By Mary Schumann Copyright by Macrae Smith Co WNU Bervice CHAPTER XIII—Continued De She left him to look over the side of the vessel. “They're coming in a stream now--hundreds of them,” she said returning. “I hadn't realized until this moment what a wrench it is to see you both go.” “I'll miss you, too." A half dozen tourists from St. Louis gathered beside them, oh-ed and ah-ed at the river, pointed to the ferry boats, to the tug which was to take them out, then moved on. “You'll be lonely, I'm afraid, with your mother gone.” “Oh, don’t worry about me. 1 have my business.” “Yes,” she mused, content if they have ness.” He heard the deep blast of a whistle, and a good-sized vessel, brightly lighted, went down-stream. “What was that?" “Some sort of passenger boat. Too small for an ocean liner.” “Sailing at eleven,” repeated El- len. “It seemed a century away this morning, yet here it is al- most upon us. Did you ever have that feeling of waiting for a day or an hour—half afraid it would not come—because it means some- thing definite? Yet it comes and is gone so quickly.” He nodded. Numbly he felt that there was something he wanted to say, that Ellen might say, yet they bandied these inanities back and forth. The moments were passing. He folded his arms on the rail and stared at the gray water, lighted by flickering gold. The con- suming passion he had had for Dorrie sprayed its vitriol over his mind. He didn't have anything to say. Nor did she. It was the pale moon, the April night, the romance of the river which stirred magic impulses, whispered to his imagi- nation. It was the loneliness of El- len and himself which accounted for it—a mood which would pass. Ellen touched him. “Come, we must go.” Moving through the thronged deck, they went back to the lounge. “I'll stay here a half hour while you talk to your mother. Then it will be time for you to get off.” She came to the stateroom when the bell rang for visitors ashore. Fluvanna's face, tear-wet, held a soft radiance. Hugh kissed her good-by. He extended his hand to Ellen. Good-by—don't forget to write occasionally." “I won't forget.” Unexpectedly she kissed him wit warmth. Hugh stood stock still; a brief ex- alted emotion throbbed “men seem that—Dbusi- y shouldn't. to his and said mechanically, mother again yey ble when you get there? four times!’ protested Fluvanna. “And I'll write from the boat, and also as soon as we are located in Paris. You'll be deluged with mail! And remember, a letter a week from you! I'll be miserable if I don’t have at least a line or two from my boy.” “I'll promise to send three lines.” “Now get off or they'll be pulling up the gangplank.” She patted, kissed him again, and pushed him out of the door. He stood on the pier, his limbs oddly shaky, watching them at the rail, Fluvanna and Ellen. His mother did not look excited; she was gently smiling. Mother was— mystical looking; that was the word! Ellen was trying to say something to him; her lips formed words he could not hear. He shook his head. She tried again. The ship was moving . . . sliding al- most imperceptibly. Ellen resorted to gestures. ‘‘You,” she motioned, “over there!’ She meant he would be coming {or them. He nodded his head in assent. Over there . . . But they were leaving him! It came upon him with a pang of desolation. There would be an ocean between. Ellen had kissed him. . . . The revela- tion was blinding . . . Ellen! Why hadn't he seen it before? Not mo- mentary impulse, but love direct- ing him. Ellen—he—their desti- nies intermingling. He saw it as mreey Unexpectedly She Kissed Him With Clinging Warmth, clearly as if a directing finger pointed. And she did—she would love him. Her kiss had told him. Wait! . Stop the ship! They mustn't go! He struggled through the crowd- ing shoulders, hurried down the pier to be opposite them again. They watched him intently, He formed the words “I love you' to Ellen. She looked puzzled, shook her head, put her hand behind her ear. He tried again. “I love you." Joy broke over her face and he could see the color sweep clear to her brow. She turned to his moth- er. He could see her say, ‘He says he loves me!” Fluvanna nodded at him delight- edly. Why, Mother wanted this too! Ellen's eyes were could see her mouth tre stretched out her arms. Once mor this time more tir “You—over there.” She threw He watched until ti deck came a dark blur of fi 10 igures of the pier, swung into the river. He would follow—no, he couldn’t. But he would go in a few weeks. Things were better. Go home; get things in order; perhaps the last of May—June . He stumbled along the wharf. At the street a plead- ing derelict asked him for a dime. He put a dollar in his hand. While he waited for a taxicab, he looked up at the heavens. In the pow- dered sky, one star shone more brightly than any of the others. Bright star—steadfast and endun ing. THE END THE CASE msn) snsnnsaiesod sms ANIA NVA °S °S A es £ ol ad yo ROR ari BLAST KILLS 300 IN TEXAS SCHOOL Search Debris for Mangled Bodies of Children, Dead and Dying. New London, Tex.