The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-23

pectedly. brought Wallace Carpenter
/ TO the spot
The place was an ampitheater for
such as chose to be spectators. They
could stand or sit on the summit of the
gorge cliffs, overlooking the river, the
| fall and the jam.
At last Shearer became angry.
We've been monkeying long
enough" said he Next time we'll
leave center that will go out. Well
shut the dams down tight and dry-pick
out two wings that'Il start her."
The dams were first run at full speed,
and then shut down. Hardly a drop of
water flowed in the bed of the stream.
The crews set laboriously to work to
pull and roll the logs out in such fiat
fashion that a head of water should
send them out.
This was even harder work than the
other, for they had not the floating
power of water to help them in the
lifting. AS usual, part of the men
worked below, part above.
Jimmy Powers, curly-haired, laugh
ing-faced, was irrepressible. He bad
gered the others until they threw back
at him and menaced him with their
peaveys. Always he had at his tongues
end and the proper quip for the occa-
sion, so that in the long run the work
was lightened by him. When. the men
stopped to think at all, they thought
of Jimmy Powers with very unkindly
hearts, for it was known that he had
had more trouble than most, and that
coin was not made too small for him
to divide with a needy comrade.
Thorpe approved thoroughly of jim
my Powers; he thought him a good in
f1uence. He told Wallace so. standing
among the spectators on the cliff top.
He is all right" said Thorpe. II
wish I had more like him. The others
fn0
Five men were at the moment tug
ging futilely at a reluctant timber.
They were attempting to roll one end
of it over the side of another project
ing log, but were continually foiled,
because the other end was iammed
fast. Each bent his knees, inserting
his shoulders under the projecting
peavey stock to straighten in
mighty effort.
1t was fine spring day, clear-eyed
and crisp, with a hint of new foliage
in the thick buds of the trees. The
air was so pellucid that one distin-
guished without difficulty the straight
entrance to the gorge, mile away,
and even the West Bend, fully i've
miles distant.
Jimmy Powers took off his cap and
wiped his forehead.
You boys, he remarked. politely.
think you are boring with mighty
big auger."
MY Cod" screamed one of the spec
tatorS on top of the cliff
AT the same instant Wallace Carpen-
ter seized his friends arm and pointed.
Down the bed of the stream from
the upper bend rushed a solid wall of
water several feet high. 1t flung itself
forward with the headlong impetus of
cascade. Even in the short interval
between the visitors exclamation and
Carpenters rapid gesture, it had loom
ed in sight, twisted dozen trees from
the river bank. and foamed into the
entrance of the gorge. An instant later
it collided with the tail of the jam.
Even in the railroad rush of those
few moments several things happened.
Thorpe leaped for a rope. The crew
working on top of the dam ducked
instinctively to right and left and be-
gan to scramble towards safety. The
men below, at first bewildered and rot
compcehending, finally understood, aad
ran towards the face of the jam with
the intention of clambering up 1t. There
could be no escape in the narrow canon
below, the walls of which rose sheer.
Then the flood hit square. A great
sheet of water rose like surf from the
tail of the jam; mighty cataract
poured down over it's surface lifting
the free logs; from either wing timbers
crunched, split, rose suddenly into
wracked prominence, twisted beyond
| the semblance of themselves. Here
| and there single logs were even pro-
| jected bodily upwards, as an apple
seed is shot from. between the thumb
and forefinger. Then the jam moved.
Scotty Parsons, Jack Hyland, Red
Jacket and the forty or fifty men had
reached the shore. By the wriggling
activity which is a riyerman's alone.
they succeeded in pulling themselves
| beyond the snap of deaths jaws. 1t
was a narrow thing for most of them,
and a miracle for some.
Jimmy Powers, Archie Harris, Long
Pine Jim, Big Nolan and Mike Mo-
loney, the brother of Bryan, were in
worse case. They were, as has been
said, engaged in "f1attening" part of
the face of it. When they finally UNI
derstood that the affair was one of
| escape, they ran towards the jam, hop
ing to climb out. Then the crash came.
They heard the roar of the waters. the
wrecking of the timbers, they saw the
logs bulge outwards in anticipation of
the break Immediately they turned
and fled they knew not where.
All but Jimmy Powers. He stopped
short in his tracks, and threw his bat
tered old felt hat deiantly full into
the face of the destruction hanging
over him. Then, his bright hair blow
ing in the wind of death, he turned to
the spectators standing helpless and
paralyzed, forty feet above him.
1t was an instant's irnpression-the
arrested motion seen in the flash of
lightning-and yet to the onlookers IT
had somehow the quality of time. FOR
perceptible duration it seemed to them
they stared at the contrast between
the raging hell above and the yet
peaceable river below.
Yet afterwards, when they attempt
ed to recall definitely the impression
they knew it could have lasted but a
| fraction of a second.
80 long. boys" they heard Jimmy
Powers voice. Then the rope Thorpe
had thrown fell across a caldron of
tortured waters and of tossing logs.
CHAPTER xxx.
During perhaps ten seconds the sur
vivors watched the end of Thorpe's
rope trailing in the flood. Then the