The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-07
CHAPTER "a

| lndlan leaped IN pursuit.
CHAPTER "a.
what is it?" whats the matter?"
"What the hell's up?" Whats hap
pened?" burst on Wallace in vol
| ley
TITS Dyer" gasped the young man.
81 found him on the boom! He held
me APP with a gun while he filed the
| boom chains between the center piers.
They're just ready to go. 1 got away
by diving. Hurry and put in a new
chain you haven't much time!"
Hes gone-er now" interiected
Solly, grimly. Charley is on his trail
| and he is hit"
Thorpes intelligence leaped prompt
ly to the practical question.
"Injun Charley, where'd he come
| from? 1 sent him up Sadler & Smiths
It's twenty miles, even through the
woods
AS though by way of colossal ans
wer the whole surface of the jam NOV
ed inward and upward, thrusting the
logs bristling against the horizon.
She's going 10 break" shouted
Thorpe, starting on a run towards the
river. "a chain. quick!"
The men followed, strung high with
excitement. Hamilton, the journalist,
paused long enough to glance up
| stream. Then he, too, ran after them,
| screaming that the river above was
full of logs. BY that they all knew
that Intin Charley's mission had fail
| ed, and that something under 10000, 900
feet Of logs were racing down the river
like so many battering rams.
At the boom the great jam was al
ready a-tremble with eagerness to
spring. Indeed, a miracle alone
seemed to hold the timbers in their
place.
IT'S death. certain death, to go out
on that BOOM" muttered Billy Mason.
Tim Shearer stepped forward coolly,
ready as always to assume the peril
Gus duty. He was thrust back by
Thorpe, who seized the chain, cold
shut and hammer which Scofty Par
sons brought, and ran lightly out over
the booms, shouting:
Back! back! Don't follow me, on
your livesl Keep 'em back, Tim!"
The swift water boiled from under
the booms. Bang smash! bang! crash
ed the logs, mile upstream. but
plainly audible above the waters and
the wind. Thorpe knelt, dropped the
cold-shut through on either side of the
weakened link, and prepared to close
it with his hammer. He intended fur
ther to strengthen the connection with
Lem me hold her for you. You can't
close her alone" said an unexpected
voice next his elbow.
Thorpe looked up in surprise and
anger. Over him leaned Big Junko. The
men had been unable to prevent his
following. Animated by the blind de-
votion of the animal for it's master,
and further stung to action by that
masters doubt of his fidelity, the giant
had followed to assist as he might
You damned fool" cried Thorpe ex-
asperated, then held the hammer to
him, strike while keep the chain I'M
derneath," he commanded
Big Junko leaned forward to obey,
kicking strongly his caulks into the
parked surface of the boom log. The
spikes, worn blunt by the river work
already accomplished, failed to grip.
Big Junko slipped, caught himself by
an effort, overbalanced in the other
direction, and fell into the stream. The
current at once swept him away, but
fortunately in such a direction that he
} was enabled to catch the slanting end
of a dead head" log whose lower end
was damned in the Grip. The dead
, head was slippery, the current
!, strong. Big Junko had no crevice by
| which to assure his hold. In another
moment he would be torn away.
Let go and swim!" shouted Thorpe
Il can't SWIM" replied Junko in SC
low voice as to be scarcely audible
For a moment Thorpe stared at him
Tell Carrie" said Big Junko.
Then there beneath the swirling gray
sky, under the frowning jam. in the
: midst of flood waters, Thorpe had his
: second great Moment of Decision. He
l did not pause to weight reasons OF
? chances, to discuss with himself ex.
pediency, or the moralities of failure
~
chanical. All at once the great force:
[ which the winter had been bringine
1 to power, crystalized into somethinE
bigger than himself or his ideas. TIL,
trail lay before him; there was nc
choice.
Now clearly. with no shadow O
> doubt he took the other view: Their,
could be nothing better than love. Men
their works, their deeds We're littl,
things. Success was little thing tn,
opinion of men a little thing. Instant
ly he felt the truth of II.
And here was Love in danger. Tha
1t held Its moments habitation in clal
of the coarser mold had nothing [,
do with the great elemental truth O
: IL. For the first time in his life Thorn
! felt the full crushing power of an alb
straction. Without thought, instinc
: lively, he threw before the necessity O
the moment all that was lesser. II wa
, the triumph of what was real in tn
man over that which environment
alienation. difficulties had raised u
within him.
At Big Junko's words, Thorpe raise
!, his hammer and with one mighty bio,
: severed the chains which bound tn
ends OF the booms across the opening
The free end OF one the poles i'm
! mediately swung down with the cur
u rent In the direction OF Big Junkc
Thorpe like "A cat ran 10 the end q
= the boom. seized the giant by the col
: lar, and dragged him through the wa
= ter 10 safety.
Rum he shouted. Run for you
2 life,"
The two started desperately bach
skiFting the edge Of the logs which nos
y the very seconds alone seemed 70 hOl
y back. They were drenched and blind
- with spray, doafened with the cras
~ umbors settling 90 the leap. m
:. men On shore could 40 longer see thei
for the smother. The great crush q
. logs bad actually begun its nrHi ma