The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1916-05-04
THE HEART or
NIGHT WCNClSE
A SroRY OF THE GREAT NORTH WeSTN
BY VlNGle E. roe SA>s,!llZ. X
ILLUSTRATIONS 6y R| OAfTzes K
CooNa1NT or DooD n1EAD Anp coiAeqSY
COpX/S>GHT GY pO0l MEAD HhD cOIH79NY


the land and heaven was not. Fire
encompassed the world. rs 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.
tion.
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 cross-cuts 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
instinctively.
"Out! outl Quit" they cried to
each other in the dusk. Get outl
| 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 to the ridge whose dim
crest he could see between the boles.
so near had they won to victory. Only
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
Belt!
stop! Stopl 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 byl"
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
J I'm going to stayl 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
|
; hand and gripped the giants shoul
J der.
"A dozen men and we've won!" he
cried.
He saw the halting shapes turn
gather another and another. retract
, their steps and spring back into the
/ darkness. Every man OF them wal
t western born and the taunt had gon'
: home. He leaped himself for tn,
! handle of a saw sticking out from thu
!. bole of 150-foot sugar pine and tn,
5 whining song of the cross-cuts ros,
again under the dwarang roar.
. Fourteen men had heard and an
swered that call, and they were alon,
: In the purgatory Of heat and smoke
r All the rest we're running for thei
0 lives down the cleared fall toward th
valley beyond the dip.
q From time to time Sandry glance,
b upward at the increasing light. TIL
>. sugar pine fell with a rending roar
{ and with Harris, who, he saw for tn
n first time. had been pulling with him
he ran to the next.
|
!. men, working like fury to fell tn
:. saplings, was Murphy, who had greet
4 ed his pompous "Dillingworth" wit
r. such grinning irony in the old days.
4 He had moments vague wonder q
this odd stripe Of humanity that coul
h hold such prejudice, fight with HamI
O den's men In savage enmity, to joi
,. their ranks later with happy irrespor
r sibility at the call Of gold. and wa
, still willing to turn back to fight wit
a. him on deaths brink, because he ha
II returned their taunt Of East and Wes
A. One by one, in silence, in tensio
II that drew the skin tight on their face
they saw the last remaining monarch
fall, the kindllng saplings laid o
I earth, the trench. much narrower an
a shallower, creep upward to the ridg
|, Against time, against heat thi
!, scorched their bare arms and torture
4 their starting eyeballs, against a 81
- fling atmosphere that drove thel
= nearer and nearer to the earth Il
"a breath, they drew the last blade, Sci
- the last big pine crashing toward II
north.
y. The ridge was clear in the increa
;, ing glow.
p "Now!" cried Sandry with the Il
" umph of a general on a victorioI
field. NOW for the ridge and over!"
=, But even as lie dropped his saw an
70 ran, calling his men, Collins big VoiC
:, came through the rolling smoke wit
"a the calm of finality.
70 "Aint no over It's a ninety-fo,
q drop on to hard rock beyond tn
ridge"
AZ Sandry stopped in his tracks.
m head cleared as II with Whit Of ga
NJ air by that call.
n The men had closed In with the 1
stinct of their kind to be together
ID danger, as II so the danger were IL
10 sened.
TO But the Fastener was undaunted.
sThan wall take 10 the East n ali