Iron County register., 1888-05-31
They ran back from the shore to higher

stream rose several feet in a second. 1t
cut into the solid banks on either side,
and bushes and young trees, rooted up
and sucked in by the greedy current, went
spinning by. A giant sycamore wavered,
flung out its bare and skeleton limbs as if
in ghostly protest. and fell far out into the
stream, interlocking its branches with a
sturdy, evergreen oak, which stood on the
opposite bank, while its trunk, loosely
anchored by long, snake-like roots, tossed
helplessly in mid-stream.
Mamma! See the big boards comingw
cried out her little daughter.
Kate looked far up stream and saw
great timber sailing Ieisurely along.
Now it caught on projecting snag and
swung half about, now it struck SUBJ
merged island, and idly disengaged it
self and sauntered on. Behind it was an
other, and yet another-the stream was
black with them.
''Oh, my God! The railroad bridgew
The railroad bridge, and the afternoon
train now nearly due, soon to rush down
a steep grade to a leap into that yawning
chasm! Her first impulse was to start up
the canyon, but she instantly checked
herself. What folly, when miles of over
flow lay between her and the doomed
train! Word must be sent down
telegram to the next stop
ping place above the bridge. But how?
The hired man. Jim had gone an hour be-
fore to the village to get the mail and have
his daily gossip with the loungers of the
place. Even if he was here, neither horse
nor man was feet enough to cover the
circuitous road that lay between. Then
she looked at the PROSTATE sycamore.
Down the stream, leisurely, but nearer
and nearer still. sailed the great timbers.
marian, take little brother and go
straight to the house and stay there till
mamma comes back"
She had already pulled herself up by
one of the roots, and was creeping STEALTH
ly along the swaying trunk. Here her
dress caught on q branch; there she had
to climb down and crawl along with her
feet under the water, to avoid an upright
limb. Once she slipped and lost her hold,
and was nearly sucked into the eddying
current, but she caught at stout projec-
ton and swung herself up again.
She could hear the swash of the heavy
timbers upstream as they rocked lazily
upon the water, but she did not dare to
look. Before her the main trunk of the
tree was lost, and she saw two diverging
limbs, one low in the water, the other
locked with the oak in mid air. Which to
take? She dared not hesitate, but COM
menced perilous climb along the up
per limb, slippery and naked in
places, wavsring SO that S he grew
dizzy, and shut her eyes to keep from
falling. And so, lying prone upon it,
hand over hand, she crept the entire
length, and the great stick of timber
struck heavily against the fallen syca-
more, and just as Kate swung herself into
no nf ha nalY CHI FOL ho-
port give way, and with a groan, and
crash, and wild up-tossing of its skeleton
arms, the old tree tore loose from it's
moorings, and was swept down stream
toward the bay.
Her hands torn and bleeding, Kate Mid
dleton reached solid ground atlength, and
first her maternal instinct asserted itself,
and she looked back and saw her children
standing still and looking after her. She
pointed homeward with a gesture that
they dared not disobey, and saw them
turn and run up the lane, then sped along
her way.
She was not light of foot as in her girl
hood; whereas, she was once fleet as a
deer, and swift motion was very joy to
her, she now realized that she was grow
ing to be a stout and middle aged woman.
She moved heavily and clumsily. and
ciods beneath her. There was a mile of
rough and rocky ground to be covered be-
fore she reached the station, and the train
oh, but to possess once more the agility
of her girlhood!
Which would be first? Would the train,
flying across the upper levels of the Coast
Range, reach the next station before the
brave woman had sent her message of
warning? How many times she asked
herself the question she could not have
told. She scarcely dared hope that she
might be in time. Her heart seemed
ready to burst with grief for the terrible
misery threatening so many happy homes.
Alas! for the orphaned children who
might cry aloud to Heaven that night
Alas! for fathers and mothers whom the
morrow might behold bowed down with
sorrow! Alas for husbands and wives -
She was crossing the bed of one of the
many abandoned channels of the impet-
uous mountain stream, a rocky pathway,
strewn with the spoils of by-gone fresh
cts, whe re, even then, a shallow stream
was ripping past, token of the torrents
surplus force. She faltered, smitten by a
new and awful thought. What if Tom
Tom, who was not to come home for two
days more; Tom, who had started out in
an altogether different direction-should Id
have cut short his excursion, or, with his
party, driven home by the continued rains,
somehow wandered to one of the upper
stations, and boarded the train there!
Where was her vaunted physical
strength now? What was she, after all,
but weak, wretched woman, with tremb-
ling limbs, every muscle clOgged by this
great horror that had taken possession of
her, a fierce pain gripping at her heart,
something rising in her throat which
suffocated her, her eyes blinded with baby
ish tears? Thank God! her brain kept
clear and true to it's purpose, and urged
on the tagging body. On, on, over little
hillocks, across level stretches of sand
down new ravines she ran. Once she cut
her foot cruelty upon a sharp stone and
remembered, for the first time, that she
had on the light worsted slippers she had
worn in the house, and had carelessly
neglected to exchange for walking boots
when she started down the creek with her
children. She even bethought herself
that her loose house-dress was scarcely
the style of apparel in which she should
like to present herself at the station,
could she have her choice, and in the
same breath sent up prayer of thankful.
ness for its light weight, which scarcely
enculnbered her movements.
With all the rest of her senses dulled
her hearing appeared to have become
preternaturally sharp. She seemed to
hear the clatter of the approaching train
twelve miles away. The throb, throb
throb of the engine kept pace with heI
beating heart. She heard the hollow
echoes from the neighboring hills
| as the train crept over embank.
| ments, its deafening clamor as il
rushed across trestle-work, its dull rum
/ BILE as it rolled over solid ground. She