Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-18

quiet, careful an quiet. For IT'S more cunnin'
they be than y think; an they might fool us
afther all. There's those little divils. too. wo
must watch them, for they're watohin' us all
IN tonne. ID y see 'em n McCrca's face
there now, when he looked at usl We must
make sure of them, ould boy; don't forgt us
tn divils we're up ag'inst"
And the crane, rolling up the shop in response
TO touch on the levers understood this ali
and told him as much; for Barney, leaning over
the cage, heard it mumbng in low tones:
Watch tn divils, watch th divi1s. Wen fool
EN-, we'll fool 'em. Say tn word, an I'm ready
ready, ready. ready" The final sylables were
almost inaudible, for the machinery of the crane
had slowed down, and now they were opposite
the annealing furnace at the upper end of the
shop around which new gang of men was
gathered.
The men lifted of the sections of the ton Of
the furnace, and on supports inside Of the long
brick structure, Barney saw huge piece Of met
al, part of the frame of locomotive. It was a
| rough casting of steel, twenty.seven feet long,
and 1t weighed ten thousand pounds Il had
been in the furnace for more than four days, be-
ing heated and allowed slowly to COOL 80 that
the steel should be tempered, and be stronger
accordingly Now il was to be taken to the
sandblast at the other end of the shop, where
compressed air would force spray of sand upon
it, cleaning it of the scale that chung to it after
TO carry it.
The two chains OF the crane were lowered.
and the hooks made fast to the other chains
that swathcd the belly of the casting. Then
Barney got the word, and his friend. with grunts
and signs upon the awkwardness of its burden
which were ineligible to the crane driver aone
started slowly down the shop. Barney with
both hands on the levers, kept his eyes, one on
the casting below, one on the path ahead For
the moment all his attention was concentrated
on this task
But when he had gone short distance he
looked down the shop, and his eyes became fixed
upon what he saw there It was only dozen
men, McCrea and Banks and the rest Of the
gang working about the pit of furnace No. 2;
but for moment it seemed that these men
must surely be burned by the glance he held
upon them, intense and terrible was the fire
in it. The cranedrivcr's shoulders sank, his
fingers clawed the levers and the crane gave a
little jump at his touch.
Now. in the openhearth shop of the Sampson
Steel Works long line Of furnaces extends for
almost the four hundred feet of the length Of
that building. Between the pits back of these
furnaces and the wall of the shop there is
space, thirty feet wide. Uttered with scraps of
iron and steel and broken moulds. Above this
trip of floor travels the crane. Immediately back
of two of the furnaces, No. 3 and No. Q, the
men had cleared away most of the litter for a
distance of sixty feet, and in this open space
they were now working
The crane, carrying the big casting, moved
slowly until it came to the cleared portion of
the floor. There it was halted moment, and
with a movement of his wrists, Barney silently
lowered the casting few feet Then he start
ed up in his seat and gave the traction-lever a
hard pull all the way over. The crane trembled,
and with terrific jerk drove forward.
1t gathered greater Roadway every second, and
the complaint Of its suddenly overtaxed machin.
cry increased with it's growing speed, blending
and swelling into a sullen roar. Barney looked
down. The big caseng swinging below him
cleared the floor of the shop by not more than
yard. Even as he looked it struck the pro-
jecting corner of a mould and snapped it like a
ppestem, the report ringing out clearly above
the other noises in the shop.
The crane-drver flashed his eyes upon the
men ahead of him. Banks, who had been stoop-
ing over piece Of metal. had half risen. His
head was twisted around his lower jaw had
dropped. There was an expression of dull, UNI
comprehending surprise in his face, which was
tilted up towards the crane. McCrea, next to
him, leaning on long metal rod, his head
thrust forward, listening It was plain he did
not understand what was happening. The other
men were in the act Of turning, all except Pc
terson, who, quickerwitted than the rest, had
dropped the tool he had held and thrown up an
arm instinctively knowing that danger was at
hand, but not realizing its nature It was a
tableau set in black and white, tableau for a
tragedy
And when they turned to fee it was too late
The great mass Of metal was upon them, the
ponderous casting moving n swath thirty feet
across smashing all it struck, cutting men down
like ripe wheat, while the screaming of the small
err wheels of the crane and the deep hum Of It's
rollers, overwhelming the din of the shop, sang
a song of death. And Barney. as he passed above
them, gloated on the things below that once had
been men. His lips were drawn back in grin
his eyes were filled with a baleful light and he
leaned farther and farther over the railing oil
the cage that he might not lose any Of this spec
tacle-the spectacle of the Great Conspiracy
overcome and crushed, the plotters struck down
and obliterated. He had released his hold or
the lever, and, when twenty feet from the enc
of the tracks, extended both his arms and SHOOK
his fists at the destruction beneath him.
"Y' got what v deserved, y yillians!" he
shrieked "Y' tried t. trap us with y'r divils
an " failed. " failedl Y failed!" And il
was thus the men, hurrying from far down thu
shop, saw him for the last time, as the crane
breaking down the bumpers at the end OF thu
rails burst through the wall of the building
There was the crash of rending steel, shower
of bricks and flying metal, and. above the roal
of all this, they heard the wild laugh of the
crane-driver as he rode to death with his ally
the crane.