The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-08-21

q will-try." he struggled to say, and turned and
went out, shaken to the soul
That evening he passed along Main street on the
less frequented side. larger crowd than was
at the old point of meeting In their midst he saw
Hallslujah on the speakers box a white bandage
across her forehead preaching with a glow of light
on her face. The town marshal stood not far from
her A Gordon Of big listed men from the railroad
stood about her. men who had sworn that Round Hill
should not be again be Inundated by having woman
stoned IN the streets ShandOn tried to listen, but
could not for the tender, aching, stranglng thing
his heart. God bless her. she is greater than any
man. he fatered and went onward. out through the
town into the still valley under the big white stars
At in the morning he mounted the 900 and
took the express east and the drama of Muley Fork
was played under the span of the sun.
1t was stage for tragedy, that region where the
Muley river bored through the mountain bases and
met the Grand eighty miles east of Round Hill. At
the first step the larger river bent round cliffs bot
tom and flowed eastward through gorge The track
looking from the west approached the gorge on the
right side of the Grand; but at the mouth of the
pass crossed the river by iron bridge and curved
eastward at the cliffs base. A half mile east OF
the bridge the canyon widened, sloping mountain
lifting the left, towering wall of rock beetlng
the farther side Of the river At the foot of the
steep slope the town OF MidgIey clustered above it
the broad, slanting bosom of the mountain. On this
beveled sweep which ran upward thousands of feet,
dark plots of pine dents that were valleys
and mighty snags of rocks poured round with gleam-
ing rivers Of snow Two mines opened mouths in
the mountains white face thrUstng out dark tongues
Of trestle work and trailing gray boards of waste.
Between and little above the mines fell depression
of the earth, closed at the foreground with dam
thirty feet high and nearly twenty feet in length.
Behind the wall hung ten of water. force for
the machinery of the mines and stamp mills and
supply for the town On that day, at the warm end
of February, thin sheet Of water hundred feet
wide flowed over the top of the DAM and every heart
in MidgIey uneasy. Just east of the town. less
than quarter of mile from the railroad station.
the opposite range opened ruggedly, letting Muley
Fork into the Grand through a narrow gorge Front
the ODpDino VIII he Mulp IN
the railroad side of the Grand the canyon opened.
leaving clear half acre more through which the
track went eastward.
AS Shandon sat at the throttle his aspect was
that of an older man; within q few days his rock-
ing boyishness had gone without understanding
Why Ridley, the fireman, looked at him with in
eTeasing respect. Grave but alert Shandon watched
the track ahead On the way to the Grand several
bridges. spanning swollen streams. had to be in
spected before crossing with the train and the 990
plowed through two mud slides. leaving gravel and
stones wedged between the Stats of her pilot. The
seemed in June and the air had the
balm of late April in it. Here and there on the dis
tant mountains Shandon saw broad black strcaks.
showing the way of avalanehes
Shandon went carefully His train should have
been at Midgey at 1880; it was in the afternoon
when they made the Grand. A chaos of ice lay
piled against the center pier of the bridge Shandcn
got down and walked across. MomeDtaTily tremoTs
through the iron structure, but it seemed firm.
Above the bridge the river had heaDed. swollen
look, and filed with grinding masses Of ice.
SnanuOn mounted the engine ana pulled slowly
Seross The last coach had hardly left the eastern
span when. with tearing crash. the span broke
from the erumbling center pier and plunged into the
food
At A1idgiey they found red signal out and a
freight train the siding. Looking eastward they
saw the cause. Muley Fork mad with its burden
was pushing a moving, grinding ridge Of ice clear
across the track into the northern canyon wall Look
ing up the mountain side, they the whole front
of the reservoir streaming long veil of gttering
glass. Would the dam hOld2 What if the snow on
the steep open slope to the left of il should break
and sweep into it. irresistible in force incalcuable
in weight? The Grand, freed in a measure at the
bridge, was climbing its banks. momentarily backing
up from the ice gorge at the mouth of Muey Fork
Midgley and the express and the freight lay in a
frightful trap.
Shandon got down and looked about him The
conductor came running forward. There was crying
and hysteria along the track A hundred people OF
more the pOpulace of little Midgey waiting for
the train. Six seven sick persons on improvised
stretehers. lay the platform. There were three
sick people on the train What was to be done? The
hale and strong might possibly escape up the noun
tain. but the reservoir and the snow the women and
the children-apd the sick
we must clear the gorge and take EN- over
Angel Pass into Peace Valley said Shandon hall
to himself Lot of folks gOin' to lose their lives
here. To think of the sick and helpless and
any sort of people in trouble Say Phil ne shouted
to the engineer of the freight run down ahead and
let me kick my train in on the siding: then you
hook the coaches and stand ready to follow me
through. I'm going to cut the ice pack in two