The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-17

bniIt office. A snowy king of peaks was
in the center of the picture, heavy Dlue
sky was balanced by shadows III glaciers
far below. the snow ran down the rock,
then scant pines fringed into dark lot
est. with the roaring river at its foot.
"Rut YOU own up fair and square that
+b;s is taking a risk?" said Holdredge,
the contractor from Utah. lts no
common kind of job---put work III ana
take dollars out.
I'VE lay the cards on the tapie' MT
Holdredge."
The lord of railroads threw packet
down before him, and, rising, went 10
tho stove. Except about noon the ar
was chill at the altitude of the summit
when the month was May.
There's nothing underhand here
said Ross. 'What our engineers say
your know Ones words is, w ny, GER
tainly. and another's, 1t can't be DONE
and the third is Scotchman ana mas
what he calls his boots But II you
and your brother risk it, and make IL,
we pay heavy. If you muck 1t, our
share goes and you'll lose your labor.
It's a gamble"
He stirred up the stove with burnt
pine stick. which he withdrew, blazing
Mature always holds four aces, SAID
the younger Holdredge.
mo" said Ross; but she keeps her
gun ready for all of us when we WIN.
Even plain piece of rock work at Sl
yard, or 81, may spell catastrophe ana
sudden death.
The Holdredges looked at each other
for a long minute and then at the table
This was a strangely quiet gampllhg
house, far among the hills
And the dealer waited.
"Tll straddle the blind" said Hold
redge. And his brother nodded.
But as they put their names ON paper
they felt that on that plain bit of pine
Law 10 years work and 10 years money,
10 he returned with mighty interest or
swept off by Ross and those behind him.
Pm glad you have the grit to take
this ON said the dealer. I'D have
given considerable when | was 30 to
have such a level chance offered. II you
mt if through you make three times as
much in half the time as the man who
has the latest job between the Summit
and the Cascades"
He laughed jovially.
And if we don't. Mr.. Ross, said the
younger Holdredge, well establish
claim on you for long station III the
Columbia valley, where two men can
start afresh with short shoyels.
But when they We're outside they
shook hands.
1T can be done, said heeley Hoid-
redge, the elder.
Il reckon assented Bill
Yet without telling each other they
wrote that night to their wives in their
native State to go easy with the money
and save what they could.
We've got hold of the biggest thing
here" they said, but it's the risklest
It's make spoon or spoil horn. But
wen make the spoon. never fear.
They dreamed as they slept in their
tent by the foaming waters of the
Kicking Horse river that they were
rich. that they were poor. that the
world was theirs and that it was lost.
And overhead was the great Gravei
mountain through which they had I'M
dertaken to put tunnel.
The big men in the East were in
hurry to meet the big men of the west.
BY the end of May the valley was
hive of men, and every hour came the
sound of great rocks cast down. On
temporary rails fiat cars ran. Explo-
sions shattered the air and beat the
white river whittier yet with the wreck
Of mountains In the forests strong
men from Michigan and Wisconsin
hewed piles of ties, and many working
on contract for the Holdredges squared
huge balks with broad axes. The crash
of falling pines re-echoed; mountain
sheep and goats and stumbling bears
wondered and went north and south.
A world of men divided their ancient
Al, .1- at.at.e ,..t
and snow-side was the elin Shrek Of
the far locomotives now dominant on
the conquered summit; and in the great
gravel hill the Holdredges' ants were
working, preparing natural slope
among the disintegrated wash of II
thousand years For in solid rock the
engineer may cut to what steep angle
he will. in hardened earth or schist or
clay is another fitting slope, but for all
loose material only the natural slope
will hold. The angle at which gravel
runs is the angle at which 1t will stay.
That is its natural slope
In June the tunnel began, and with
the tunnel the difficulties were unburied,
for in the gravel was a bed of blue clay
that cut beautifully with IA spade or a
shovel. 1t was as strangely pure in
color as it was homogeneous. Not a
grain of sand gritted on a knife passed
through it: a man could stand on a
fresh cut slab and hardly leave "A mark.
When they came to il the men called
to the foreman and he sent for Kelley.
The sight and feel of it gladdened his
heart.
IF it runs through this viii save half
the labor" he said. For to timber up the
gravel seemed more and more terrible
10 him.
His foreman looked doubtful, but kept
his doubts to himself. lie said nothing
when the contractor made some men
put down slabs of the clay for track
but he shook his head when Ioldredge
went away.
In the morning when Kelley came out
Of his tent and set his foot upon a blue
slab he sank in it deeply. He looked fol
water and saw none; but the mems long
boots were daubed with blue
Have you struck spriDg| he asked
Iy,ap totd hin, sNo -