The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-07-22
DYNAMITER
By P. c. MAcFARLANE
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| How II already he had escaped!
John might walk straight into a deadly
trap. He might blunder on one of
those horrible banana clusters lust as
the flame of death shot out OF 1t. He
might be caught amid the debris In
the wild moments following the explo-
sions, and be torn to pieces by the
aroused strikebreakers, or, what to
John would have been infinitely worse.
charged with the crime, arrested. tried
and convicted of murder or of a felony
that involved half lifetime in prison.
Worse than that, he would have en-
tangled himself and his union in what
he believed the most dastardly possible
assault upon their own interests.
namely, the destruction Of property.
For while Martin could not in cold
blood resort to physical violence In
battle with place-takers, he owned no
such care for the life of scab as he
did for the integrity OF the walls of
| the buildings in which he had learned
his trade and where he had toiled for
fifteen years, until he felt that they
were his.
Inside lay deadly risk and unknown
chances. but Martin slipped quietly
through the window The way was un-
familiar, but he CROPPED about till his
hand touched pulley and then a bit
OF rubber betting on which he swung
to the floor. He felt his way through
maze Of shafting and machinery.
Once his hand clutched an electric
light bulb 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 cor
ners of buildings threw spots and lines
of shadow profusely 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. Immediately he heard
voices on his right, and plastered him
self against the wall as two men ap-
peared, lolling lazily across the zone
of light, Neither was one of the union
watchmen They stopped at the edge
of the shadow ard stood conversing
idly in sleepy tones. while John
hardly dared to breath, fearing for
himself and for repetition of that,
to him, ominous sound from the boiler
house.
After an age Of waiting the men
I separated, one going back and one
going on. AS soon as he dared John
edged around the circle Of light and
came up under begrimed window at
the side of the boilers. He pressed his
face close and made out a glimmer OF
light. 1t was only for an instant as
the shutter Of bull's-eye lamp opened
and closed, but in that instant John
saw the crouching figure of Hoffman
with a bag upon his arm John tried
the window. 1t was fast He essayed
the door. 1t too was unyielding.
Hoffman must have come In by the
front entrance, which was probably
left unsecured. Martin darted back to
this through the shadow, but Just as
he would have rounded the corner,
heard the footsteps of the watchman
returning. The man stopped and stood
looking at the boiler house rather
curiously, as IL he had heard some
thing there. For the fraction of a
minute, which seemed to John an hour,
he stood regarding it, and then turned
and walked directly toward 1t. He
actually thrust his head in the open
door and listened
John felt that he must have heard
his heart beating, and all the while
was himself praying that Hoffman
would make no sound that could reach
the listening ear. Satisfied at length,
the man turned away, but fingered
about the edge of the light spot in
front for ten minutes, before finally
quoting his own alarms and NOV
ing on.
instantly John slipped through the
door, and as swiftly as possible made
his way by the to him familiar pass
age--for in his fourteen years in the
plant he had seen those boilers one
by one bricked into place as the insti-
tuition grew in size-along the front
of the boilers to the spot at the side
where he had seen Hoffman, around
this to the back, and there to the man
hole where, between the second and
third boilers. the dynamiter would
seek to do is work
The door was open, as he discovered
in feeling for 1t with his hands. and
the, place within as black as an
Egyptian tomb. He shifted the air and
detected the odor of something burn
ing. Then his eyes made out feeble
glow in the narrow way ahead of him.
with now and then the faintest sput-
tering flicker of light thrill passed
through his frame. Tcicles seemed to
CONCEAL along his spine. How long
was that fuse? An inch? Or foot?