The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-08-05
LEVI AND THE DYNAMITE.
Ely ALBERT w., ToLMAN.

SStSS$ - =
The ramshackle old powder-house
stood twenty feet from the rear brink
of the Sturdevant limerick quarry,
behind a grassy rampant almost level
! with its caves. 1t was mere sentry
box, seven feet square, implanted.
3 Windowless, rooted with corrugated
iron, as u protection against blast
hurled boIlders. 1t was still called
the ''powder-house, although for
years no explosive but dynamite had
entered its battered door.
A ten-hole blast had just been fired
in the quarry bottom right under it,
and the men swung down again on
the drag by Micah Day, the engineer
Levi McCorrison, his nephew and as
Sistant, was throwing on some fresh
coal, when John Sturdevant, owner
of the quarry, came up to the engine
house in his new red automobile with
two friends.
John thought good deal of that
hole in the ground-and well he
might. Out of it had come not only
that very automobile, but ten-thou-
sand dollar house and year in Eu-
rope, to say nothing of good living
and a growing bank-account.
The three men came in, laughing
and Joking. Sturdevant shook hands
with Levi and his uncle.
Can you put us on the bottom
without breaking, Micah?" he asked.
Easy as eggs" replied the engi-
Reer.
The visitors got on the drag, and
swung out over the two hundred feet
of space. Johns friends showed
their nervousness by gripping the
to where the sledges were ringing.
Soon they stood safely on the bot
tom.
A loaded drag was hooked on. and
Micah began to hoist it slowly. Lean
ing through the open window, Levi
watched the brown hats of John and
his guests as they moved about over
4 the blue limerick. Then his gaze
s travelled up the opposite bluff to the
ten feet of earth at its top, crowned
by the rampant before the powder.
house.
His eyes opened wide. Surely he
must be mistaken. 1t could not be
that the bank was bullying out.
But it was. Out spurted cascade
of dirt and small rocks, and sho'
III I'd .
tied on the bottom. A yell of alarm
arose, and four or five men who were
barring and sledging close to the
bluff dropped their tools and sprang
back, with faces upturned
For just a second Levi stared stu
Didly, not grasping the full extent o.
the disaster that impended He saw
the rampant melt away and pour oveI
the edge, until the whole side of tbs
poWder-house was revealed. Thel
the old building itself slumped, tilted
Slid slowly halfway down the slope
OF fresh dirt and rocks. and stopped
not six feet from the brink.
Levi remembered what lay within
those weather-beaten walls, and hi!
Llood almost curdled in his veins.
Ten fifty-pound boxes of dynamit,
had been stored there the day before
What would become of the men be
low when that quarter-ton of higl
explosive struck the bottom.
He looked at his uncle. No word
We're necessary. Micah's face wa
= colOrless his cheeks fallen In IT,
understood. Only the clank of tn,
engine and the slapping of the cabl,
hToke the silence.
Some orc cried out below, and tn,
horrcr i'll rnat voice quickened levi
pulses. At last the men down Their
realized the peril that threatened
then. Perhaps from the farther cor
her OF the Fit they had caught
glimpse OF the title shanty on tn
slide.
Woik stopped Quarrymen an,
visitors grouped he,ov the engine
mouse, and looked up, waiting. The
could not set OF. urnl the risin
drag was dumped ANA lowered; TO
me ladder was bolted to the blui
right under the falling rocks an,
dirt. and not man dared risk climb
ing under that deadly shower. Eve
rs they waited. down came boulder
and raked out half-dozen rounds.
Day grasped the situation. Their
were no empty drags below, and Ill