The Portland daily press., 1879-05-28

oWCPb w.
''What is it?" he cries again.
'.Shaft on fire. cried another voice in an
swer; and in second the street was clear.
William Bowker dashed down the stairs and
hurled himself along the street.
Anybody DOWN." he gasped as he turned
the corner and passed the hindmost figure in
the hurrying mass. The woman knew him.
''For Gods sake, lend me thy hand, Willy
YUM" she gasped in answer "My Joe's
inn
He caught the shriveled little figure in his
great arms as though the old woman had
been baby and dashed on again. Ay, the
tale was true! There were hundreds of
people already crowded on the pit mound
and about the shaft, and from every quarter
men and women came streaming in, white
faced and breathless. William set his with
cred burden down and pushed through to
the edge of the shaft. There was water in
the up-cast, and the engines were at work
full power Up came the enormous bucket
and splashed its 200 or 300 gallons down the
burning shaft, and dropped like stone down
the up-cast, and after a long, long pause,
labored up again and vomited its freight
again, and dropped like stone for more.
"Yo' might just as well stand in ring
an spit at it, said Bowker, with his face
all pale and his eyes on fire. "Get the
stinktors up and let man or tew go
down.
sWill yo' make one, Bill Bowker?" said =
brawny. coal-smeared man beside him.
"Yis, Iwull," was the answer, given like
a bulldogs growl.
''rll max another" said the man.
San me- can me,' San mel, cried
dozen more.
''Rig the bowk, somebody" said the love-
lorn verse-maker, taking at once, and as by
right, the place he was born for, "Bill-Joe
-Abel-Darkey-com VII me-"
The crowd divided and the five made for
the offices. and found there in arrow, a num-
Der of barrel-shaped machines of metal, each
having small hose and pumping apparatus
attached to it. These were anew boon from
the generous hand of science-a French con-
trivance, as the name affixed to each set
forth-L' Extincteur. Each of the men
seized one of these and bore it to the edge OF
the shaft, the crowd once more making way
A bucket, technically a s'bowk' some two
feet deep and eighteen inches wide, was af
fixed to the rope which swung above the
burning shaft. The self-appointed leader
asked for flannel clothing. A dozen gar
ments were flung to him at once. He
wrapped himself up like a mummy, and
bound a cotton handkerchief over his face.
Then, with the machine strapped securely
across his shoulder, he stepped one foot in
the bucket, and laid hand upon the rope. A
man ran forward with slender chain,
which he passed rapidly round the volun-
teers waist and fixed to the rope that sup
ported the bowk. Another thrust an end of
rope into his hand and stood by to reeve
out the rest as he descended. Then came
the word: "Short, steady" The engine
painted, the rope frightened, the clumsy fig
ure with the machine bound about it, swung
into the smoke, and in death-like stiffness,
with here and there smothered gasp, the
man went down. His comrade at the edge
dribbled the rope through his blackened fin
gers as deliberately as though it had been
silken thread. Then came sudden tug at
it, and the word was flashed to the engine
room, and the creak of the wheel ceased and
the gliding rope was still. Then, for space
of half a minute, not sound was heard, but
every eye was on the rope, and every cheek
was pallid with suspense, and every heart
was with the hero in the fiery depths below.
Then came another warning tug at the rope,
and again the word flashed to the engine
room. The wheel spun round, the rope
glided, quivered, stopped, the figure was
seized, lowered, landed. When his COM
rades laid hands upon him, the flannel gar
ments fell from him in huge blackened fakes
so near to the flames had he been, He cast
these garments from him, and they fell half
finder, at his feet Then he drew off the
handkerchief which bound his face, and
at the godlike, heroic pallor of his coun-
tenance, the set lips and cleaning
eyes, the women whispered painting
ly, ''God bless himp' and the breath
of those bold fellows was drawn hard. Then
he reeled and a pair of arms like a bears
were round him in second. In ten minutes
more he wos outside the crowd, and bottle
of Whiskey, which came from nobody knew
where, was at his lips as he lay upon the
ground, and two or three women ran for
water. And while all this was doing, an
other man, as good as he, was swinging
downward in the binding smoke. So fierce
a leap the flames made at this hero, that
they caught him fairly moment in their
arms, and when he was brought to the sur
face, he hung limp and senseless, with great
patches of smoldering fire upon his garments,
and his hands and face cracked and black
ened. But the next man-was ready, and
when he, in turn, came to the fight, he had
said goodbye forever to the light in this
world. Not this, nor anything that fear
could urge, could stay the rest. Man after
man went down. There were five and thir-
ty men and boys below, and they would have
them up or die With that godlike pallor on
their lips and cheeks, with those wide eyes
that looked death in the face, and knew him,
and defied rundown they went! | saw
these things, who tell this story. Man after
man defied that fiery hell, and faced it's lurid
smoky darkness. undismayed until, at last,
their valor won the day.
The love-lorn William had but little room
in his heart for superfuous sentiment as he
laid his hand upon the wire rope, and set his
foot in the bowk again. Yet just hope was
there-that Selma should not grieve too
greatly if this second venture failed, and he
should meet his death. He was not, as a
rule, devotionally inclined, but he whispered
inwardly, "God be good to her," And there
at that second he saw her face before him
so set and fixed that, in its agony of fear and
prayer it looked like marble. The rope grew
taut, he passed the handkerchief about his
face again, and with the memory of her eyes
upon him, dropped out of sight. The man
at the side of the shaft paid out the slender
line again, and old hands watched it closely.
Yard after yard ran out. The great coil at
his feet snaked itself, ring by ring, through
his coaly fingers. Still no warning message
came from below. The engine stopped at
last, and they knew that the foot of the shaft
was reached. Had the explorer tainted by
the way? He might, for all they knew above,
be roasting down below that minute. Even
then his soul, newly released, might be
above them.
Through the dead silence of the crowd the
word flashed to the engine-room. The wheel
went round, and the wire rope quivered and
glided up again over it. There was not a
man or woman there who did not augur the
same thing from the tenser culver of the
rope, and when at last through the thinner
coils of smoke about the top of the shaft the
rescuer's figure swung with the first of the
rescued in his arms. there was heard one
sound of infinite pathos-asigh of relief from
10000 breasts-and dead silence fell again.
"Alive?" asked one, layinga hand on Bow
ker's arm. Bill nodded and pushed him by,
and made his way toward that marble face,
nursing his burden still.
''Seliner," he said, quietly, there's your
sweetheart
''No, no, no, Bill, she answered. 'Theres
.on'y one man i the world for me, Bill, if ev-
er he forgives me an my wicked ways"
Cheer ON cheer of triumph rang in their
ears. The women fought for Bill Bowker,
and kissed him and cried over him. Men
shook hands with him and with each other.
Strangers mingled their tears, the steel rope
was gliding up and down at rare rate now,
ano the half-suffocated prisoners of the fire
were being carried up in patches. Selma and
her lover stood side by side and watched the
last shipful to the surface.
''Thats the lot,' yelled one coal-smeared
giant as the skip swung up. Out broke the
| ol1A