The Washington herald., 1909-01-03

That staggered the foreman he stopped IN tn
midst Of driving activity OF mind and body his face
fare OF the lanterns looked elongated and
He lifted his II warding Of some falling object
and then dropped them.
Cut Of the engine and the front tank cart has
water" he ordered We must catch the cars OF
powder The passenger must be comm down to'ards
fre-if them cars should go through the FIRE and
they and then strike No. i,
hurry boys, don't lose second, Part Of you stay
here and see II can't fiji the tanks in some way
Let her 60 Steve; plug the escape and don't shut OF
for anything"
In three minutes they battered through the
switch and whirled down toward the Gap Sloan had
seen the three runaway cars whz BY and was on the
platform. The engine and tank went by him N
sweeping roar. He heard a voice shouting something
him from the midst OF the noise, but could dis
tingush word He to the Office; the Forked
mountain telephone bell rang and Mrs. Taylor cried
some strange things in his ear-ths long house was
burning madIy. Park was somewhere n The darkness
the face Of the mountain. she did know where
bur clearly he had found and mended the broken wires
Berg and his men went toward the scene OF con
lag-aton with desire and expectation AZ white heat
Through the first half dozen miles the engine was
driven reclessIy The endless shed roared the head
Hcht gushed It full OF light front, the myriad dusty
bans and rafters glmmered backward into darkness
and the bottomless hole rushed upon them ceaeessly
When within four Eve miles Of the center OF ne
Big bend Berg gave yell
There they are. Steve. Open her wider" he shout
ed Burns hooked her Up another notch. but It
only glimpse they get Of the runaways Ike shadows
the slipped out Of sight around At the
end Of another mile they again the fleeing things
vaguely. away in front Burns reversed the lever
Berg Ieaped at him
What are you doin' Steve7r he demanded
We can't hook en- said Burns II could
couldn't stop EN- here the grade until We all went
head first into the fre-an be wrecked in IRE with
that powder-welI,--"
Berg crumpled his soied hands together ana pushed
them across his sweat beaded face. Nc IF they
if hey He swallowed painfully and looked strain
ingIy ahead
Passenger No exploded torpedoes that the walker
had placed the rail- stopped. and then advanced
II picked up the patrol and pushed carefully ahead
but its knew nothing Of the OF powder II
the should hold the rails and through
the fire the walls Of the long would be spattered
with something scarlet than flame Berg and
Burns were feeling their way onward: UP at FuIIeTs
nine working wildly IN an attempt to
III the tanks; on the erag Mrs. Taylor pray
ing in transport of anxiety and down the front
Of the mountain Par bruised and bleeding. creep
ing upward when the explosion came
He hanging among the rocks and looking over
his shoulder at Nuley mountain when suddenly he
the whole conagrstiOn leap apparently. into the sky.
while crash Of sound went abroad that shook the
heavens and rocked mountains lie himself
nattened IN among the stones from great blow.
Up IN the stone house Mrs Taylor heard the walls
crack and Ieaped back with a scream the window
glass ratified about her They looked at Muley noun
tain-the IRE had been blown blows out a
aCandle OF fame winked here and there on the
mountain and a gray vapOr drifted above it That
all
When Be and the passenger crew met at the
Of the explosion they found that zoe
of the shed had disappeared and that zoo feet OF
rails had gone Il Bits Of the cars were
found spots the mountain The IRE
whic Ia huRgrily begun the destruction Of the
long hluse had been put out by FIRE with a breath
behind that blew itself and all around it into black
ness
After all hands had been over on the big rug
headquarters Burke said Chief Dispatcher
veIl It that that chap, Mrs TayIor's did
the real business. What do you think?"
Strikes that way" said the chief.
Seems like a good emergency man. guess we'd
better put him on with the 1inemen and when he's
little older-f he pans out all right-we can push
him to the first place He and his mother mustn't go
up that old rock pile again
I'll look after them" assented Maxwell
Three years later Park Taylor became general
foreman lnemen, and this story Of his grit
face OF Forked mountain only they tel
Of him on the Western Central