The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-31
Siclone Clark, 1 II; Sen Engineer n H;';;,!
By Frank H. Spear m n

covered the last FIVE feet. and the men |
above caught frantically at his hands.
Drawing himself over the easement, ne |
was lost with them a moment then, from |
behind burst of smoke. they saw him rig |
ging a maverick saddle on Fitzpatrick; |
saw Fitzpatrick lifted by Clark and the |
nurse over the sill, lowered like wooden |
tie, whirling and swinging, down into TWEEN /
" arms below. Before the trainmen had |
got the engineer loose. the nurse. following, |
slid like a cat down the incline; but not an |
instant too soon. A tongue OF flame lit the |
gable from below, and licked the horsehair |
up into a curling, frizzling thread. and ST.
II seemed for the moment he stood there |
the crowd would go mad. The shock ana |
the shouting seemed to confuse him; II |
may have been the hot air took his breath. |
They yelled TO him TO jump, but he swayed |
uncertainty. Once, an instant after that, |
he was seen to look down. then he drew |
PACK from the easement. ] never saw him |
again.
The flames wrapped the building up in |
yellow fury; by daylight the big barracks
were smouldering pile of ruins. So little
water was thrown that it was nearly night
fall before We could get into the wreck. The
tragedy had bIotted out the fued between
the strikers and the new men. Side by side
they worked, side by side Siclone and
Fitzpatrick had stood in the morning, striv-
ing 10 uncover the mystery or the missing
man. Next day twice as many men were in
the ruins.
Fitzpatrick. while we were searching.
called continually for Sclone Clark. We
didn't tell him the truth; indeed, we didn't
know 1t. nor do We know il yet. Every
brace, every beam, every brick was taken
from the charred pile. Every foot OF cind-
ers, every handful of ashes sifted; but of a
human being the searchers found never
trace. Not bone. not key, not knife.
not button which could be Identified as
his. Like the smoke which swallowed him
up, he had disappeared completely and for
ever
Is he alive? cannot tell.
But this 1 know.
Years afterward Sidney Blair, head of our
engineering department, was running line,
looking then. as we are looking yet for
coast outlook He took only flying camp
with him, travelling in the lightest kind of
order, camping often with the cattlemen he
ran across.
One night away down in the Panhandle,
they fell In with an outfit driving bunch
or steers up the Yellow Grass trail. Blair
noted that the foreman was a character
A man or Few words, but or great muscular
strength, and, moreover, frightfully
SCARED.
He was silent and inclined to be morose
az nrst, but after he learned Blair was from
McCloud he unbent bit. and after a time
began asking questions which indicated
surprising familiarity with the northern
this man asked what had become of Bucks,
and when told what big railroad man he
mad grown, asserted with sudden bitter
ness and without in any way leading up to
II, that with Bucks on the west end there
never would have been strike.
Sitting at their campfire while their crews
blaze how scanned the throat and breast of
| the cattleman were; even his sinewy fore
arms were drawn out of shape. He asked,
| too, whether Blair reColected the night the
| barracks burned; but Blair at that time
was east of the river. and so explained,
| though he related to the cowboy incidents
| of the fire which he had heard, among 9TH
| ers the story of Fitzpatrick and Siclone
Clark.
"And Fitzpatrick is alive and Siclone is
| dead" said Blair, in conclusion. But the
| cowboy disputed him.
You mean Clark is alive and Fitzpatrick
| 1t dead said he.
No" contended Sidney, kirkpatrick is
| running an engine UP there now. L saw him
| within three months" But the cowboy was
| loath to conviction.
Next morning their trails forked. The
| foreman seemed disinclined TO part from the
surveyors, and while the bunch was start
| ing he rode long way with Blair, talking
| in random way. Then suddenly wheel
| ing, he waved a goodbye with his heavy
| Stetson, and, galloping hard, was soon lost
| to the north in the ruts of the Yellow
| Grass
When Blair came In he told me and
| Neighbor about it, Blair had never seen
| Siclone Clark, and so was no judge as to
| his identity, but Neighbor believes yet that
| Blair camped that night way down in the
| Panhandle with no other than the cowboy
| engineer.
Once again, that only two years ago,
| something came back to u.s. Holmes Kay,
| one of our staff of surgeons, the man. in
| fact who took care of Fitzpatrick, enlisted
It y ID.
| They got In front of Santiago just after the
hard fighting of July l. and Holmes was de-
| tailed for hospital work among Roose-
velts men, who had suffered severely the
One of the wounded. sergeant had sus-
| tanned gunshot wound in the jaw, and, in
| the confusion, had received scant attention.
| Kay took hold of him. He a cowboy,
| like most Of the Rough Riders, and after
| his jaw was dressed Kay made some
mark about the hot fire they had been
/ through before the DlOCkhOuSp
i've been through hotter one before 1
ever saw Cuba" answered the Rough Rider
as we'll as he could through his bandages.
| The remark directed Kay's attention to the
| condition of his breast and neck, which
were mass OF scars.
| Where are you from?" asked Holmes
Everywhere"
Where did you get burned that way?"
out on the plains"
But the poor fellow went off into delir-
ium, and to the surgeons amazement be-
| gan repeating train orders. Kay was par
alyzed at the way he talked our lingo-and
a cowboy. When he left the wounded man
for the night he resolved to question him
more closely the next day; but the next
the trenches The surrender shifted things
| about and Kay, though he made repeated
| inquiry, never saw the man again.
| Neighbor, when he heard the story was
| only confirmed in his belief that the rough
rider was Siclone Clark. give you the tales
as they came TO me, and for what you may
make of them.
| L myself believe that if Siclone Clark is
| still alive he will one day come back to
! where he was best known, and, in spite of
his faults, best liked They talk of him
out there as they do of old man Sankey
/ say believe if he lives he will one dav
come back. The day he does will be a
| great day in McCloud. On that day Fitz-
| patrick will have to take down the little
tablet which he placed in the brick facade
| of the hotel which now stands on the site
| of the old barracks. For as that tablet
now stands. ii is sacred to the memory of
Siclone Clark.
! copyright, 1904, Sampson-Hodges Co., Chi
| cagO1