Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-04-04

natchwood; she was as ready to burn
as a powder string. Capt. Willis knew
it. He peered down among the freight
upon the lower deck, and saw the
curling smoke and the little spurts of
fame; he looked up at the deck
above, beyond which were the dry
woodwork of the cabin and the in
fammable upper works; and he
knew that his best hope was to beach
the St. Clair before the fire had
stopped his engines.
Are they out from below?" he
asked.
mot yet, sir"
rs Van Clede in the engine-room?"
Eyes, SIR
s'Teli him to stick. Tell them all
sons. We must keep it under as
much as we can"
The steward went through the cab
in, knocking at the doors and calling
the passengers. They came by twos
and threes, little groups Of white
faced people half-dressed. About them
was the blackness of the night, out
of which came the lines of choppy,
off-shore seas-that and nothing
more; as yet they had seen no flame,
had hardly smelled the smoke. Willis
called Van Clede to the speaking-tube.
"'We're afire over the boilers" he
said.
Eyes, SIR
I'm going to run for Bronson's.
Stick to it as long as you can, and
give us everything you've got"
eyes, sir.''
Then the head of the ST. Clair was
turned into the wind. The passengers,
silent and nervous, gathered on the
forward deck. There was no turmoil,
no confusion of words; but below, the
crew of the ST. Clair, and Shocky
Larson with them, wet and scorched
and choked with smoke, were fighting
the enemy they did not hope to over
come. And the ST. Clair, shaking all
over with a steady tremble, split the
water away before her bluff bow, and
half-hour licked itself off on the
pilot-house clock.
The head wind drove the flames
steadily back upon the freehold and
engine-roOm. Fifteen minutes more
and the stokers, burned and blinded,
were dragged through the fire to the
deck. There was steam enough for all
the miles that the ST. Clair would
ever travel upon any waters.
In the engine-room Van Clede, out
| wardly calm, trembled inwardly with
kind of ecstasy. A hundred times he
had pressed these engines pressed
them notch by notch until he thought
LII
but never had he pressed them as
| now. He knew them, nut and bolt,
through every fraction of their steady
revolution, but now in the swirling
| smoke they seemed like mad giants
| rushing through their movements.
Yet their music was as even as before,
and the throw which shook the ST.
Clair was as regular as a pendulum.
| The engine-room was like furnace;
the paint dropped in scales from the
woodwork, and Van Clede tore a strip
from his shirt, wet it, and tied it
across his mouth and nostrils. His
| flesh ached with the heat, and he
stood stoop-shouldered and childish
eyed, and was proud of his engines.
Twice Willis called Van Clede to the
| speaking tube.
care you there yet?' he asked.
Gall right so far, SIR" said Van
| Clede.
| Capt. Willis had begun to feel the
| nearness of the land, although in the
| darkness there was neither signal
| light nor shore line to tell him where
he was. A quarter of mile one way
or the other made a difference of reef
Or beach, or safety or destruction
| Aft, the flames were licking the edges
of the upper deck, but Willis signaled
for reduced speed, and the ST. Clair
with two men at her wheel, came in
cautiously as a cat, ready to jump
either way.
| At Bronson's they had seen he1
coming, and the red light flashed out
| at the end of the dock. The light
came too late. AS it met their eyes
suddenly a tremendous shock shooh
the ST. Clair from stem to stern; out
| went the lamps in the cabin, loose
furniture, loose things upon the deck
leaped toward the bow. From below
came the crash of shifting freight
and passengers and crew, wherever
| they stood, were dashed to the decl
| and hurled forward.
The ST. Clair had struck the reef;
and as if the shock had been a sigma
| the whole boat aft of her funnel be
came flaming torch. The fire seemed
to move along the edges of the decl
as fast as man could walk. The
boats were gone, the funnel tremblet
between the loosening stays.
Willis, who had been thrown from
his feet by the shock, leaped again tt
his place, wide cash across his fore
head where he had struck the railing
| Sisc1 q Led f01. : 1.aye1Sed acri1aeS