Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-08-30

keen steel. Nothing could be
done until the jam was cleared.
Robbins, grasping small spruce on
the verge of the bluff leaned out
over empty space. his gaze fixed on
the axman below. ready to give the
signal to pull to the expectant men
behind him.
Fast fell the strokes. The great
log was nearly cut through when the
foreman's practised eye saw that the
jam was beginning to weaken.
Grandgent himself, busy with his
chopping. did not observe this. Rob
bins uttered shout:
There she goes! All right. Jules!
Up with him. boys!"
So suddenly did the excited men
respond that the FrenchmAn was
snapped of the logs before he realiz-
ed what was happening. His ak few
from his hand.
The sudden shock jerked the rope
from the pulley.wheel. It fell back,
dropped between the wheel and
side of the block. and there stuck
fast. For the fraction of second the
men swayed at the rope. Then Rob-
bins. who instantly realized the cat
astrophe that was Imminent II six
lusty men continued straining on one
small line of hemp. roared out at the
top of his lungs:
stop haullng!"
At the very instant that Grand
gent was snapped up the jam had
! broken. Impelled by the volume Of
logs and water behind 1t. the head OF
the drive came surging down the
Staircase with the thunder of an
avalanche. each separate stick SEEM
ingly endowed with life. rolling,
plunging. battling with its fellows.
Jules had fallen back SO that his
boot-solts were only four or five feet
above the grinding mass. He was
fully alive to his peril as he hung
there in the mist among the darting
leaping river monsters. A glance at
the taut rope extending from the
block to the bank told him what had
happened: and he raised both arms
over his head with the intention OF
pulling himself up hand over hand.
But just at that moment log
sprang out of the boiling turmoil and
struck his legt leg heavy blow,
breaking the bone just below the knee.
The sudden sharp pain made the
Frenchman faint. His arms dropped
and he hung half-insensible, spinning
slowly round and round. like spider
at the end OF it's thread!
The throat of the gorge was now
veritable maelstrom. From head to
foot the rapids were in motion, a
rough, irregular floor of heaving logs,
all Of which must pass through that
narrow chasm In which the French.
man hung. In that raging pit no man
could call his life his own from one
second to another.
How could the lumbermen rescue
their comrade? For the first time in
his twenty years OF river driving.
Robbins was at loss for expedients.
The hauling line had evidently
caught so firmly in the block that no
effort could disengage 1t. Had the
main cable itself been longer. It might
have been possible to unite its ends
from the tree trunks and draw 1t
across the river; but there had been
barely enough to be made fast at
either end.
To the knot in ITS middle the block
had been tied so firmly that it was
useless to hope to loosen 1t; tug
strong enough to break its bonds
might tear asunder the rope itself.
Any one OF a dozen men would
gladly have gone out on the cable,
hand over hand. and cut the pulley
clear, so that 1t might be drawn in
to the bank. But would the rope
stand this double strain? No expert
ments could be tried now. for fail
ure could mean but one thing for the
injured man.
Then Jules came to himself and took
the matter into his own hands. His
face was white with pain. Every
moment that ne hung there was
moment of peril. All round him the
logs were ieaping. At any second one
Of them might dash against his body,
crushing out his life.
Had he been sufficiently free from
pain to use his strength unhampered.
it would have been a matter OF no
great difficulty for him to raise him
self, hand over hand. to the knot forty
feet above. But now every effort
made the lumberman vince.
Still, the thing must be done. He
stiffened himself for the ordeal, and
began to rise. His fellows watched
him in silence. They could do moth.
ing to help him.
A few feet up, and he was safe
from the attack of the darting logs.
Then sudden faintness overcame
him. His strength failed. Was he
to drop back now, beaten at the very
beginning Of his fight?
A climbers trick. remembered from
his boyhood, now served him we'll.
Keeping firm hold with his right
hand. he reached down with his left,
grasped the loosely swinging rope,
brought 1t up round mis- body, and
twisted 1t two or three times about
.the strands above. making loop
in which he could seat himself. For
perhaps two minutes he rested in this
temporary trapeze, giving his tired
arms opportunity to recover their
strength. Then he resumed his climb.
For the men on the bluff it was a
time of GREATNESS suspense. They
could see Jules face, white and drawn
with pain. as he rose slowly. They
sympathized with him, knowing the
pangs that every motion cost.
Ten, fifteen, twenty feet-higher
and higher still. The loop of the
rope swung loosely below the drivers
body. The mist-wreaths curled round
him. AS in dream, he heard the
roar of the baffled river. the buffets of
the grinding logs.
Twice again, his arms wearied to