The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1914-11-07

|
him what he needs. But don't know
how. There's nothin' 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
faint vague sounds of life-a distant
tinkle of laughter. a crying child,
neighing horse. From the new town
beyond the mills came no sound but
single voice in song, 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
| them had come a sudden muflled
cackle of mirthless uncanny laughter
Sounds s 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 1t sound like that"
But even as he spoke they saw the
figure of 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 on him. He
raised his hands in a frantic gesture.
"KaZia! Go back-go back"
She did not heed his warning. "Piotr!
What are you doing?"
Go back" he screamed. You'll
be killed. It's dynamite!"
Instantly the others guessed what
impended. Kazia heard a low moan
beside her. saw Simon run. as fast as
his age-stiffened limbs allowed. toward
the furnace, as if he thought to avert
the imminent destruction.
You mustn't" she cried. Come
back"
If the old man heard, he did not
obey. She fed after him, in instructive
purpose to drag him back out of
danger.
They reached Piotr. passed him. He
stood bewildered, glancing uncertainty
toward the refuge of the woods. Then.
with low whimpering cry. he, too.
Joined in that moonlight race He
could not have overtaken her, had she
not tripped and fallen over a switch.
He flung himself upon her, meaning
shudderirgly.
.'Kazia, | didn't want to hurt YOU"
Simon sped on.
That was what Mark Truitt, crouch.
ing where he had last fallen, saw just
before the explosion came. There was
a hoarse deafening roar. The great
furnace seemed to reel, then toppled
and fell.
They found him weakly trying to
remove the debris from a place near
the edge of the ruin. They drew him
aside and hundred strong hands took
up his task. Soon they found the dead
Piotr and under him Kazia, still
breathing. 1t was not until daybreak
that they came to Simon.
Kazia was carried to the village and
laid in Doctor Hedges own house. All
through the night and in the morning,
until the great surgeon from the city
came. he fought off death. Then the
surgeon took up the fight with
knowledge and skill the old doctor did
not possess. For two days they did
not sleep but watched and battled.
In the adjoining room a man, him.
self the object of the doctors care,
passed through his Gethsemane. The
dead, his own pain and weakness, all
else, were forgotten in his agony for
the one who, 1t seemed, could not live.
Sometimes he would rise from the
couch where they had laid him and
creep into the other room to join the
watchers there until the sight of the
still. bandaged form became more than
he could bear. Then ne would let
them lead him back to his couch. His
lips moved constantly, in what words
he did not know. Their burden was
the cry of all Gethsemanes.
Let this cup pass from me-"
So the miracle was made perfect.
Toward the last of that watch his
weakness began to overcome him. The
doctors supposed he slept and said:
1T is best" He did not sleep. He
had lost sense of his surroundings but
his brain was alive. He was fighting.
struggling supremely, TO hold her back
from the precipice over which she was
slowly falling. Once she seemed to be
slipping from his clasp. He heard her
piteous cry to him.
He rose with start and tottered
into her room.
She called me-" he whispered
Hedges thought it was delirium and
would have led him back to his couch.
But Mark resisted
81 tell you, she called me. must
see her"
Let him." said the surgeon. Prob.
ably it's his last chance"
Hedges released him and Mark went
over to her. He dropped to his knees
by the bedside and kissed, very gently,
the arm outlined under the sheet
"Kazia," he whispered. MY wife,
my love. don't leave me! Can't you
hear. dear?-the miracle has GOMEZ"
He thought that she sighed, as does
a tired child when 1t sinks to sleep.