The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1904-03-31

reversing the engineers opinion. tn"
latter. who stood by to watch him,
could see with half an eye that the
man was quite at home among the
throbbing. pulsing engines. and turned
away with the growing comment,
Hell do"
They had few passengers aboard
that trip, and in the dusk of the even
lug, when yaEy stole up for mouth
full of fresh air, he noticed dainty
little childish figure 70 skipping along
The deck. He stood there, with his
erimy head poked out into the softly
changing twilight. watching her. Every
iirne she turned and skipped past him
! his notable eyes followed len. And as
/ he gazed wis;fully after the merry,
/ innocent little creature the apple In
/ his bare threat moved as If with gulp.
Ay. perhaps he could have told Il tale
/ IL he had chosen.
Every evening after that he slipped
away from the engine room ut the
| same hour, and looked anxlously ont
| along the deck The child was nearly
always there. Sometimes she smiled
up at the greasy, watching face as she
went past, and Tafry carried that smile
below with him, wrapped up in some
odd corner of his heart.
The steamer had run into st. Pierre,
and was lying shrugged up close to the
shelving beach. They We're to sail
again next day. and ii was busy
night on board. Cargo had to be un-
loaded, and fresh freight shipped from
the barges alongside.
Tafy, being an "odd man." had been
put on the donkey engine, which he
worked steadily throughout the even
ing Many time, while waiting for
the word 10 ''heaye," his eye turned
restlessly to the distant summit OF
Mont Pelee, towering high up there in
the darkling heavens. The huge noun
tain was growing and rumbling omin
ously, and there was a strange, llfeless
lull in the air, like that which betokens
an approaching thunder clap.
1t was far into the night before IN
was released from his post and free t.
turn in for few hours. Heayy-eyet
and weary, he tumbled into his bunk
and was soon fast asleep.
What was 1t that woke him?
strange, moaning sound coming from
, the land broke on his ears. He sat III
in his bunk. Something was about t
,, happen. He felt the mysterious, I'm
known calamity coming.
The air seemed to shiver and the
to stand still A flash, more vivid all,
/ binding than the lightning, followed
= and then 1t seemed to him as il all tn
| machinery in the world-all that h
| lad ever seen or handled-had bee
I collected in one spot and had explode,
: at the same instant.
2 For one hreathless second he ga
1 shere in his bunk. staring wid-eye'
, and open mouthed. The next he was o
= the floor ms II he had been hurle
there He dashed up on deck, whenc
i screams-agoEized screams-rea che
s him.
His shipmates, passengers and ere,
G We're running madly about there An
g no wonder; people run from driving
h splashing downpour of rain, but no,
- 1t rained fire.
They ran, seeking any shelter frol
that awful hail OF redhot, scorchin
cindcrs. Taffy ran also, but his eye
We're searching frantically through tn
fiery deluge The child---the child
He found her-found her screamin
and panic-stricken under the brdg
with her little hand pressed to her no.
trils to shut out the deadly, suffocatin
fumes. He picked her up, snuggle
her to his breast, and ran again. Tn
burning hail beat upon his bent bacl
the fire in the air scorched and shrive
ed him, but still he ran. Down h
plunged-far down into the body of tn
ship, where the blighting fumes la
not penetrated and the fire from til
sky could not reach them. And Their,
in some dark corner, he fell.
When the intrepid rescuers VIII
eventually saved the pitiful remnant {
the crew explored the hold OF th
steamer they found a mana man VIII
had evidently been in his bunk whe
the fire smote the Simplifying dea
there. But underneath that SCARE
and blackened body there was Twin,
breathing child.
And 50 he persisted.
In the official list of those who los
their lives on board the steamer Il
was rated as "One Unknown."-Ch
cngo Tribune.