—Workers are still searching the wreck- age of the London Consolidated school for more bodies to be added to the toll of the worst school disaster in the world’s history. Hundreds of students were literally blown to bits in a gas explosion which demolished the richest rural school in America ten minutes before the boys and girls would have been dis- missed for the day. Estimates 500. Gov. James V. / declared martial law, state highway patrolmen to scene, which is 12 miles north of here. National Guard troops were ordered out as the entire populace of the neighborhood thronged about the school hysterically waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be dragged forth. President Roosevelt promised every aid from the fed- eral government, At the time of the mighty blast fifty or more mothers were attend- ing a Parent-Teacher association meeting in the school gymnasium, a separate building several hundred feet away from the main structure. Hearing the rumble of the blast, they rushed to the windows in time to see a hail of debris flying through the air and the big building collaps- ing upon their children. Mothers Race to Aid. and sent all ers raced with the across the and bare campus hands their reach the children whe be heard from bene structure, of which se cries could Nearby could be school grounds, shut frantic workers rushed rescue those alive. The tion the and from down seen who still remained force of mangled like they were rag dolls. The brick walls were blasted out. gling humanity. Bricks were hurled more than a quarter of a mile. Dismembered bodies lay all around on the school lawn. Some were decapitated. Others had limbs were alive. extreme confusion. Hysterical wom- en fainted, shrieked, and prayed, kneeling on the grass. Many parents, the women either screaming hysterically or silently sobbing, ran frantically from one body to another, seeking their loved ones. There were gasps of horror and occasionally a woman slump- ing to the ground in a faint, indicat- ing she had found what she had fearfully hoped she wouldn't. Mutilation of the bodies made their tragic task increasingly diffi- cult. One couple hovered over the form of a little boy, his face and body so mangled and bloody they couldn't be certain if he were their “Must Be Jim,” Mother Cries. "0, it's Jim, it must be Jim,” sobbed the woman. Picking up one “ry band. “See, she cried. it's his tennis shoes,” “I remember he asked ‘No, no,” her husband replied, al- “Jim changed into his other shoes when he came home for lunch.” “0, merciful God, he may still be alive then,” the mother cried as they got up and hurried away to scan other little bodies. For a few minutes after the roof caved in, leaving jagged remnants of wall standing like the ruins of a medieval castle, flames shot out above the wreckage. But the build- ing was of fireproof construction and the blaze, having almost noth- ing to feed upon, soon died out. It was well that it did, for nearby communities have only small fire fighting forces. The narrow roads to the school, situated between the oil field com- munities of London and New Lon- don, unincorporated hamlets, soon were clogged with a stream of ve- hicles. More than 15,000 persons assem- bled at the scene in the next few hours, either anxious over the fate of their relatives, to help in the res- cue work, or sightseeing. Call Doctors and Nurses. Every available ambulance, doc- tor, and nurse in all surrounding towns were summoned by telephone and radio. As far away as from Shreveport, La., came doctors and nurses by airplane, sent by the American Red Cross. Thirty doctors and seventy-two nurses, twelve of them from the companying them were twelve am- bulances, twenty-five embalmers, and five hearses. All sorts of trucks, private cars, ambulances, and were used to carry away. But, with no one in author- up to a frenzy, many of soon were entangled in a snarl. Because of this situation, Allred ordered all state opeless Gover- high- mand. All available Texas Rangers and highway policemen also were being rushed there from Dallas, Houston, Austin and Tyler. tifying the bodies, school children having been finger printed. Find Few Survivors. Five hundred workers from the oil fields arrived at the wrecked build- ing soon after the explosion and leaped into the ruins. But there were few survivors for them to res- cue, and their main work was car- rying out bodies. Later an additional went to work on the debris. early stages they passed up bodies o W whom there might be Lif Three hundr taker and every Hendy and bodies sixty conveyance Troup, Longview, and Tyler. While waiting for sufficient vehicles to move W ” term} os the arrival of long rows on the lawn. Mothers and fathers dragged the school gymnasium until the vehicles came back nore loads. There the children and their teachers lay, side by side, many of them unidenti- for Few Injured Will Live. school