Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-04-15

from the one who would destroy
equally both woman and country for
hi own gain. 1t was always women,
though Gafford, who made the SUI
preme sacrifice.
His thoughts went again to Shiela,
beyond the mountain, in the valley
of blue bombs, as he had come to
call the place. The thought of her
held him until he fell asleep and ran
over into his dreams.
The first light of morning saw
Shikoku and his guest moving, AZ
ter a frugal breakfast the stranger
burner and his daughter bowed him
away as though he might have been
a parsonage of degree, rather than
the thing he seemed.
"Saonart," they called after him
as he started up the road. "If you
return this way, come and see U.S."
"Saonari!" he called back.
Noon found him past the top of
the mountains. Below him stretched
the sweep of fir-clad shoulders. Far
to the left he became aware Of
smudge which hung over distant
cup in the tumbled landscape. Far
down a raw red scar in the hillside
showed where the newly built rail-
road clung to the side of the cliff.
A sense of elation thrilled him as
he stood and gazed toward the dis
tant smoke-hazed valley. There
within sight was the spot which he
had started to find. Alone and
single-handed he was going to fight
his country's battle. Without official
recognition, to be denied if he failed,
unrecognized if he won, he was at
tempting this thing.
Yet no soldier ever went into bat
tile with more sincere love of his
home land than pulsed through Gaf-
ford's veins as he turned from his
first view of the smoky valley and
went on down the road.
After time he came to the rail-
road and turned off along it. He
went carefully now, with an eye out
for any chance observation. Once,
about the middle of the afternoon,
rumble and singing of the rails
sent him to cover under some
bushes, while train ratified by.
Armed men sat guard on the box
like coaches. Scowino frown faces
looked out of narrow slitlike win
dows as they passed Gafrord real
lied that they were convicts on their
way to work in the bomb plant.
The sight spurred him to haste.
were rushing the work on the things.
He scrambled back to the track and
went on after the train.
1t was a crooked trail the road
took around the shoulders Of hills,
through cuttings, on spidery trestles
over brawling mountain torrents.
Gafford, out of his knowledge of
engineering, admired the work Of
the men who had built the track. No
mean ability had run those tangents
and levels and supervised their
working into concrete whole.
Twilight came down while he
trudged forward, but he kept on.
The valley of the smoke smudge still
lay before. Presently, as he dark
mss settled, he became aware of
dim glow against the sky ahead,
which faded and frightened like the
flicker of heat lightning, and knew
that it came from the furnaces of
the great plant.
Gradually as he advanced the
glow grew brighter, until at length
he turned an angle where the track
took sharper descent, and the
valley he sought lay full before his
eyes.
The smoke of it's res blotted out
the heavens. 1t rose and hung like
mighty pail above the valley. The
fires Of the furnace and forges shone
upo the under side of that curtain
Of smoke in waxing and waning
red
The glare Of the flames which fed
them sprang from the mouths of
mighty stacks and tunnels, seen
dimly in the blood-red glare Long
rows Of lighted windows twinkled
and winked up at him as he stood.
To and fro between him and the
inner glow passed the bobbing sill
houettes of moving figures. The dull
reverberations Of the blasts struck
throbbing upon his ear. The snort
of yard-engine came to him like
the barking Of dog. The glow on
the cloud of smoke deepened and
flashed the trees and bushes on the
hillside about him into inky tracer
les of design.
A great pillar of fire leaped from
a cupola and died with deadened
roar. A great red eye opened before
him and poured out molten stream
of fire, about which puny figures Of
,.arkness leaped and danced. For a
moment it seemed to Gafford that
that smole-roofed valley might well
be the pit Of tabled hell.