The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1916-06-08

'mpenetrable timber near the summit
Of the big ridge which must be cut
through before the flames reached 1t,
Or all would be lost.
Shall we make II. John?' asked
he owner desperately Of Daily who
-an by In the smoke with wet rags to
lie over the mouths OF the men.
Ought to II the wind stays where
il IS"
It was two O'Clock and that hour in
the sleeping world outside when all
the elements are at an ebb
Then, all suddenly, Destiny laughed
And Destinys laugh was a whooping
wind that rose as the elemental ebb.
tide turned. He'll broke loose upon
the land and heaven was not. Fire
encompassed the world It's increased
roar changed to the thunder Of the
spheres. It appalled, the hearts OF
men. stayed their hands Ia fright. All
throughout the darkness Of rolling
smoke wherein they worked between
the raging torrent and the East Belt
that mighty voice commanded cessa-
ton.
Instantane eously, without orders. as
one man where there was no commu.
nication save between those a few feet
apart, they dropped their spades, their
tattered blankets, their axes. They
Strengthened from their labor, leaving
the cross cuts in tie trunks. Here and
there. above the solemn thunder
hoarse voices began to call. II was
tho time to quit and they realized It
instinctively.
routl Outi Outl" they cried to
each other in the dusk. Get out!
Get out!"
Walter Sandry, working near the
apex Of the pushing line. saw men be.
ginning to run past him back along the
trench and the cutting. He lifted des-
perate eyes 10 the ridge whose dim
crest he could see between the boles.
so near had they won to victory. Only
a few more big pines, a dozen saplings,
a scant few yards of trench and 1t
would be done-the long lane Of safety
stretched across the neck Of the East
Beltl
stop Stop! stop!" he cried with
a great voice that came from the very
depths Of his lungs with borrowed
power stand by me, menl For Gods
sake stand BY"
He saw dim shapes falter. half turn
toward him and start on. Again he
raised his stentorlan cry and flying
figures halted a moment, stopped
against their will by its compelling
power.
I'm Johnny Eastern. all right, but
I'm going to stayl Who'll stay with
me?"
Out OF the dense obscurity came Col
Inns. a huge, fantastic figure, and stood
beside him without a word. In the ten.
sion Of the time Sandry reached out
a hand and gripped the giants shoul.
der.
"A dozen men and we've won!" he
cried.
He saw the halting shapes turn
gather another and another, retrace
their steps and spring back into the
darkness. Every man OF them was
western born and the taunt had gone
home. He leaped himself for the
handle of a saw sticking out from the
bole Of q 15O-toot sugar pine and the
whining song Of the cross.cuts rose
again under the dwarfng roar.
Fourteen men had heard and an
swered that call, and they we're alone
IN the purgatory Of heat and smoke
All the rest were running for their
lives down the cleared fall toward the
valley beyond the dip.
From time to time Sandry glanced
upward at the increasing light The
sugar pine fell with a rending roar.
and with Harris, Who, he saw for the
arst time, had been pulling with him,
he ran 10 the next.
He saw as he ran that one Of the
mon, working like a fury to fell the
sapHngs, was Murphy who had greet
ed his pompous "Diuingworth" with
such gTinning irony in the old days.
He had a moments vague wonder at
this odd stripe OF humanity that could
hold such prejudice, fight with Hamp-
dons men In savage enmity. to Join
their ranks later with happy irrespon-
sibllity at the call OF gold, and was
still willing to turn back to fight with
him on deaths brink. because he had
returned their taunt Of East and West.
One by one, IN silence, in a tension
that drew the skin tight on their faces.
they saw the las' remaining monarchs
/ fall. the kindling Baplings laid on
earth. the trench, much narrower and
shallower, creep upward to the ridge.
Against time, against heat that
scorched their bare arms and tortured
their starting eyeballs, against a sti'
fling atmosphere that druye tnem
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