The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-02-02
THE BILLINGS GAZETTE; FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2. 1900.

E wv ~ SOAA6 oVSA ~ AhhSos pa E
answered Holdredge. 1--WE had u letter
from Andy Onderdonk. 1t was a gam
BILE, and the cards were against us"
They shook hands aud parted.
The tunnels chorus vas now porten-
tous. 1t shrieked and cried and set a
mans teeth on edge with horrible graf
ing noises. The steps on which the up
rights stood were crushed through: each
standards heavy heel was set in mere
wood fiber. as soft. it seemed, as a hank
Of coir yarns. And where the side thrusts
were greatest the short blocks splinter
ed. The ceiling was now a downward
hanging arch. The bullying was very OBJ
vious. And by no trick Of forcing the
imagination could the eye behold a level
floor. Little shakes and %splinters rose on
1t, as when a mar bends a lath to break
ing. And every hour or so came q sound
like a gunshot, when some drier, over
wrought beam gave way utterly.
Though it's sound brought seeming 81
lence in a moment more the cries Of the
strained wood were greater and more
terrible.
myself, who write this. was then at
work for another contractor two miles
up the pass. and one hot Sunday in Au-
gust. when my mates were lying In
their tents, ! went to view the tunnel.
And. though / was afraid, ! walked
through its whole dark burrow. It was
not the first time ! had done 1t. but it
was the last.
There was something uncanny in the
grooming of the wood, something awe
inspiring. When half way through in
the intensest darkness, terror got hold
of me. and my hair bristled. Wishing
to run, I could not, and I sweated ice
as I went. In the daylight at the west
end I saw the hanging roof. 1t seemed
to move; long s~plinters pointed more
and more perpendicularly, and the side
standards bent like bows. I walked on
a curve Of floor timbers driven upward
by the rising clay. Here and there were
jagged points; beams split and opened,
ragged with tough fiber. In the hands
Of the mountain the mightiest trees
were match wood.
And outside by their tent I saw the
Holdredges loading up a pack pony.
while two other little cayuses stood
ready saddled. I gave them good day,
and they nodded-not uncheerfully, as
I thought. And when the pony's load
was fixed up I followed them at a little
distance as they took their last walk to
the tunnels mouth, which was now
shapeless and distorted. Two great
rafters had freed their ends and point
ed northwest and southwest. The sill
was burst and the under clay rose in a
strange mud flower. From the tunnels
depth came sounds which were half
musical, half discordant, like the loud
cry Of breaking harp strings.
"It's settling now" said Kelley
Holdredge as he took his brothers arm.
And visibly, though with a peculiar
slowness, as If Of conscious power, the
jaws Of the tunnel were being forced
together. The riven roofing fringed its
jagged mouth like yellow fangs, stained
blue in places, until it seemed some
living monster writhing in agony under
a most intolerable weight. But the
sounds of the deeper tunnel were muf-
fed. We knew the clay was bursting
in at a thousand places. Perhaps even
now the long work of gravity was done
there. One groan burst out Of the clos
ing mouth, and then we heard the
whistle Of a driven wind hiss through
the ragged teeth. But with that cama
a fall Of gravel from the higher hill,
and when the dust was dissipated the
tunnel was seen no more.
It might have been my imagination,
but as the brothers turned away it
seemed to me that a great weight was
off their minds.
met old Gordon a mile up the road
and stopped him.
"The mud tunnels down, Mr.. Cor
don said. And he whistled.