The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-02-02
{Bel0W theDanlE
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.


One midnight in March Frank
Wetherbee, engineer at the Hammond
limerick quarry, and Benton roster
his nineteen-year-old assistant, were
In the boiler-house, pumping the pit
clear for the morOw's work.
thirty-hour Southwestern was dying
out in the rather unreasonable novel,
y,a spring thunderstorm with abun-
dant sheet lightning.
Weuherbee streWed fresh shovel-
full of coal over the glowing ire
bed.
"Look down at the next Hash,
Bent" said he, "and see if were
gaining on the water"
Foster leaned out through the 1T
tie window by the hoistre. The hum
dred-foot chasm right below him was
suddenly filled with dazzling white
light, showing the tracks still Hood
ed and the wallis gushing with num-
erous streams A suspiciouslv large
torrent directly opposite dr. Y his
quick glance up beyond the summit
Of the cliff to low bank Of earth.
The blaze vanished with tremen-
ilous thunder-crash that almost drown.
ed his cry of alarm:
"It's RAINING over the DAM"
The engineer was quickly at his
side, peering into the gloom.
Cant be-" he exclaimed. Gust
before dark the ice was solid, and six
inches below the top"
But the next flash convinced him.
you're right, Bent!' he shouted.
That means troubled"
"Shau run after Tom Sparrow and
his brother?" inquired Foster.
1--WE haven't second, to waste.
The two of us can do more than
dozen could in fifteen minutes"
Hastily DOMINIC caps and rubber
coats, they each seized a coal-shovel
and Wetherbee hung the lighted IAN
tern on his left arm. As they hlr-
Red toward the door, he 5erked down
he white-cord and looped it over
nail. Overhead pealed' out the seam
blast, shrill and insistent.
''That may call somebody, II the
storm isn't too loud" said he.
BufIeted by the southwest gale,
they skirted the edge of the pit at a
aautious dog-trot through the wet,
olippery grass. Now the lightning
revealed their path with painful dis
unctness; now only the dancing rays
Hom their lantern penetrated the
Gloom.
Mind your footing!" exclaimed
the engineer, as they drew closer to
the brink.
The cause Of this hurried expedition
was an eight-foot dam across an old
,sunken road through the topTock be-
tween the Hammond quarry and the
adjoining Sales quarry, now aban-
loned and full Of water. This road con-
ytructed some twenty years before,
when the rock was hauled out by teams
and beth plants were operated on
He same level. had fallen into dis
use as the excavations grew deeper
and steamlhoisting was introduced.
The abandonment Of the Sales quarry
and its gradual flooding had made
dam necessary the previous summer.
As 1t was expected that work would
soon be resumed and the pit pumped
out, the owners Of the Hammond
larry erected only a temporary dirt
fall. which was increased in height
with the rise Of the water.
Should It yield body Of water
eight feet deep and covering three
o. four acres would rush and food
the deeper but smaller pit.
As Wetherbee looked down from
the bank above the road, he gave
cry Of ddsmay. A second later Eos
ter stood beside him, gazing at the
dam. There was good reason for
alarm.
The rotten ice in the Sales quarry
had broken up. The strong wind.
raking it from end to end and blow
Ing directly down the road. had kick
Cd up a "chop" that was splashing
over the dam and washing away its
Eajn-sottened top. Halt . dozen rap
A1y incra1eing streams were gully