Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-28

Already the ice cementing the logs together had begun to weaken. The ice had wrenched and tugged savagely at the locked timbers until they had, with mighty effort, snapped asunder the bonds of their hiberna ton. Now mar row lane of black rushing water pierced the rollways to boil and eddy in the consequent jam three miles below. l To the foremen Thorpe assigned their 1 tasks. | "Moloney," said he to the big Irish man, "take your crew and break that jam. Then scatter your men down to within mile of the pond at Dam Two and see that the river runs clear. You can tent for a day or so at West Bend or some other point about half way down, and after that you had better camp at the dam. Just as soon as you get logs enough in the pond start to I sluicing them through the dam. You won't need more than four men there 1 if you keep good head. You can keep your gates open five or six hours. And, Moloney''- ~ "Yes, sir.''
 -'T want you to be careful not to sluice too long. There is a bar just below the dam, and if you try to {. sluice with the water too low you'll center and jam there as sure as shoot ing"
 Bryan Moloney turned on his heel and began to pick his way down stream over the solidly banked logs. Without waiting the command dozen men followed him. The little group bobbed away irregularly into the dis tance, springing lightly from one tim Der to the other, holding their quaintly fashioned peaveys in the manner of a ropedancer's balancing pole. At the lowermost limit of the rollways each man pried a log into the water and, standing gracefully erect on this un- stable craft, foated out down the cur rent to the scene of his dangerous la Dor.
 "Kerlie," went on Thorpe, esyour crew can break rollways with the rest until we get the river fairly filled, and then you can move on down stream as fast as you are needed Scotty, you will have the rear. Tim and I will boss the river"
 At once the signal was given to El- lis, the dam watcher. Ellis and his assistants thereupon began to pry with long iron bars at the ratchets of the heavy gates. The chore boy bent at tentively over the ratchet pin, lifting it delicately to permit another inch of raise, dropping it accurately to enable the men at the bars to seize fresh purchase. The rivers roar deepened. Through the wide sluiceways torrent foamed and tumbled. Immediately it spread through the brush on either side to the limits of the freshet banks and then gathered for its leap against the uneasy roIlways. Along the edge of the dark channel the face of the logs seemed to crumble away. Farther in toward the banks where the weight of timber still outbalanced the weight of the food the tiers grumbled and stirred. Far down the river, where Bryan Moloney and his crew were picking at the jam, the water in eager streamlets sought the interstices be- tween the logs, gurgling excitedly.
 The jam creaked and groaned in re- sponse to the pressure. From its face hundred jets of water spouted into the lower stream. Logs up-ended here and there, rising from the bristling surface slowly like so many arms from the roll ways, paused at the slack eddied back foamfng. Logs shot down from the rollways, paused at the slack water and finally hit with hollow and resound- ing boom against the tail of the jam. A moment later they. too, up-ended. | The crew were working desperately. Down in the heap somewhere two logs were crossed in such a manner as to lock the whole. They sought those logs.
 Thirty feet above the bed of the river six men clamped their peaveys into the soft pine, jerking, pulling, lifting, slid ing the great logs from their places. Thirty feet below, under the threaten ing face, six other men coolly picked out and set adrift, one by one, the tim bers not inextricably imbedded. From time to time the mass creaked, settled, perhaps even moved foot or two, but always the practiced river men after glance bent more eagerly to their work.
 |" Outlined against the sky, big Bryan | Moloney stood directing the work. He knew by the tenseness of the log he stood on that behind the jam power had gathered sufficient to push the whole tangle down stream. Now he was offering it the chance.
 Suddenly the six men below the jam scattered. Four of them jumped light ly from one floating log to a1fother in the zigzag to shore. The other two ran the length of their footing and, over- leaping an open of water, landed heav- fly and firmly on the very ends of two small floating logs. In this manner the force of the jump rushed the little tim bers end-on through the water. The two men, maintaining marvelously their balance, were thus ferried to within leaping distance of the other shore.
 In the meantime a barely perceptible motion was communicating itself from one particle to another through the cen ter of the jam. The men redoubled their