disintegrate before his eyes, the building, not more than 100 es- caped death. Many of the injured who were removed from beneath the tons of steel and concrete, he said, were so badly injured that they could not live. Most of the younger children, at- tending the nearby grammar school, had been dismissed before the disas- ter occurred and were out of harm's way. Some were playing about the yard, however, and saw the school building collapse. Mrs. Evelyn Hooker, a weifare worker for Rusk county, in which the school is located, and a friend, Mrs. William C. Roberts, were driv- ing past the school at the time the explosion occurred. “I looked up,” said Mrs. Hooker, “just in time to see the top of the building suddenly rise in the air. It seemed that the whole building moved up and the walls were flung out. A black pall of smoke appeared to hover over the building. Clothing Torn Off. “Then we saw the children. O, it was terrible. Some of the smaller ones, who must have been plaving in the yard or were in the entrances of the building, ran into the streets. They were bleeding and crying hor- ribly. Their clothing had been torn off many of them.” A. W. Waldrop, physical educa- tion teacher at the school, was con- ducting a class in physical educa- tion on the grounds shortly before the blast, He left the class momen- tarily to enter the building. At that moment the explosion oc- curred. One of the first to reach the scene was R. K. Carr, an employee of the Tidewater Associated. He dashed into the wreckage and car- ried out the body of a little girl. It was his daughter. Stricken School Was U. S. Richest Located in the Heart of East Texas Oil Fields. Henderson, Tex.—The London Consolidated school, wrecked in the horrible explosion which blotted out the lives of hun- In the heart of the East Texas oil fields, it is The blast itself is believed to have been caused by explosion of natural gas from the seven oil wells on the school campus The school compasses some thirty with an assessed valuation of 16 million dol- lars. The com owing the dis. covery of one of the most productive 1 Quickly Paid For. With “black gold” flowing from no difficulty in raising the several t is not only debt tiplied many times. In 1831, when wealth gushed out of the ground for the communities the two villages schools serving the trict set up. The school lies midway between the two communities. The site of the disaster scene can in the district, to Henderson. 1,500 in Eight Grades. The wrecked school had iment of 1,500 students, from the Ir h grade to the third year of high an en- 0 p first of which was built } pleted structure 30 classrooms and an au- large enough to accommo- date half of the total enrollment. Equipped to teach stenography, ic, manual training, and sew- as well as academic subjects, that its munity institution was as At one side of the main building stood the gymnasium, and at the other stood a grade school for chil- dren from the kindergarten to the fifth grade. The home of the super- itendent also stood on the school grounds, All Are Fireproof. All of the buildings were of fire- proof construction and ample size. The grade, or grammar school, was a two story brick building about 100 by 125 feet. The main building had a two story unit in the center, about 50 feet wide and 60 feet deep, which housed the auditorium and various laborato- ries, and wings on either side. These wings, each 30 feet deep and 65 feet long, gave the building a frontage of 180 feet. From a high window of the school one could look out across a plain dotted almost solidly as far as the eye could reach by oil derricks. Thousands of these rear their smut- covered skeletons from 50 to 100 feet in the air. Smooth Dirt Roads. Broad dirt roads, of the sort listed on road maps as first class C grade, are the main highways here. They are almost as smooth as glass, and at this time of the year are dry. Ditches are three feet deep on each side and the shoulders, in some cases, are edged with asphalt or gravel. Under the scorching sun that beats down with stifling force nine months out of the year, the houses and other wooden structures are like tinder boxes, dry as dust and ready to burst into flames at the slightest spark. Practically no building is more than two stories high. Many of the office buildings, stores, and even the banks in the villages are only one-story affairs. Despite the dirt roads and bare earth, nearly everyone in the school district is well-off financially be- cause of the oil. The people ride in expensive cars, for the most part, to their Kitten Twins Pose For Your Pleasure Pattern 5766 The Kitten Twins, as much alike as peas in a pod, pose obligingly for your needle. Embroider this plump, cuddlesome pair and you'll have the gayest wall panel ever— a panel that will be a delight in any room! Just single and outline stitch, in silk, cotton or angora wool and it's ready to be lined and hung! 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers