The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-02-16

Alan Negotiates for the Burros.
perhaps ten feet behind them, and
| poured down in ever deeper volume
| to back up against the barrier
1t was waist deep, however, before
they retreated to the head of that
rise.
Half an hour later it was waist
deep there, on the highest spot In the
tunnel.
In fifteen minutes more it had
reached their chins. And they stood
with head against the roof of the tun-
mel.
Holding Rose close to him, Alan
kissed her lips, that were as cold as
death.
Then, fumbling under water, he
found the hand of the man at his side
The water Tapped his lips like a
blind hand
In the tunnel that branched off from
the main shaft, beyond the bulkhead,
some thirty minutes before this juno
ture, candle had guttered in it's stick,
left carelessly thrust into the wall by
Marrophat's lieutenant, ard guttering,
had dropped a flaming wick into lit
tie heap of bone-dry debris. This last
famed, licked hungrily at the timber
ing that upheld the falls of the tunnel.
The timbering caught fire without de-
lay. In space of time incredibly
brio no far ioI,t
and left, the tunnel was vault of
blistering fury.
AS Alan said his last mute farewell
to Rose and Barcus, the fire spread
out in the bottom of the shaft and in
vaded the powder room.
Alan had guessed Alright at Mario
phat's design; the key of blasting pow
der was less than an eighth full; it's
explosion could not possibly have eff
fected the cave-in Alan had at first
feared.
But what Marrophat had overlooked
was the proximity to the key of some
several sticks Of dynamite, masked by
film of earth that had fallen from
the crumbling walls.
When the blazing fuse dropped
sparks into the blasting powder this
last exploded right willingly and the
dynamite took it's cue without the
least delay.
The resultant defamation was ter
rife. The bulkhead was crushed in
like an eggshell barrier. Part of the
walls fell in, but the tunnels and shaft
remained intact. The released flood
streamed out and spread swiftly to the
farthest recesses Of the burning tun-
mel Dense clouds Of steam filled that
place of terror as the fires were extin-
guished.
Swept with the stream as 1t poured
out Of the tunnel, Alan contrived
throughout to retain his hold round
the waist of Rose. Barcus shot past
. him unseen in the darkness. 1t was
not until Alan had contrived to catch
an unburned timber and stay himself
and his almost witless burden beneath
the mouth of the shaft that he discov-
cred Barcus alive if almost unrecog-
nizable in his mask Of mold and soot,
battling back toward the shaft against
the kneedeep tide.
Half-blinded and stified as he was by
the reek of steam and powder fumes,
Alan struggled with himself until his
wits were passably clear.
Immediately before him dangled the
hoisting bucket and rope.
SurrenderiEg the care of Rose to
Barcus Alan climbed into the bucket
I'd jnin q
walls of the shaft for a way to the
top.
There was none other than the most
difficult; gaps too great to be bridged
by climbing showed In the wooden
ladders.
The one feasible route was via the
rope. And there was nobody at the
top to work the windlass-and Alan
hoped there would be nobody to OPP
pose his essay
He addressed himself to the task
without murmuring-lifted himself up
on the rope, wound it round one leg,
and began that heartbreaking climb.
How he accomplished it he never
knew. That it must be accomplished
was his one, all-absorbing thought
And somehow, by some almost super
human effort, it was eventually accom-
plished.
He arrived at the top of the shaft
far too exhausted to show surprise
when, falling in half-fainting condi-
ton within two feet of the brink, he
saw Judith Urine running like mad
across the Clearing.
But without her aid he would not
within hours have been able to work
the windlass and lift Rose and Bar
Gus to the surface.
ITO BE CONTINUED