Mower County transcript., 1904-07-06
CHAPTER XXXIII.

| CHAPTER XXXIII.
''1TAT)HAT is it2" "What is the mat
| ~ ter"' "What the IS up?''
| IV "What's happened?" burst on
| ~ Wallace in a volley.
Its Dyer!" gasped the young man.
Il found him on the boom! He held
me up with gun while he filed the
boom chains between the center piers.
They're just ready to go. I got away
by diving. Hurry and put in a new
chain. You haven't got much timer
Hes goner now," interjected SOL
~ grimly. "Charley is on his trail
and he is hit" 49,.
Thorpe's intelligence leaped promptly
to the practical question.
"Injun Charley - where'd he come
from? I sent him up to Sadler &
Smiths. It's twenty miles, even
through the woods
AS though by way of colossal answer
the whole surface of the jam moved
inward and upward, thrusting the logs
bristling against the horizon.
| "She's going to break!' shouted
Thorpe, starting on run toward the
river. "A chain, quickv'
The men followed, strung high with
excitement. Hamilton, the journalist,
paused long enough to glance up
stream. Then he, too, ran after them,
screaming that the river above was full
Of logs. By that they all knew that
Injun Charleys mission had failed and
that something under 100000 feet of
logs were racing down the river like SO
many battering rams.
| At the boom the great jam was al
ready a-tremble with eagerness to
spring. Indeed miracle alone seemed
to hold the timbers in their place.
"It's death, certain death, to go out
on that boom," muttered Billy Mason.
Tim Shearer stepped forward coolly,
duty. He was thrust back by Thorpe
who seized the chain, cold-shut and
hammer which Scotty Parsons brought
and ran lightly out over the booms
shouting:
"Back! Back! Don't follow me, on
your lives! Keep 'em back, Timv'
The swift water boiled from under
the booms. Bang! smash! bang! crash
ed the logs mile up stream, but plain
ly audible above the waters and the
wind. Thorpe knelt, dropped the cold
shut through on either side of the
weakened link and prepared to close it
with his hammer. He intended further
to strengthen the connection with the
other chain.
"Lemme hold her for you. You can't
close her alone" said an unexpected
voice next his elbow.
Thorpe looked up in surprise and an
ger. Over him leaned Big Junko. The
men had been unable to prevent his
following. Animated by the blind de-
vot1on OF the animal for it's master and
further stung to action by that mas
ter's doubt Of his fidelity, the giant had
| followed to assist as he might. Y rs:
"You fool" cried Thorpe, exasperat-
ed, then held the hammer to- him.
"Strike while r keep the chain under
neathr' he commanded. >s":' - =.
Big Junko leaned forward to obey,
kicking strongly his calks into the
barked surface Of the boom log. The
spikes, worn blunt by the river work
already accomplished, failed to grip.
Big Junko slipped, caught himself by
an effort, overbalanced in the other d.
rection, and fell into the stream. The
current at once swept him away, but
fortunately in such direction that he
was enabled to catch the slanttng end
Of dead hea6' log whose lower end
was jammed in the crib. The dead
head was slippery, the current strong.
Big Junko had no crevice by which to
assure his hold. In another moment he
would he torn away.
Let 90 and swim!' shouted Thorpe.
II can't swim," replied Junko in so
low voice as to be scarcely audible.
For moment Thorpe stared at him.
"Tell Carrie" said Big Junko. >vs.l75
Then there beneath the swirling gray
sky, under the frowning jam, in the
midst Of flood waters, Thorpe had his
second great moment Of decision. He
did not pause to weigh reasons or
chances, to discuss with himself expe.
diency or the moralities Of failure. His
actions were foreordained, mechanical,
All at once the great forces which the
winter had been bringing to power
crystallized into something bigger than
himself or his ideas. The trail lay be
. fore him; there was no choice.
Now clearly, with no shadow OF
doubt, he took the other view: There
!. Ieeoh be nothing bstter than love. Men
fhsir works their deeds, were ltttlt