Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-04-19

The crew were working desperately.
Down in the heap somewhere two logs
were crossed in such 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
~ from one floating log to another in
the zigzag to shore. The other two ran
the length Of their footing and, over
leaping an open Of water, landed heav-
lily 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 barely perceptible
motion was communicating itself from
one particle to another through the cen
ter of the jam. The men redoubled their
exertions. A sharp crack exploded i'm
mediately underneath. There could no
longer exist any doubt as to the motion,
although it was as yet sluggish, glacial.
Then in silence log shifted-in silence
and slowly. but with irresistible force.
Jimmy Powers quietly stepped over it
just as it menaced his leg. Other logs
in all directions appended. The jam
crew were forced continually to alter
their positions, riding the changing tim
bers bent kneed as circus rider treads
his four galloping horses.
Then all at once down by the face
something crashed. The entire stream
became alive. 1t Missed and roared; it
shrieked and grumbled. At first slow
", then more rapidly, the very fore
front Of the center melted inward and
forward and downward until it caught
the fierce rush of the freshet and shot
out from under the jam. Far up
stream, bristling and formidable, the
tons of logs, grinding savagely to-
gether. swept forward.
The six men and Bryan Moloney,
who, it will be remembered, We're, on
top, worked until the last moment.
When the logs began to cave under
them SO rapidly that even the expert
river men found difficulty in staying
on top the foreman set the example
Of hunting safety.
'She pulls boysr he yelled.
Then in manner wonderful to be-
hold, through the smother of foam and
spray, through the crash and yell of
| timbers, through the leap Of destruc-
ton, the drivers zigzagged calmly and
surely to the shore.
All but Jimmy Powers. He poised
tense and eager on the crumbling face
Of the jam. Almost Immediately he
saw what he wanted and without
pause sprang boldly and confidently
ten feet straight downward, to alight
with accuracy on single log floating
free in the current. And then in the
very glory and chaos of the jam itself
he was swept down stream.
After moment the constant accel-
GRAFTON in speed checked, then COM
menced perceptibly to slacken. At
once the rest Of the crew began to ride
down stream. Each struck the calks
OF his river boots strongly into log
and on such unstable vehicles floated
miles with the current. From time to
| time, as Bryan Moloney indicated, one
| of them went ashore. There usually
| at bend Of the stream where the
likelihood Of jamming was great, they
took their stands. When necessary they
ran out over the face of the river to
separate congestion likely to cause
trouble. The rest of the time they
smoked their pipes.
| All night long the logs slipped down
| the moonlit current, silently. swiftly,
vet without haste. From the whole
, length of the river rang the hollow
boom, boom, boom. Of timbers striking
one against the other.
| The drive was on.
CHAPTER XIV.