The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-27
Our Daily Sbort Story

/, to cool off. Charley took his drink and started to walk out. Just at that moment mucker rushed in from the mine and yelled: Where in the devil is Kirk?" Right here. What's the trouble?' Fires broke out in the pump sta- | tion. on the 370. The men are all up | an she's burnin' like h." What's that? The men all out? The | blamed towards" roared the super, l instantly sober and forgetting his l grudge. In an instant he was charg- | ing up the trail toward the hoist like 1 a mad bull. He was one of those men | that whiskey will not limber-just makes them hard as steel and tough as hickory.
 We followed at a wild pace and l found all the men huddled about the collar of the shaft. The smoke was coming up in big black rolls, and not l a man would go down.
 You'll have to let her burn out" declared the foreman, when we came up.
 "The devil I willy roared the su- per. Do you take me Tor ninny? That would mean a months lay-off. I've never had a stamp tied up on me yet, and won't begin on a little blaze like this"
 He grabbed the hose coil from the hoist room and threw it on the cage floor. q want two. men!" he yelled. The crowd held back. Then he made ready to go down alone, the drunken fool We knew 1t would be a case of bringing him up in hand basket. He pulled the bell wire, and at that in- stand Chamley jumped beside him. I could not hang back with my bunkie on, so I leaped on the cage just as she dropped. We cut a hole through the thick smoke as we went down.
 At the pump level the cage stopped with jerk. The fire in the burning station was roaring like a smelter fur naee The heat singed our whiskers and stung like vitriol. We dropped to our knees and pressed our faces to the cool wet floor The super attached the hose to the hydrant, and the water from the nozzle cut into the flames with a bowling shriek. The station was oil soaked, and the flames ate the wood greedily. The draft up the shaft sucked up fire and smoke in thick wads, coils and twists.
 "There's just one way to put 'er out" cried Kirk, "and that's to crawl through and release the pump on the other side"
 Crawl through! It would be as easy to crawl through the left wing of pur- gatory; nevertheless, that whiskey- soaked super was sduirming over the floor before we turned round. Charley gave me the nozzle and rushed in after him. I was a plain case of two fools in hades. I was half minded to ring three bells and get out of the inferno But I stuck firm and played the stream over the two men as they craw1ed. belly down. through the fire. They disappeared on the Orner side of the furnace. Then came wild hissing, and an avalanche of water rushed down the sides and through the ceiling of the station.
 For an instant the blaze sputtered like a monster frying pan. With ag- onizng misses the fire left the tim bers, and burned-out wood fell in chunks from the roof. I still played the hose and waited for Kirk and Charley. They did not show up, and I pointed the nozzle down the shaft and ducked through the steam and smoke for the stump.
 I found the super holding Charley by the heels, and ducking his head in the stump tank. Hes just about gone" said Kirk. He caught a tim Der that would have put out my light bucked 1t square with his shoulders an back of his head"
 We tottered through the wreck, car rying Charley between us. He was limp as a rag, and bleeding like a stabbed cx. The super jerked the wire and we shot out into the open air-the sweet, cool night air that soaked our lungs like nectar. The mill was thun- dering like a horse troop on a bridge.
 We laid Charley out and called the camp doctor. After he was through patching him up, Charley opened his eyes and peeped through his bandages. The first thing he saw was 'Nony sit ting by his side. The doctor said there was just one chance in a thousand. 'Nony took that chance and staked her self on 1t. It was a hard fight, but she won. It was the one thing that saved Charley.
 Funny. but three months later when 'Nony and Charley went out to Frisco the super dug up his cutaway coat and went out, too. He was best man.