The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1916-03-10
PROLOGUE.

With wildly shrieking horn disturb
ang the very solitudes Of the distant
hills, and with pale and terror
stricken chauffeur bending over the
wheel, the limousine of David Pow
ers, millionaire lumber king, tore
through the granite gateway Of his
beautiful residence and dashed madly
along the shrub-bordered driveway
toward the marble porch.
Powers himself-tyrant boss Of q
thousand underfed workmen-was
on the steps. Anxiety was betrayed
by every line of his working features.
Perry Travis, his legal adviser, was
with him, and as the machine came
to q sudden stop before them, it's
grinding wheels sending up a shower
Of fine stone and gravel, Powers was
seen to pause and turn an instant
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
his affairs were approaching crisis.
And he was afraid-afraid with the
pitfful fear which comes over strong
men when they realize that the con-
fronting danger is of their own crea-
ton.
With trembling limbs the chauffeur
climbed from his seat and averted his
fear distended eyes, as with unsteady
hand he pointed to the broken window
pane in the door of the handsome ma
chine. The small round hole, with its
pattern of radiating cracks, like a
serried and shattered mirror, told its
own story. Nothing but bullet could
have made break like that.
Mastering his own emotion with SUI
preme effort, Powers stepped toward
the machine, and with firm hand-for
hts was a will of iron-he opened the
door. From out of the luxurious in
terror he lifted the inert body of his
beautiful daughter and pressed her to
his bosom-a bosom that was racked
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.
David Powers sank on one knee be-
side the cot, and then slowly his body
seemed to shrivel and sag, much like
q half-filled bag of meal, as with a
of 70 Of hn
himself prone upon the floor and utter
ed the single word,
Dead"
Travis stood silently beside the
stricken father, unable to think or
move. The young woman who lay
tho 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 ago.
nized parent.
David Powers was known as the
man who never smiled during bust
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
on the Pacific coast and all who
knew him envied him. Stern, domi-
neering, and with a genius for organi-
cation, 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 q driver of men, the man who
could extract one more ounce of labor
for one 1.-THE less Of wages was Jake
Snyder, the chief foreman, pugnacious,
hard as nails, fiinty-hearted and en-
tirely without sentiment.
Jake made an ideal driver for 30
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.
Powers had Just driven up to his
Office in his high-powered six and had
sent to Jake.
The millionaire was looking over the
market column of the morning paper
when his foreman entered and he
never lifted his eyes from the absorb
ing sheet until the field commander
had drawn his chair up close to his
employer's 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:
'Lumber's high in the East, Jake.
Drive your men to the limit and get
that shipment east while prices hold
up
There was q grim cruelty in Jake's
eyes and just tinge of smile on his
firm, thin lips as he answered:
They're pretty near the limit now,
but ] guess we can speed 'em up a
Dit