The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-02-28


on trot. As he passed down the railroad
yards between long lines of freight cars,
occasionally he stopped and hstened-for
that sharp, venomous crack, followed by the
thunderous roar of exploding nitro-glycer-
inc He knew the explosion could not
come yet, of course, but so much will a
hurrying footstep and a>heightening anxiety
quicken the imagination.
-Four watchmen- guarded the works at
night Two of these Martin knew were
union men who reported secretly to the
strike committee. But great arc lights
burned before the entrance gates, and no
accommodating guard would be careless
enough to pass a stranger through them.
The way over the roofs and surrounding
walls was understood to be fenced with
heavily charged electric wires. However,
on the railroad side, where a spur-track
entered the works, there was a small man
door in the huge gates that closed the track
way. There was no light at this place, and
a man, by collision Of a guard, might make
his exit and entrance here in comparative
safety.
But when he had fattened himself on
the top of box car till nearly midnight, he
Judged that something must be wrong with
his plans. The little man-door had, been
unapproached. Restlessly he arose and
walked softly along the tops of cars, skirt
ing the back of the works, car after car, till
he came opposite the machine shop. To his
surprise he found a window open in the
machine shop, just level with the car roof.
Inside lay deadly risk and unknown
chances, but Martin slipped quietly through
the window. The way was unfamiliar, but
he CROPPED about till his hand touched a
pulley and then bit of rubber betting on
which he swung down to the floor. He
felt his way through maze of shafting and
machinery. Once his hand clutched an
electric light built swinging above lathe,
but he dared not turn it on. At length he
was in the open air.
Two arc lights swung high in the center
of the yard, but projecting corners Of build
ings threw spots and lines of shadow pro-
fusely about. In one of these patches of
darkness John crouched, breathless, for he
had heard sound in the boiler house,
which was only fifty feet away, but barred
by an area of light that was almost as bright
as sunshine.
As soon as he dared John edged around
the circle of light and came up under be-
grimed window at the side Of the boilers.
He pressed his face close and made out a
glimmer of light. It was only for an in
slant as the shutter of bull's-eye lamp
opened and closed, but in that instant
John saw the croucbing figure of Holtz-
man with bag upon his arm. John tried
the window. 1t was fast. He essayed the
door
Instantly John slipped through the door.
He shifted the air and detected the odor Of
something burning. Then his eyes made
out feeble glow in the narrow way ahead
of him, with now and then the faintest
sputtering flicker OF light
He was reaching for his knife to slash
off the burning end when he was suddenly
folded in the embrace of human gorilla.
Long arms gripped him like bands of
steel. Terrible fingers clutched at his
throat. A hairy face was pressed against
his own, and out of the monsters breast
came a fierce, throaty snarl.
Now John knew what had become of
Hoffman. This that had attacked him
was he. And while they battled, there
sputtered few feet away the curling coil
of death in one Of its most horrible FORMS
The instinct to silence lay strong upon
both. Neither uttered a sound that could
be heard outside the ear of the other
Hoffman struggled to beat back his adj
versary and escape from the deadly, Kissing
thing few feet away. Martin fought with
all his terrible determination to get past
the crazed man and extinguish the spark
1t seemed an hour, day, year, since it
had begun to burn. The mailman gained
in strength and ferocity. Johns face was
gashed by his nails. Just now, too, Holtz-
man had set his teeth in his shoulder, and
locked his arm about him in such way
that Martin found himself lying there within
reach of the glowing fuse, his head not a
foot from the deadly cylinders, and yet
his hands bound to his sides by grip that
seemed unbreakable.
He could move his body and drag the
Germans with him, by pressing with his
feet against the walls and lifting forward
with all his might. Hoffman could not
hold him back and hold his hands at the
same time.
Martin lifted himself an inch nearer the
kissing serpent. And then another lift, and
another. The spark was at his forehead,
his eye, his nose--and then, with super
human effort, he seized the glowing end in
his teeth and chewed it into an innocuous
mass of pulp, srnothering it in saliva.
The spark was drowned The union was
saved.
For moment Martin lay inert, closing
his ewes In an ecstasy of relief deaf even