The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1908-07-30
ON THE FACE OF The CLIFF |
BY ALBERT w. ToLS1AN.


Early on a hot July morning Dan
Handy. the drill-runner. and Sam
my Kline. his tender. were banging
away at sixteen-foot blasting-hoie
In a shelf on the face OF a perpen-
dicular bluff overlooking the river.
Above their heads the gray rock
rose sheer forty feet; beneath was
drop OF hundred and sixty to the
dump.
Handy, a red-beared giant. two
inches over six feet and fat in the
bargain. tipped the scales at two
hundred and forty pounds. Kline
was wiry little skipiack, eight
inches shorter. and Weighing almost
hundred pounds less. Both, how
ever, were skilled workmen. ard
minded the eight-score feet beneath
them no more than so many inches
Dan had been structural-steel
worker on dizzy "sky-scrapers.+ and
his mate had furled royals on every
ocean of the globe.
The drill was cutting down the
hard trap at one end of the ledge
In the thin soil that oversnread the
rock grew scanty grasses. One still
OF the tripod touched the outer edge
Straight down the front of the cliff
hung the steam-hose from the boiler
beyond the summit.
Dan, turning the feed-screw
handle directed the steel point prob
ing the depths of the ledge. The
machine seemed to be part OF him:
he could feel every throb and beat
as it pounded away. obedient to the
hundred pound pressure from the
boiler. Meanwhile Sammy 1igbt-
ened up the chuck-bolt. pumped the
mud from the deepening hole. and
poured down dipper after dinner of
water. The exhaust steam cnveI-
oped them in a little white cloud
Round their feet spread thin blue
sauce of powdered rock. and the
mud-gouts spattered their clothing
as tour times a second the whirling
drill rose and descended.
The sun baked the cliff front. But
the morning mist still covered the
broad river with an irregular, fleecy
blanket, pierced by the moving
masts and tall smoke-stacks of
larger craft, while the smaller
puned unseen below. From the base
or the blum broke suddenly a harsh
roar. The stone-crusher. for which
they were furnishing food, had be-
gun its daily grind.
Chug-g-g-g! The machine ham
mered incessantly, dancing to the
explosive staccato of the exhaust
pipe. But for the hundred-and-
twenty-fve-pound weight on each
leg, it would have jumped over into
the abyss. 1t was as if a monstrous
wingless steel wasp. all legs and no
body, were boring into the shelf.
The hole was already down four
teen feet. Two more, and It would
De done, completing the battery of
dozen, which, loaded with dyna-
mite and fired simultaneously. were
expected to send the entire ledge
crashing down on the dump.
Handy's practised ear told him IL
was time to exchange the dull drill
for a fresh one.
Shut off that steam!" he shout
ed; and the machine stopped. Send
down your sixteen-foot drill"
Soon the long steel bar swung
clinking down the cliff face, to take
the place of the other, which was
sent back by the same rope.
Turn on your steam!" rose
Handy's shout; and again the ma
chine started.
Kline had just finished a funny
story that made the big drill-runner
shake like a jelly; his roar of laugh
ter almost drowned the putting OF
the exhaust. He was looking far
down the river, from which the last
xrcoff.~.. f. f0ur|--. I