Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1916-03-01
THE HEART OF
NIGHT W)NOS1E
ASToRY or THE GREAT NORTH We5TS
BY VINGlE E. roe ~ ~se Y
ILLUSTRATIONS ey ~ OAI7=es Is
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lmpeuStFdDie tlmDer near the summit
of the big ridge which must be cut
through before the flames reached il.
or all would be lost.
Shall we make it. John?' asked
the owner desperately of Daily, who
ran by in the smoke with wet rags to
tie over the mouths of the men
Ought to if the wind stays where
1t is"
1t 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 Destiny's laugh was a whooping
wind that rose as the elemental ebb-
tide turned. Hell broke loose upon
the land and heaven was not. Fire
eucompassed the world Its increased
roar changed to the thunder of the
spheres. 1t appalled, the hearts of
men, stayed their hands in 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.
Instantaneously, 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 crosscuts in the trunks. Here and
there, above the solemn thunder
hoarse voices began to call. 1t was
the time to quit and they realized it
instinctiyely.
out! Out! Quit" they cried to
each other in the dusk. Get out!
Get outl"
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 to 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 it
would be done-the long lane of safety
stretched across the neck of the East
Belti
stop! Stop! Stop!" he cried with
a great voice that came from the very
depths of his lungs with borrowed
power. Stand by me, men! For Gods
sake stand by!"
He saw dim shapes falter, half turn
toward him and start on. Again he
raised his stentorian 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 stay! Who'll stay with
me?"
Out of the dense obscurity came Col
Inns. huge, fantastic figure, and stood
beside him without a word. In the ten
sion of the time Sandry reached out
hand and grirped the giants shout
der.
"A dozen men and we've wont" he
cried.
He saw the hating 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 150-foot sugar pine and the
whining song of the cross-cuts rose
again under the dwarfing roar.
Fourteen men had heard and an
swered that call, and they were 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
first time, had been pulling with him.
he ran to the next.
He saw as he ran that one of the
men, working like a fury to fell the
saplings, was Murphy. who had greet
ed his pompous 'Dillingworth" with
such grinning irony in the old days.
He had a moments vague wonder at
this odd stripe of humanity that could
uOlu SuCu pASJuuASSb hShb VIVA 11aAAp
denis men in savage enmity, TO join
their ranks later with happy irrespon-
sibility 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 last remaining monarchs
fall, the kindling saplings 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 sti-
fling atmosphere that drove them