks of dizziness,
burning, scanty or too frequent
urination, getting up at night,
swollen feet and ankles, rheumatie
pains; feel "all worn out.”
Don't delay! For the quicker you
get rid of these poisons, the better
your chances of good health,
Use Doan's Pills. Doan’s are for
the kidneys only, They tend to pro-
mote normal functioning of the
kidneys; should help them pass off
the irritating poisons. Doan's are
recommended by users the country
over. Get them from any druggist,
DOAN'S PILLS
17-83
NEUTRALIZE
Mouth Acids
«by chewing one or
more Miinesia Wafers
MILNESIA
WAFERS