Courier Democrat., 1916-08-10
uccess. Glorious SuccessIN'

SHOW Mr.. Gordon to my cabin and
give him what he wants"
He watched the tall figure stumble
up the gangplanl and shook his head
The utmost publicity is it? Well,
it's you that's getting it now. And to
think that you're the man with the
| mines and the railroads and the wild
oW! I'm afraid you'll be in irons when
she sees you. But that's as good a
finish as you deserve, after all
The building Of the Salmon river
bridge will not soon be forgotten by
engineers and men of science
Nowhere else in the history Of bridge
building had such conditions been en-
countered; nowhere on earth had work
of this character been attended with
greater hazards; never had circum-
stances created situation of more
dramatic interest. By many the whole
venture was regarded as reckless
gamble; for more than a million dol
lars had been risked on the chance not
alone that ONeil could build supports
which the ice could not demolish, but
that he could build them under the
most serious difficulties in recor;l break
ing time. Far more than the mere
cost Of the structure hinged upon his
success; failure would mean that his
whole investment up to that point
would be wiped out, to say nothing Of
the $2O,OOO,O00 project of a trunk line
up the valley Of the Salmon.
Had the government permitted the
hyak coal fields to be opened up the
lower reaches of the S. Il. and N. would
have had Il value, but all activity in
that region had been throttled, and the
policy of delay and indecision at head
quarters promised no relief.
The actual erection of steel work was
impossible during the coolest months;
Parker had planned only to rush the
piers, abutmentS and false work to COM
pletion so that he could take advantage
of the mild spring weather preceding
the breakup. The execution of this
plan was in itself an unparalleled I'M
dertaking, making it necessary to hire
double crews of picked men. Yet, as
| the weeks wore into months the intr-
cate details were wrought out one by
one and preparations were completed
for the great race.
Late in March Dan Appleton went
to the front, taking with him his wife
| and his sister. for whom O'Neil had
thoughtfully prepared suitable living
| quarters. The girls were as hungry
as Dan to have Il part in the deciding
struggle, or at least to see it close at
hand. for the spirit of those engaged
| In the work had entered them also.
Life at Omar of late had been rather
uneventful, and they looked forward
| with pleasure to Il renewal Of those
cOmpaniOnable relations which had
| made the summer months so full Of
interest and delight. But they were
| disappointed. Life at the end of the
line they found to be Il very grim, q
| very earnest. and in some respects an
extremely disagreeable affair; the few
erish, unceasing activity of their friends
left no time for companionship or rec
reation of any sort. More and more
| they. too, came to feel the sense Of
haste and strain pervading the whole
army of workers, the weight of respon-
| sibility that bore upon the commander
Dan became almost a stranger to
them, and when they saw him he was
| obsessed by vital issues. Mellen was
gruff and irritable; Parker in his pre-
occupation ignored everything but his
| duties. OF all their former comrades
ONeil alone seemed aware of their
presence. But behind his smile they
saw the lurking worries; in his eyes
was an abstraction they could not pen
| citrate. in his bearing the fatigue of a
man tried to the breaking point.
TO Eliza there was certain JOY
merely in being near the man she
| loved, even though she could not help
being hurt by his apparent indiffer-
ence. The long weeks without sight
OF him had deepened her feeling and
she had turned for relief to the writing
of her book-the natural outlet for her
repressed emotions. Into it's pages she
had poured all her passion, all her
yearning, and she had written with an
intimate understanding of O'Neil's am
billions and aims which later gave the
story it's unique success as an epic of
financial romance.
Hers was nature which could not
be content with idleness. She took up
the work that she and Natalie had be-
gun, devoting herself unobtrusively yet
effectively to making O'Neil comforta-
BILE. 1t was labor Of love, done with
no expectation of reward; it thrilled
| her, filing her with mingled sadness
and satisfaction. But if Murray no
ticed the improvement in his surround
ings, which she sometimes doubted, he
| evidently attributed it to u sudden ac-
cess of zeal on the part of Ben, for he
made no comment. Whether or not
she wished him to see and understand
she. could hardly tell. Somehow his