The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-08-26

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then. He tossed his hands above
his head.
"'Are you all cowards?' shrieked
| he. If wasn't so old, I'd do 1t my
self. Fifty dollars!'
when he said fifty thought how
much that would mean to my family.
Why shouldn't I volunteer? But /
hung back, waiting for some one
else. Still nobody took him up. The
more he offered the bigger looked
the danger.
| It's the price of mans life,' q
carpenter near me muttered.
lone hundred dollars!' CARING
ton cried, hoarsely. That broke the
spell.
I'll do it, said, stepping quick
ly forward. afraid that some one
might get ahead of me. But l need
mt have felt anxious; nobody else
wanted the job, even at that figure.
Darlington eyed me a minute.
Then he thrust into my hands a
sledge and couple of wedges. A
man behind me said in low tone:
Its shame to let that boy go
under. He'll never come out alive
That wasn't very encouraging;
but l had determined to see the
thing through l crawled over the
| slippery standing ways below the
cradle end, splashed through the
tide covering the rocks and cobwork,
and was soon close to the keel, about
twelve feet from it's end. began
to split sections off the first of the
three blocks.
''It was hard work. Knee deep In
water on the slippery logs, put all
my strength into every blow. The
/ time was short. II took too long,
the tide would fall so that the ship
might strike bottom when she went
OFF.
81 had plenty of light from the Ian
terms outside the ways. A few feet
off stood Darlington, almost crazy
with anxiety.
Work hard Work fast!' he
kept shouting. He didn't mean to
be heartless; but he came pretty
near being so.
Little by little l split away the
edges of the first block Soon 1t was
loosened so that I could knock it
from under the keel. Two mofe!
II rained my blows furiously up
on the second. Splash! One of my
wedges disappeared in the water.
Another was quickly passed in to
me. 1 could hear nothing save the
ringing of my sledge on the steel.
This block took longer than the 9TH
er, but in a few minutes it, too, gave
way. A single cube of oak directly
under the stern post was all that now
held the great ship on the ways.
mastering my final energies, / at
tackled this last block. Strange that
a single blow by my tired arms
should have affected so huge a mass!
Yet that one stroke was what the
ship had waited for.
Along the ways sounded a groan-
ing; the groaning grew to rum
bling; the rumbling deepened into
thunder. The block before me was
crumpled into match wood. The
ship had started.
| "'Down! Downn came the warn
ing cry, as the lantern holders sprang
back, leaving me in darkness.
81 had no time to get out. The
moving cradle would have ground
me to pieces. must hold my place,
while the ship slid over me. Down
into the water l dropped on hands
and knees. The lower l could get,
the safer l would be.
''The next few seconds I have nev-
er forgotten. was facing the bow;
on my left, the keel; on my right,
the cradle wall; overhead the bottom
of the ship. 1t was tunnel, of
which the top and sides were rushing
past me, and only the floor was still.
Far up under the bilge, but rapidly
approaching and growing larger,
was dim square of light, framing
the smoky flare of the bandsmen s
torches.
II was deafened by the fearful
| loNiSSNhih5s oS IhC 6iCooCo hoio pihC
ways ground together, What was ]
beneath those hundreds of tons of
wood and iron! A wedge squeezed
from the cradle wall or a swinging
timber end would blot me out with
as little conjunction as IL were a
barnacle on the cobwork. Great
though my peril was, could not
help thrill of satisfaction. The
job nobody else had dared to attempt
had been done by me, and done we'll.
Lower and lower came the top
of the tunnel, as the bilge amidships
approached. The wind of the moving
mass stirred my hair. The next two
or three seconds would be the most
dangerous. I must take no chances.
Ducking my head under water, I
pressed my face down on the cold.
Shiny logs. They. were trembling as
in the throes of an earthquake.
"a few seconds of rolling thun-
der, of cracking, vibrating timbers,
then great plunge!