Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-09

They're Pretty Near the Limit Now"
Said Jake, But Wen Speed 'Em
Up Bit"
toward the younger man as If for
support
He had heard the piercing, clank-
ing notes of the horn long before the
machine was in sight He knew the
temper of his men. He realized that
he had never done one single thing
to win them to him. He knew that
his AFFAIRS were approaching a crisis.
And he was afraid-afraid with the
pitiful fear which comes over strong
men when they realize that the con-
fronting danger is of their own crea-
tion.
With trembling limbs the chauffeur
climbed from his seat and averted
his fear distended eyes. as with un-
steady hand he pointed to the broken
window pane in the door of the hand
some machine. The small Found hole,
with it's pattern of radiating cracks,
like a serried and shattered mirror,
told its own story. Nothing but a
bullet could have made a break like
that.
Mastering his own emotion with
supreme effort, Powers stepped to-
| ward the machine, and with firm
hand-for his was will of iron-he
opened the door. From out the lux
urious interior he lifted the inert
body of his beautiful daughter and
pressed her to his bosom-a bosom
that was wracked and torn with partly
stifled sobs.
Gently-gently as when she had
been an infant some twenty years
ago-he carried her into the house
and tenderly-oh so tenderly he
placed her on a divan. Softly he felt
the cold, pale cheek, and with touch
az caressing as that of a woman's, he
pushed back the beautiful raven
ringlets and shudderingly, he gazed
steadily, as If fascinated, at the
crimson trimmed, but clean cut hole
made by the bullet.
David Powers sank on one knee
beside the cot, and then slowly his
body seemed to shrivel and sag, much
like a half-hlled bag of meal, as with
9 complete surrender to grief he
threw himself prone upon the floor
and uttered the single word,
Dead"
Travis stood silently beside the
stricken father, unable to think or
move. The young woman who lay
there a victim TO the wickedness that
the tyranny OF her father had stirred
in the breasts of his workmen, had
been his fiancee, and his sorrow was
but little less than that of the agon-
ized parent.
CHAPTER I.
David Powers was known as the
man who never smiled during busi-
ness hours. He was known as the
man whose employees all feared him.
He was known too as one of the most
| successful lumbermen in the business
| hn
knew him envied him. Stern, dom
ineering, and with a genius for organ
| ization, he could get more WORK out
| of less men for smaller wages than
| any man in the State of California
that is, more than any man except
one. And the man who excelled him
as a driver Of men, the man who
| could extract one more ounce of labor
| for one tithe less of wages was Jake
Snyder, his chief foreman, pugna-
cious, hard as nails, flinty-hearted and
entirely without sentiment
! Jake made an ideal driver for so
| exacting a boss as Powers. Watch him
now on this morning several weeks
before the shooting of Laura Powers.
| Watch him as he talks among the men
| there on the dock and on the boat.
| Note the feverish anxiety with which
| the men bend to their tasks when he
| glowers in their direction. Listen to
the harsh, strident note in his voice
| as he urges them to fresh Efforts
! efforts that strain their under-nour-
ished bodies almost to the breaking
point. Note too, the covert, threaten
| ing looks that are cast in his direc-
| ton when he turns his back Listen
to the murmurs of hate that rise al
most to the violence of threat when
he Is out of hearing-listen and make
up your mind that storm Is brewing
"a storm that when 1t does break will
overwhelm Powers and Jake and all
their hated class.
Powers had just driven up to his
office in his high powered six and had
sent for Jake. A clerk found the
foreman at his favorite occupation
that of browbeating the laborers un-
der him-and 1t is no exaggeration to
say that he hated to leave this glor-
ious pastime, for even so delightful
diversion as a consultation with his
taciturn and iron-jawed employer.
Needing the summons, however, he
1 entered Powers office with a swagger,
and 1t is matter worthy of comment
to those OF us who are studying the
characters in this rather sordid story
that he showed none OF the fear that
most of Powers other employees ex-
hibited when in his presence.
The millionaire was looking over
the market column of the morning
paper when his foreman entered and
he never lifted his eyes from the alb
sorbing sheet until the field COM
mander had drawn his chair UP close
to his employers desk.
There was no word OF greeting be-
tween the men.
Pointing . pudgy finger first at the
newspaper and then at the nose of
his foreman. the millionaire spoke
tersely and harshly:
'Lumbers high in the East, Jake
Drive your men to the limit and get
that shipment east while prices hold