The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-03

| liz eASIlSulJ IntCW inv ANS
the ridge-and struck the candle!
Instantly he was in total darkness,
his grip torn loose.
The approaching roar increased to
the crash of thunder as the great
redwood trunks swept down toward
him. Again and again he struggled
for the top, and each time he fell
back in the face of the renewed force
of the stream. His brain became
dizzy, his agonized voice returned to
mock him.
Then he through of the fume-
boat, fastened to the fume not far
from him. He struggled ahead and
reached for it blindly. His hands
closed upon the hook that held 1t.
While his brain echoed to the roar of
the logs, he crawled upon it, released
the ~fastenings and shot down the
flume.
The drive came on, scraping and
rending and crashing. He lay flat,
doubled up, gasping and wheeling.
He was conscious only of a dynamic
rush and throb in his head. Half
dazed, his senses returned just as the
drive struck the fume-boat. Nelson
was shot along the tunnel with ter
rife speed. The air swished past
him and the water cut into his face,
binding and singing him like drip
pings of molten lead.
Still clinging to the boat, he was
hurled out of the tunnel into the bril-
liant sunlight. Ahead he saw, as
through a veil, a white, frothing sea,
dashing always into his eyes. Then,
as in a dream, he realized that death
awaited him at the jump-of, when
he should be hurled out among the
logs into the river! There was but
one chance. If the tender at Geyser
Peak should see him he could stop
the flow. But would there be time
enough to allow theiwater to
and the logs to settle in the chute?
Meanwhile, with a swiftness he
had never before thought possible,
the lumber forced the boat down the
lume. Behind him the logs doomed
and Numbered in headlong, inexora-
Bile pursuit.
He was carried through the gloom
of the short tunnel and over the high
steel trestles as n dropped from
a precipice. The flume sides became
lower and lower. The speed de-
creased in the lower canon, and as
Nelson looked ahead, the converging
blurs took shape in faraway noun.
tains, snow-capped in the pale radi-
ance of the early twilight, and in
thick forests of redwood and yellow
pines, shaggy and gaunt upon the
mountain slopes.
Over the spans that bridged the
boiling streams sped the drift, on
and on and on, hurtling and tumbling
and booming, winding now through
the lower canon toward the river.
The jump-off was only four miles
away. Could he throw himself over
the edge before he reached it? He
tried to lift his legs, but he was too
weak. Nelson prayed that the ten
der at Geyser Peak would be at his
post. 1t was his n chance of life.
The timber rushed on, more swift
ly now, close upon Geyser Peak.
Nelson was alert again. AS he was
hurled past. he cried out in a voice
tense with agony, the love of life
strong upon him. Had the tender
seen him? Had he heard? The
climbers face was stung with the
rush of water, and his eyes were
blinded.
The drift reached the last grade.
The hills and cliffs gave way once
more to confused blurs, the swish
of air flung back his hair from his
face. Mountain and hill and bluff
whirled past him, unseen and un-
cared for. Nelson still chung to the
boat, huddled up, helpless with ter
ror. Miles behind in the mountains
lay the long tunnel; three miles
ahead was the jump-off!
Then suddenly, as Nelson gripped
the flume-boat and prayed desperate.
ly for life, he felt the rush of the
craft slacken, and the terrific force
behind him lost its vitality. New
life sprang into his veins; he thrilled
with the n of his hopes come
true. Gradually the drift slackened:
the water ceased in it's flow. Still the
impetus of the logs hurled the boat
on, now scraping against the wooden
sides of the fume, until at last the
friction brought it to a %standstill.
AS Nelson lay upon the boat, weak
and exhausted, the river-drivers came
running up the trail from the river.
and found him. And listening, Neil.
son heard how the tender at Geyse1
Peak had seen him whirling by, and
had signaled to the head of the 1ume
for the flow to be shut off.
To-day a new climber swings
among the Orders and beams, and
Nelson, who assists at the head OF
the fume, is always careful when the
drifts are resumed after a delay and
the climber is at work. The caution
has become part of the man.
Vo,th,c Cop,non;op