The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-09

cut off the stairs. and left the helpers
nothing for it but to stand and watch
the destruction of the long. rambling
building. Half a dozen of us looked
from the dispatchers' Offices in the sec
ond story Of the depot. We had agreed
that the people were all out when
Foley below gave a cry and pointed to
, the south gable. Away up under the
caves az the third-story window we
saw FACET was Fitzpatrick
Everybody had forgotten Fitzpatrick
ana MS nurse. Behind, as the flames
hgnted the opening. we cauld see the
nurse struggling TO get him TO the win
doW II was plain that the engineer
was IN no condition TO help himse/;
the two men were in deadly peril: a
great cry went up.
Inc crowd swarrned like ants around
20 the south end; a dozen men called
Tor ladders; but there were no ladders
| Ihey called for volunteers to go in after
the two men; but the stairs were long
since a furnace. There were men in
plenty to take any kind of chance. how
ever slight, but no chance offered.
The nurse ran to and from the win
dow, seeking a loop hole for escape.
Fitzpatrick dragged himself higher on
the easement to get out of the smoke
winch rolled over him in choking
bursts, and looked down on the crowd
Ihey begged him to jump-held out
thelr arms frantically. The two men
again side by side waved a hand; it
looked like a farewell. There was no
calling from them, no appeal. The
nurse would not desert his charge, and
we saw it ALL
Suddenly there was a cry below
keener than the confused shouting of
the crowd, and one running forward
naTta0 At .,lo
ing the fence, jumped into the yard
under the burning gable
Betore people recognized him a lariat
was swinging over his head-it was
Sielone Clark. The rope left his arm
IKE slungshot and flew straight at
Fitzpatrick Not seeing, or confused
he missed it, and the rope, with a groan
from the crowd, settled back. The agile
cowboy caught it again into a loop and
shot 1t upward, that time fairly over
Fitzpatrick's head.
Make FAST" roared Siclone. Fitz-
patrick shouted back, and the two men
above drew taut. Hand over hand ST.
clone Clark crept up. like a monkey
oracing his feet against the smoking
ciapboards, edging away from the vom-
ltlng windows, swinging on the single
strand of horsehair. and followed by a
hundred prayers unsaid-
Men who didn't know what tears were
bliCO ~ Cry OUT 10 keep the CHOKING
from their Threats. 1t seemed an age
before he covered the last five feet, and
the men above caught frantically at his
hands.
Drawing himself over the easement
he was lost with them q moment; then
from behind a burst of smoke they saw
him rigging a maverick saddle on Fitz-
patrick; saw Fitzpatrick lifted by Clark
and the nurse over the sill, lowered
like wooden tie, whirling and swing
ing down into twenty arms below. Be
fore the trainmen had got the engineer
loose, the nurse, following, slid like a
cat down the incline; but not an instant
too soon. A tongue of flame lit the
gable from below and licked the horse
hair up into a curling, frizzling thread;
and SiclOne stood alone in the upper
easement.
It seemed for the moment he stood
there the crowd would go mad. The
shock and the shouting seemed to con-
fuse him; it may have been the hot air
took his breath. They yelled to him
to jump; but he swayed uncertainty.
Once, an instant after that, he was
seen to look down; then he drew back
from the easement. / never saw him
again.
The flames wrapped the building in a
yellow fury; by daylight the big bar
racks were sm0uldering pile of ruins
90 filILlG water was thrown l0dI WAS
nearly uightfan before we could get
into the wreck. The tragedy had blot
ted out the fued between the strikers
and the new men. Side by side thav
worked, as side by. side Siclone and
Fitzpatrick had stood in the morning,
striving to uncover the mystery of the
missing man. Next day twice as many
men were in the ruins.
Fitzpatrick, while we were searching.
Nv aF-l~
We didn't tell him the truth; indeed.
we didn't know it; nor do we yet know
it. Every brace. every beam, every
brick was taken from the charred pile.
Every foot Of cinders. every handful of
ashes sifted; but of a human being the
searchers found never a trace. Not a
bone, not a key. not knife. not a. but
ton which could be identified as his.
Like the smoke which swallowed him
up, he had disappeared completely and
forever.
Is he alive? I cannot tell.
But this I know.
Years afterwards Sidney Blair, he'll
of our engineering department. was
running a line, looking then, as we are
looking yet, for a coast outlet.
He took only a flying camp with
him, travelling in the lightest kind CT
order, camping often with the cattle
men he ran across.
One night, away down in the Pan
handle, they fell in with an outfit driv-
ing a bunch of steers UP the Yellow
Grass trail. Blair noted that the fore
man was a character. A man of few
words, but of great muscular strength;
and, moreover, frightfully SCARED.
He was silent and inclined to be
morose at first, but after he learned
Blair was from McCloud he unbent
a bit, and after a time began asking
questions which indicated a surprising
familiarity with the northern country
and with our road In particular this
man asked what had become of Bucks,
and, when told what a big railroad
man he had grown, asserted, with a
sudden bitterness and without in any
way leading up to it, that with Bucks