The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-04
broke from the crumbling center pier

and plunged into the HOOu. 93a#S as
AT Midgley they found a red signal out
ana a freight train on the siding. Look
ing eastward, they saw the cause: Muley I
Fork. mad with It's burden, was pushing [
moving grinding ridge OF Ice clear across I
the track into the northern wall. i
Looking up the monnta inside, they saw
the whole front of the reservoir stream
ing. a long veil Of gltttering glass! Would
the dam hold? What If the snow ON the !
steep, open slopeet the left OF 1t should
break and sweep into 1t, irresistible in
force, incalculab In weight? The Grand.
| climbing it's banks, Aaornentarily backing
up from the ice gorge at the mouth of
llMuley Fork Midgeley and the express
and the freight lay in a frightful trap
Shandon got down and looked about
| him. The conductor came running for
ward. There were CRYING ana thysterla Id
along the track. A hundred people or
more. the populace Of little Midgley, were
! waiting for the train. Six or seven sick
i persons, on improvlsed stretchers, lay on
! the platform There were three sick
| people on the train. What was 70 pc
done? The hale ana strong mish., nj. ,poss,o ISL
1 bly, escape up the mountains; put Ssthe
reservoir and the snow, the women and
the children, and-the sick 33@
owe must clear the gorge and take 'em
over Angel Pass into Peace Valley said
Shandon, half to himself. Lot OF folks
i
the sick and helpless and any sort OF :peo-
!, nle In trouble Say, Phil" he shouted to
, the engineer of the. freight run down
, ahead and let me kick my train In on the
: siding. then you hook on to the coaches
: and stand ready to follow me through in
+ going to cut the ice patch in two.
9 The conductors Of the freight and pas
: senger both protested. Nothing but de.
;, struction for the engine and death for the
man who drove her could result, they de-
4 clared. But Phil Lyon, chewing hard or
: a. piece of tobacco, said coolly: All right
|. Nat: only you'd better let me buck the Ice
6 first =.
t mo, have the right Of way; it is m,
duty. not yours, Phil. Pull down and lie
Y me kick in. There will be forty feet o
it. water in this gulch in twenty minutes
It that gorge amt broken" said Shandon.
q Then there was wild hurrying, tn
II clashing Of drawheads and the Kissing
steam, rough shouting and shr1ll crying
and 1noans from the sick who were :be1n
al carried aboard The Grand was lippin
t, the rails of Sthe main line, its :3Wate
IT heaped with grCaning and grinding wind
j. rows Of ice, as Shandon backed the grea
l. 900 for the charge. He sent her ;bac
- clear to the fallen bridge before he re
q yersed for the terrible charge. Ridley ha
IN gotten off at the station, and Shandon SO
VI alone in the cab. There was a babblez an
clamor of echoes through all the canyol
D. He drew in his breath. and held It an II
ISL slant, then threw the throttle wide. TF
,es huge engine .1eaped, forward with a ros
from stack and exhausts. Beautiful an
1T mighty she swept down the perllol
40 stretch: her iron skull set for the noun
to ing ridge of ice. What the people hear
e. as he passed was a long roar of thunde
III what they saw was a. glimmering monst'
y flash by with a gray iron face at the VII
~ dow. Then there was booming cras
Nv a great gush of water and ice blocks
NJ the air, and the monster was gone. -.
4. Lyon opened his engines valves al
I the express rushed after her, plowing OF
- ward through water and crashing ice In
- open ground What Lyon did not s.
)" some one on the rear coaches saw, a SUI
: lime and terrifying spectacle on the mou
ill tain side-the smoking rush of a tho
,s sand3ton of snow into Midgley reserve
~, ~, With the impact half the water Of the il
Gf IF closure seemed to gush outward over t
vi dams crest like a gigantic silver banne
M bending downward as the structure burs
And tiny Midgley? Well, no human II
W was there. + ;. :
y, They found shandon's engine 900 fe
,es. beyond the ice pack, lying on her sic
,th Stack, bell, sand tank, cab-everyth
at was gone. Battered and stripped she ls
he a kissing wreck. They pulled .Shand
~, from some wreckage rearward from
t1a engine He was hurt beyond mortal he
- AS he hung in Lyon S arms he spoke
~ once, ""Tell Hallelujah'''' murmur
,r.7 ,ro "the little icaptaih-bacl1 sfn Round Hill
. YOU lxnoW-tell her I tried to- love a
y. save em all-but Loved her-the-bes
80 That. was all. They laid him on Gu!
1no ions in the baggage car and pulled {
-. ward around the curve up Tudor Gul
ain over Angel Pass, and down into PEI
"a Valley. 49, .
old He was buried there. . J ~.