Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-10-02

which kept the fighters out of harms
way.
Now up to the track!" the roadmas-
ter painted, as the destroyer swept on
down the line. Find some tools
we'll take out a rail-"
With frantic eagerness he toiled up
the fill and attacked a fish-plate, and
Bud and the young guard searched the
hillside for tools to help with the work.
They fell to with sledge and clawbar,
tapping off nuts. jerking out spikes,
and heaving to loosen the rail-and
then once more that swift-moving
something doomed up suddenly on the
track.
up the hill" commanded the road
master, and as they scrambled into a
gulch a wild locomotive, belching
smoke and steam like a fire engine,
went rushing past them, struck the
loose rail, and leaped into the creek
bed. A moment later, as 1t crashed
its way down to the water, there was
an explosion that shook the hills. They
NAOuCACQ DCnAl4 lAC cut bnAAhs anu Tic
trees above them bowed suddenly to
the slash of an iron hail.
"Dynamite!" cried the roadmaster,
g%rinning triumphantly as he looked
up after the shock; and when the fall
of fragments had ceased, and they had
fed as If by instinct from the place,
they struck hands on their narrow es-
cape. But back at the big house, with
everybody giving thanks for their de-
livery from the powder train, the mas
ter mechanic raised a single voice of
protest. He knew the sound. He
knew that dynamite had not beer re-
sponsible for the crash that smote the
ears of the anxious listeners.
Twas not dynamitei" he yelled.
Powder train be damnedl 1t was No.
.! She was soul as a distillery! She
blowed up, l tell ye-she bowed up
when she hit the creek!"
And even after a shower of bullets
from the ridge had driven them all to
cover he still rushed to those who
would listen and clamored that 1t was
the bran.
But there was scant time to hold a
~post-mortem On No. 8, for on the sum
NIT of a nearby ridge, and overlooking
the black tank, the rebels had thrown
up a wall in the night, and from the Sc
curity of this shelter they were indus
~triously shooting up the town.
The smash of the first wild car had
been their signal for attack, and as
the explosion threw the defenders into
confusion they made a rush to take
the tank. Here, as on the day before,
was stationed the federal garrison, a
scant twenty or thirty men in charge
of a boy lieutenant.
Being practically out of ammunition
he did not stand on the order of his
going, but as his pelones pelted past
the superintendent house the reor-
ganized miners, their belts stuffed with
cartridges from their own private
stock, came charging up from the town
and rallied them in the rear
Trained by American leaders they
were the only real fighting force to be
depended upon unless the Americans
themselves should take a hand in the
game, and hat they could not DO
without the possibility of serious in
ternational consequences, a chance
they could not take except as a last
resort to save the women and children
and themselves.
In a solid, shouting mass they swept
| m tho hill fnUnfhnr drnnnnd dnuun hn
hind the d~efenses, and checked the as
founded rebels with a %volley. Then
there was another long-range battle,
with every sign of war but the dead,