Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-07-09

A'O, thdI 10 my OWu COuCeru"
body else's. 1 am a Welshman," be
said, quietly. MY people are well
known in Cardiff. Perhaps could tell
tale If liked Perhaps 1 couldn't
1t doesn't matter to anybody. And he
looked at the captain with eyes that
meant he had said all he intended to
say on these points.
1t so happened that they were short
handed enough in the engine room that
run, and the captain turned him over
to the burly, growing Scotch engineer,
who did not seem to regard him with
any great favor. "Taffy," as he was
called, disappeared below, and sue
ceeded within an hour In completely
reversing the engineers opinion. The
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
ing, when Taffy stole up for a mouth
full Of fresh air, he noticed a dainty,
little childish figure go skipping along
the deck. He stood there, with his
grimy head poked out into the softly
changing twilight, watching her. Every
time she turned and skipped past him
his notable eyes followed her. And as
he gazed wistfully after the merry,
innocent, little creature the apple" In
his bare throat moved as IL with a gulp.
Ay, perhaps he could have told tale
If he had chosen.
Every evening after that he slipped
away from the engine room at the
same hour. and looked anxiously out
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 snugged up close to the
shelving beach. They were to sail
again next day, and 1t was a busy
night on board. Cargo had to be un-
loaded, and fresh freight shipped from
the barges alongside.
Taffy, being an "odd man." had been
put on the donkey engine, which he
worked steadily throughout the even
ing. Many a time, while waiting for
the word to 'heave," 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, lifeless
ull In the air, like that which betokens
IN approaching thunder clap.
1t was far into the night before he
vas released from his post and free to
urn in for a few hours. Heavy-eyed
Ind weary, he tumbled into his bunk,
Ind was soon fast asleep.
What was 1t that woke him7 A
strange, moaning sound coming from
he land broke on his ears. He sat up
n his bunk. Something was about to
happen. He felt the mysterious. IN I
Known calamity coming.
The air seemed to SILVER and then
% stand still A fash, more vivid and
than the lightning, followed,
Ind then 1t seemed to him as II all the
machinery In the world-an that he
lad ever seen or handled-had been
collected In one spot and had exploded
1t the same instant
For one breathless second he sat
here In his bunk, staring wild.eyed
md open-mouthed. The next he was on
The floor, as If he had been hurled
here. He dashed up on deck, whence
; reams-agonized screams-reached
liml
His shipmates passengers and crew
were running madly about there. And
40 wonder; people run from a driving.
;plashing downpour OF rain, but now
t rained fire.
They ran, seeking any shelter from
hat awful hail Of redhot, scorching
,inders. Taffy ran also, but his eyes
we're searching frantically through the
1ery dsluge. The child-the child!
He found her-found her screaming
md panic-stricken under the bridge
With her little hand pressed to her nos
.rils to shut out the deadly, suffocating
tunes. He picked her up, snuggled
her to his breast, and ran again. The
hail beat upon his bent back.
he fire In the air scorched and shrivel-
I'd him, but still he ran. Down he
down into the body Of the
ship, where the blighting fumes had
lot penetrated and the fire from the
ky could not reach them. And there,
some dark corner, he fell.
When the intrepid rescuers who
eventually saved the pitiful remnant Of