The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1907-01-17

Hand OUer hand Siclone Clurk crept up.
like slungshot and flew straight at
Fitzpatrick. Not seeing or confused,
he missed it, and the rope, with a
groan from the crowd, settled back.
The agile cowboy caught it again into
loop and shot it upward, that time
fairly over FitZpatrick's head,
Make fast!" roared Slclone, Fitz-
patrick shouted back, and the two men
above drew taut. Hand over hand
Siclone Clark crept up, like monkey,
bracing his feet against the smoking
clapboards, edglng away from the
vomiting windows, swinging on the
single strand of horsehalr and fol-
lowed by hundred prayers unsaid.
Men who didn't know what tears
We're tried to cry out to keep the
choking from their throats. 1t seem
ed an age before he covered the last
five feet and the men above caught
frantlcally at his hands.
Drawing himself over the easement,
he was lost with them moment.
Then from behind a burst of smoke
they saw him rigging a maverick sad
die on Fitzpatrick, saw Fitzpatrick
lifted by Clark and the nurse over the
sill, lowered like wooden tie. whlrl-
ing and swinging, down into twenty
arms below. Before the trainmen had
got the engineer loose the nurse fol-
lowing, slid like a cat down the incline,
but not an instant too soon. A tongue
Of fame lit the gable from below and
licked the horsehair up. into curling,
frizzling thread, and Siclone stood
alone in the upper easement.
1t seemed for the moment he stood
there the crowd would go mad. The
shock and the shouting seemed to con-
fuse him. 1t may have been the hot
air took his breath They yelled to
him to jump, but he swayed uncertain
ly. Once, an instant after that, he was
seen to look down; then he drew back
from the easement. ! never saw him
again.
The flames wrapped the building in
a yellow fury. By daylight the big
barracks were smoldering pile of
ruins. So little water was thrown that
1t was nearly nightfall before we could
get into the wreck The tragedy had
blotted out the feud between the strik-
ers and the new men, Side by side
they worked, as side by side Siclone
and Fitzpatrick had stood In the morn
Ing, striving to uncover the mystery
OF the missing man. Next day twice
10 Tfnn In. ftaa
Fitzpatrick while we were searching
called continually for Siclone Clark.
We didn't tell him tho truth. Indeed,
we didn't know it, nor do we yet know
1t. Every brace, every beam. every
brick, was taken from the churred pile,
every foot of cinders. every handful OF
ashes sifted, but of human being the
searchers found never trace. not
bone. not a key. not Il knife not but.
ton which could be identified as his.
Like the smoke which swallowed him
up, he had disappeared completely and
forever
Is he a Ive2 | cannot tell.
But this know:
lenfs afteeHard Sidney Blair, head
of our engineering department, was
running a line looking then, us we are
looking yet, for coast outlet.
He took only flying camp with
him. travelling in the lightest kind OF
order, camping often with the cattle
men he ran across.
One night away down in the Pan
handle they fell in with an outfit drlv-
ing a bunch of steers up the Yellow
Grass trail Blair noted that the fore.
mas was a eharacter-a man of few
words, but OF great muscular strength,
and, moreover, frightfully SCARED.
lie was silent and inclined to be mo-
rose at first but after he learned Blair
was from MeCloud he unbent a bit
and after time began asking ques-
tions which indicated a surprising fa-
mlliarity with the northern country
and with our road In particular. this
man asked what had become of Bucks
and, when told what big railroad
man he had grown. asserted, with a
sudden bitterness and without In any
way leading up to It. that with Bucks
on the West End there never would
have been a strike.