Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-09-16
RUNNING OF THE CHUTE
BY NATHANIEL DICKINSON.

that her captain swung the Marcus
Baldwin into the wharves of Blank
City. Disappearing around the bend
below We're the twin stacks of the
Queen of the River. Yes, the Marcus
Baldwin had been fairly beaten. To
the passengers and crew this had
been but friendly race Of boats. but
to the captains it had meant infinitely
more.
Three miles below this landing was
the Chute and the locks through
which the steamers were lowered past
1t. TO the one first landing at Blank
vile, then, 1t meant first reaching the
city, mile below, owing to the long
delay at the locks. At the city a GER
tain young lady had said to these
two young captains but week before
that he who first arrived on the re-
turn trip could marry her.
Upstream there had been no race at
all, for the boats, being passenger
carriers, were booked to arrive and
leave on schedule days. So of the
down trip until that last day. Then,
with their destination within the hun
dred-mlle mark and some half dozen
landings to make, it had been touch
and go; the Marcus Baldwin ahead
at one landing, the Queen of the Riv-
er, by some turn of the wheel at the
next. Then had come that last long
stretch of some 20 miles, when the
Marcus Baldwin, ahead at the last
landing, had been overtaken at the
crucial point by her rival and the
dark featured De Witte had almost
danced In his exultation as his boat
crept by the other, while Banks had
eaten his soul out in sullen silence.
And now the race was as good as lost
10 hlm-and the girl. So, at least, he
reasoned, with the Queen of the River
as good as In the locks.
And he had given up hope as, her
freight aboard, the lines OF the Mar
Gus Baldwin were cast off and she
gathered way out into the stream.
Yet, the very fact that she was again
in motion famed the dying spark.
Was there no hope? Had he left no
stone unturned? The Queen of the
Rivers engines might break down!
What If, her engines disabled, the
freshet current in the river should
carry her through the Chute? Yet,
boats had gone through that safely.
And with this thought Captain
Banks grew of a sudden quite dizzy,
for what had been done might be done
again, he reasoned. Ordinarily good
ten feet of water ran in the Chute.
With the river at it's present height
he could fairly count on finding Is.
For width of 100 feet the Chute was
clear of rocks. and the water ran in
great oily seas. Yes, it was possible,
yet the risk! A wrecked steamer,
lives lost, maybe! But when a man
loves as Banks did he throws cost to
the wind
A quarter Of an hour later the Mar
Gus Baldwin rounded the bend above
the Chute. Below her lay the locks.
Half way through these, Banks saw
the tall stacks and upper structure of
the Queen of the River; a half hour
and she would be through them
1t needed but this to steady him in
his growing resolve.
Wilson" he said quietly to the
pilot, II will take the wheel now; you
may go on bow"
With six-mile current hurrying
her on and her engines forcing her
through 1t at a 12-knot clip, the Mar
Gus Baldwin swept on. AS she neared
the Chute. Banks could see that the
strong wind from the south had stir
red this into maelstrom of frothing
waters. Yet. there was not time to
turn now, even If he had so wished.
On past the lock slip swept the steam
er. For a moment 1t seemed she hest
tated on the brink of the yawning
Chute. passengers shrinking from her
forward decks in horror, then she
bowed majestically and plunged for
ward.
Before she had gone 100 yards she
sheered herself halfway across the
channel, listing horribly the while.
With the energy of despair Banks
spun the wheel to meet her. Her
bow rose for the moment on a huge
crested comber, and the rudder once
more controlling. she shot back across
the Chute, burying her stern to the
lower deck and sending the spray
clear over her. Again Banks met her
erratic flight. but to have her zig-zag
back across the storming current this
time, missing the white hill of
spray-drowned rock by the width of
her sheer.
This could -sot last. Again she rose
for the charge. In the fash of a
glance Banks saw the crowded decks
of the rival steamer In the last of the
locks as she drove by. Down plunged
the bows of his own boat again, at
an angle which nearly preached her,
too, and III which passengers, crew
and even captain thought her last mo-
ment had come In the shocking roar
of waters and catnding spray. Then
she rose, slowly at FIRST, and then as
dog, shaking the water from her,
and swept into the calm water below
the rapids. Far astern. hopelessly out
of the race, Banks saw the Queen of
the River pulling out of the last of
the locks
And the captains reward?
A month later there was wedding.
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