Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1914-11-19

She nodded, not trusting herself to
speak, and turned her face fromatheI
moonlight. She seemed to be strug-
Cling again with a rising sob.
Simon found himself peering, closely
and unintentionally, into her eyes. He
stepped hastily back and heard him
self speaking with q boldness he did
not recognize.
"Mebby it was fur him ye we're
But / hadn't oughter ask that. Mebby
it's fur We he's ben grievin,?"
ut couldn't be that"
I've wondered. Often I've come on
him when he thought he was alone.
jest settin' and lookin' at nothin'-an'
grievin', l know" Simon's face, too,
sought the shadow. II know:
ut might be because OF me but not
not for me-"
Not because he wants ye, ye mean?
But it could be that. 'Tain't likely
he'd find two such women as We, even
in the city. An faint likely he'd
trouble so much, If there wasn't a
woman in it. l wish We could give him
what he needs"
What he needs is to have his life
made over from the beginning. He
can't have that"
IF. he's jest wantin,. some one.
there's a way he could have il"
you don't understand" she said
YEARLY.
mo. I don't understand. That's the
trouble. I'd like to help him, to give
him what he needs. But l don't know
how. There's nothin, I can give him"
He turned his face away from her,
looking up at the furnace, big and
menacing, outlined against the sky,
There was silence among the mills.
From the old village behind them came
faint vague sounds of life-a distant
tinkle of laughter, a crying child, q
neighing horse. From the new town
beyond the mills came no sound but a
single voice in song, a wild eery chant
that had been brought from another
land. The song was finished. Kazia
and Simon stirred, as though they had
been waiting for its close to bring
their strange encounter to an end.
What's that?"
Both started. From somewhere near
cackle of mirthless uncanny laughter.
Sounds g If it come from the fur
mace. There hadn't oughter be any
body round here. But / guess It's just
the Waterman in the power house. The
still night makes it sound like that"
But even as he spoke they saw the
figure Of a man crawling from behind
the furnace. He scrambled to his feet
and began to run, with an awkward
hobbling gait, up the tracks toward
the bridge. The moonlight fell full on
his face.
"Piotr!"
AS the cry. in a voice he knew
reached him, the man stopped sud
denly, stared wildly about and saw the
two figures advancing or him. he
raised his hands in q frantic gesture.
"Kazia! Go back-go back!"
She did not heed his warning. "Piotr
What are you doing?"
go back!" he screamed. "Youf
be killed. It's dynamite!"
Instantly the others guessed wha
impended. Kazia heard a low moal
beside her, saw Simon run. as fast al
his age-stiffened limbs allowed. towar,
the furnace, as If he thought to aver
the imminent destruction.
you mustn't" she cried. "Com'
back!"
II the old man heard, he did no
: obey. She fed after him. In instinctiv
purpose to drag him back out Q
> danger.
They reached Piotr, passed him. H
stood bewildered, glancing uncertainl
. toward the refuge Of the woods. Their
with q low whimpering cry. he, too
joined In that moonlight race. H
t could not have overtaken her, had sh
not tripped and fallen over a switch
He flung himself upon her, moanin
t shudderingly.
"Kazia, l didn't want to hurt you"
8 Simon sped on.
That was what Mark Tru.tt, croucl
ing where he had last fallen, saw jus
t before the explosion came. There We
a hoarse d%eafening roar. . The gres
furnace seemed to reel, then topple
and fell.
o They found him weakly trying
remove the debris from a place nes
the edge of the ruin. They drew hi
aside and a hundred strong hands. too
up his task. Soon they found the dea
Piotr and under him Kazia, sti
d breathing. 1t was not until daybrea
e that they came to Simon.
g Kazia was carried to the. village an
n laid in Doctor Hedges own house. A
p through the night and in the mornin
It until the great surgeon from the cit
q came, he fought off death. Then tt
surgeon took up the fight with
70 knowledge and skill the old doctor d
not possess. For two days they d
1t not sleep but watched and battled.
sr In the adjoining room a man, hill
10 self the object of the doctor's car
n passed through his G~ethsemane. tt
e dead, his own pain and weakness, 8
n. else, were forgotten in his agony +
le the one who. it seemed. could not liv
I'd Sometimes he would rise from Il
couch where they had laid him III
creep into the other room to Join Il