The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-07-14
By a. Times Reporter

lethargy by men who are holding
the destiny of our slumbering city
In the curve of their trigger finger.
All night long these silent men
in drab are pacing, paeing-some-
times to the rhythm of rain pats,
often to the noises of wood birds,
thru the menacing evening and ST.
lent dawn with rifle rocked and
revolver ready.
Last night Joined these men.
Await i. W. WIS.
l walked from post to post, II
seemed rs miles in all, struggling
up hills. sliding down canyons and
balancing on tiny boards.
/ fraternized with the citizens,
and deputies, and soldiers, who
are guarding the mountain passes
against the hordes of i. w. WIS
who are reported en- route west,
intent upon invading the agricul-
turaI regions and cities of the Pa
cific coast with the rumored OBJ
feet of paralyzing industry and
destroying crops thru wartime
strikes.
visited, too, the state troops,
high up in the mountains, who are
guarding the water supply.
At times | dug my tennis shoes
into the treacherous turf, where a
miscue would have sent me 15O|
feet down to the churning water. |
caught the flashing spray of the
stream in the moonlight. 1t seem
ed eager-defiant. ] was half
hundred miles from the sound
somewhere in Washington - up
in the Cascades.
Challenged
had the credentials. / had
the strength, too, to hoist myself
up As per cent grade, slippery
with pebbles, and my two drab-
suited guards steered me on the
strip of a patch with a pocket
flashlight.
Halt" came a challenge out OF
the dark. Who's there?"
l wanted tot call to the voice
and say it was /. The man behind
me anticipated it. He clutched my
arm. The man ahead CURLY snap
ped out his station and his COM
pany.
Proceed" came the reply.
We crept toward the voice.
II was the guard at the second
post.
He Joined us. He was glad for
company in his mile walk OF
shadows and silence.
We talked hard and fast about
many things. But ! felt uncom-
Portable.
Talk of Bears
Speech and laughter in that no.
mans land of blue heaven and
cold stars was strangely incon-
gruous.
We reached the end of the
guards post, but he was loath to
let us go. There was something
ominous in the whir of the breeze
lulled cedars.
We sat on a stump and rested.
The men talked of bears. which
we're seen often on the path. They
talked of stumps which assume
forms of men in the treacherous
light.
| drew in big breaths of noun
tain air and wondered how much
nearer to the stars the next climb
would take me.
When we left the guard, he fol-
lowed us with his flashlight far up
the hill until we were pigmies in
the distance. He feared the dark
up there on the mountain. He
told us so.
But he was a soldier in the uni
form of Uncle Sam, and every hour
he paced his one-mile beat with
steady trigger finger and tight
lips.
Then Supper
For two hours more my two
bodyguards and / slipped around
the pebbly slopes.
When we returned to the post of
the lookout at No. 2, the man was
: sitting on log, apparently undis-
turbed.
But he told us he had made two
trips across the canyon since we
had left.
A midnight supper at Post No. 1
awaited us. Ham and eggs, toast
and coffee, all made on a blazing
spit on the hillside.
As we sat there on the hillside
with the sky for a roof and the
earth for seat and table, there
came a sudden crackle in the un-
dergrowth!
Three rifles we're lowered-fin.
gers ready on the triggers,
i sat, paralyzed. A graceful
black and white animal sped from
behind a stump, cleared the oper
space in front of me and leaped in.
to the darkness.
A polecat!
And l had only one suit Of
clothesl
But escaped unscathed.
Arrest Three
A whistle of a train In the can
yon!
/ had forgotten my I. w. WIS!
stumbling, slipping and skiddins
on my Goth vertebrate down the
precipice to the station, ] arrived
in time to see soldiers sprine
aboard the moving freight.
The train stopped. More sol
diers opened doors, examined the
rods" and brake beams, and ev-