Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-06-27
Continued from Last Week.
CHAPTER XXxIlI.
The Battle in the Night.

camp groups to watch the last stand
of the river against the rock lombard
ment. Molly Silent had crept down
from the Crossing, full of fears. Out
there, somewhere on the trestles, on
one of those rock cars, was her Jim.
She sat on the bank by Times and Mrs.
Marshall.
Mrs. Hardin, f1oated by in her crisp
muslins. A few feet behind stalked
Godfrey, his eyes on the pretty figure
by his side. Innes turned from his
look, abashed as though she had been
peering through a locked door.
Gayly, with a f1uttering of ruffles,
Gerty established herself on the bank,
a trifle out of hearing distance. A
hard little smile played on the lips ac-
cented with Partisan rouge. The child
ish expression was gone; her look ac-
cused life of having trifled with her.
But they would see
"Don't look so unhappy, dearest"
whispered the man at her side. "Im
going to make you happy, dear!'
She flushed a brilliant, finished smile
at him. Yes, she was proud of him.
He satisfied her sense of romance, or
would, later, when she was away from
here, O dull pain pricking at her DELHI
crate planning. Godfrey found her
young, young and distracting. His
life had been hungry, too; the wife,
I'D there in Canada somewhere, had
never understood him. Godfrey was
ambitious, ambitious as she was. She
would be his wife; she would see the
cities of the world with him, the well
coined wife of Godfrey; she would
share the plaudits his wonderful voice
won.
His eyes were on her now, she knew,
questioning, not quite sure of her. She
aad worried him yesterday because
she would not pledge herself to marry
him If he sued for his divorce. she
had told him to ask her that after the
courts had set him free. She could
not have him sure Of her.
An exclamation from him recalled
her. She found that he was no longer
staring at her; his eyes were fixed on
the trembling structure over which
''battleship," laden with rock, was
creeping
81 want to stay with you, you know
that dearest. But it doesn't feel right
to see them all working like niggers
and me loafing here You don't mind?
Oh, no, Gerty did not mind! She
was tired, anyway! She was going
back to her tent!
He thrust a yellow paper into her
hands. 81 sent that off today. Per-
haps you will be glad?"
She flung another of her inscrutable
smiles at him, and went up the bank,
the paper unread In her hands.
The long afternoon wore away. They
were now dynamiting the largest rocks
on the cars before unloading them.
The heavy loads could not be emptied
quickly enough. Not dribbled, the rock,
but dumped simultaneously, else the
gravel and rock might be washed
down stream faster than they could be
put together. Many cars must be I'M
loaded at once; the din on Silent's
train was terrific. His crew looked
like devils, drenched from the spray
which rose from the river each time
the rOck-pour began; blackened by the
smoke from the belching engine. The
river was ugly in it's wrath. 1t was
humping itself for its final stand
against the absurdity of human inten-
ton; it's yellow tail swished through
the bents of the trestle.
The order came for more speed.
Richard moved from bank to raft;
knee deep in water, screaming orders
through the din; directing the gangs;
speeding the rock trains. Hardin oscil-
lated between the levee and dams, TAX
ing orders, giving orders. His energy
was superb. It had grown dark, but
no one yet had thought of the lights,
the great Wells burners stretched
across the channel. Suddenly, the
lights flared out brightly.
Not one of those who labored or
watched would ever forget that night.
The spirit of recklessness entered
even into the stolid native. The men
of the Reclamation forgot this was not
their enterprise; the Hardin faction
jumped to Richards orders. The
watchers on the bank sat tense,
thrilled out of recognition of aching
muscles, or the midnight creeping chill.
No one would go home.
To Innes, the struggle was vested
in two men, Richard running down
yonder with that light foot of his, and
Hardin with the fighting mouth tense.
And somewhere, she remembered,
working with the rest, was Estrada.
Those three were fighting for the justi-
fication of a vision-an idea was at
stake, hope for the future.