Mower County transcript., 1904-06-29

you. And" went ON the river man IN
the e1panss6dn sSff s His "A I1ldhnwonted conf
ser,a er1es haels s911ssss, ;la : 70
evefonatt du0k hnys sxAnts to- stay
With her TIL there's skating IN hadea."
right, -" 'murmured Thorpe. fndff-
ferently. suddeAb The Jremaining half
E mile to town seemed ned very hong 4n5eed.
CHAPTER XXI.
lfTlTlA1LACE % sCARPEN1EtR and
'Hamist6n, tie 3oil4 oaiih4ha1list seat
fttVs Tsd. against 4 the,a sun EsN4arnoed
W bench ;of Mira. yHathaway's
boarding. house. commented On the
band as It stumbled into the wash
room. Their conversation was inter
rupted by the approach Of Thorpe and
Big junko. The former looked twenty
years older after his winter. His eye
! was dull, his shoulders dropped, his
| gait was inelastic. The whole bearing
| of the man was that of one weary to
the bone. ::
''I've got something here to show
you, Harry!' cried Wallace Carpenter,
waving newspaper. 1T was a great
drive, and here's something to remem-
Der it by"
"All right. Wallace, by and BY" re-
piled Thorpe duly. '1'm dead. I'm
going to turn in for awhile. l need
| sleep more than anything else.''
He passed through the little passage
into the ''parlor bedroom" which Mrs.
Hathaway always kept in readiness
for members Of the firm. There he fell
heavily asleep almost before his body
had met the bed.
In the long dining room the river
men consumed a belated dinner. They
bad no comments to make. It was
over
The two On the veranda smoked. To
the right, at the end of the sawdust
street, the mill sang it's varying and
lulling keys. The odor Of fresh sawed
pine peffumed the air. Not a hundred
yards away the river slipped silently
to the distant blue Superior, escaping
between the sfa anting stone filled cribs
which held back the logs. Down the
south and west the huge thunder heads
gathered and flashed and grumbled, as
they bad done every afternoon for
days.
"Queer thing" commented Hamilton
finally, these cold streaks in the air.
They are just as distinct as though
they had partitions around them"
O0nQQ,. o1i1no TO orvwov rpoo1 Co~
penter.
Excepting always for the mill, the
little settlement appeared asleep. The
main booms were quite deserted. Aft
or awhile Hamilton noticed something.
"Look here, Carpenter said he.
whats happening out there? Have
some of your confounded logs sunk, or
what? There don't seem to be near so
many of them somehow"
mo; it isn't that,' proffered Carpen-
ter after moments scrutiny. "There
are just as many logs, but they are
getting separated a little so you can
see the open water between them.V
Guess you're right. Say, look here,
believe that the river is rising"
Nonsense! We haven't had any
rain"
"She's rising just the same You see
that spile over there near the left hand
crib? Well, I sat on the boom this
morning watching the crew, and
Whitfield the spile with my knife. You
can see the marks from here. 1 cut the
thing about two feet above the water.
Look at it now"
"She's pretty near the water line.
that's right" admitted Carpenter. 81
About an hour later the younger man
I'm his turn made discovery. .
"She's been rising right along" he
submitted. "Your marks are nearer
the water, and, do you know, I believe
the logs are beginning to- feel it. See,
they've closed up the little openings
between them, and they are beginning
to crowd down to the lower end of the
pond"
II don't know anything about this
business" hazarded the journalist, "but
should think there was good deal of
pressure on that same lower end. By
Jove, look here! See those logs up-end.
believe you're going to have jam
right here in your own booms."
Il don't know" hesitated Wallace.
Il never heard of its happening"
you'd better let some one know
Il hate to bother Harry or any Of
the river men. I'll just step down to
the mill. Mason-hes our mill fore
man-he'll know" Il
Mason came to the edge of the high i
trestle and took one look. s~...
Jumping f1shhooksv' he cried: "Why,.
the rivers up six inches and still
a-comin'! Here you, Tomv' he called
to one :of the yard hands. ''You telltl
Solly to get steam on that tug dou-
bic quick and have Dave hustle to-
gether his driver crew. -s=!!zss
What are you going to do?'' asked
Wallace. ~ : cis5 2. & ..y r,ss3s,,<
- Z got to strengthen the booms,"' ex-Hl
plained. the mill foreman. "We'll drive
some piles across the cribs,
rs there any danger7'