The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1920-01-30


had occurred. Hilary began running
| down the road His eyes were fixed
ahead where the log boom lay rent like
a straw pipe, and the great burden Of
logs which the Rocky river had borne
so long was plunging down the cata-
| ract.
He ran on, breathless, and the stu
pendous spectacle went on before his
eyes. A mighty barrier, piled up for
a few moments against the rocks that
spanned the cataract, gave promise of
arresting the debacle. Behind it the
logs spun and twisted. All the freight
of the river, far back from the hills,
was sweeping onward, an irresistible
army, forging past stone and boulder,
tossing, upheaving, mounting the dam,
whose cement wall was now sub
merged, swept by the milk-white tor
rent to where had been the boom. The
clashing of the logs against that wood
en- wall was like battering rams against
city wall. Then swiftly, as Hilary
still ran, he saw the picture dissolve.
The wall of logs went down into the
cataract, and column of spray rose
higher than the fiume, fiared funnel
wise and caught the sunlight into pris-
matically banded hues like a rainbow,
and went down.
Over the cataract swept the logs, I'M
impeded now. The river had burst it's
chains and spewed its burdens into the
Gulf. Fanlike, the lumber began to
spread and stain the gray st. Lawrence
surface with notified brown.
Hilary reached the waste place be-
side the mill. The workmen stood
there, impotently watching the ruin of
their toll. 1t was the wreck of every
thing. There could be no hope of build
ing up the boom in the face of that
torrent of water until the river was
low enough for the closing of the dam
gates to keep it pent back. And long
before that time the entire lumber
load of Rocky river would be in the
Gulf. Hilary looked on in >embittered
silence. He might as well give up now
and go home. Brousseau and Nature
had united to thwart him.
The workmen had been joined by
the mill hands, who had left their
work and hurried down to the boom
when the catastrophe occurred They
seemed all to have lost their heads
They were chattering eXcitedly; Hill
| airy could not understand q word, but
Connell started and looked about him.
Like many uneducated men, he had
the faculty of getting EN- rapport with
men of other speech. Evidently he
had heard something said that puz-
zled and alarmed him.
"What is it," Hilary asked.
where's Jean Baptiste?" said LATE.
81 don't know. He set off the dyna-
mite, and that ended his job. Why?"
Nothing" said LATE, still glancing
| about him.
Hilary looked at him curiously, but
| said no more. He began to push his
way through the crowd in the direc-
ton of the Office. He had not invited
LATE to accompany him, but LATE was
at his elbow when he went in, followed
| him inside the room, and took q chair
beside him.
Hilary looked at him with a whim-
| steal smile. "We're finished, LATE.
This affair, coming on top of the can
| ceiling of those jobbers' leases, has
ended me-"
Lafe scratched his chin, but said
| nothing to this.
"You see," said Hilary, according to
my reckoning we shall have about for
| ty thousand dollars on hand about
September first. That will last us till
| Christmas. On the first Of the year
| we shall be up against it. We need
| another sixty thousand to carry us
| through the winter, till navigation
| opens and we call sell our cutting. No
banks going to lend us anything with
our record"
ave can ship six thousand cords by
December first" said LATE.
| "Thirty-five thousand dollars-per-
haps less"
| "We could get more out of those
river bottoms" suggested Lafe.
"And shut down in the middle of
March,"
"As far as 1 can see," LATE blurted
out, you'll be about ten thousand shy,
Mr. Askew. assuming things go fairly
WELL That's why I came here. You
see, it's like this. I've got nearly eight
thousand in the First National bank
at Shoeburyport, Mass. Clarice-Mrs.
Connell, that is-wouldn't let me buy
her q house on the installment plan
! as l wanted to. She said as I'd never
know when we'd need the money, and
! If couldn't pay up on time they'd get
| it away from us somehow, no matter
mighty unreasonable to me, Mr.. AS
kew, but I'm glad now-I sure am
glad"
| "Lafe," said Hilary, "are you crazy
enough to suppose I'm going to take
the money that you and Mrs. Connell
have been saving up for a home, and
put it into this bankrupt concern?"
"Oh, shucks!' saidk lfe. "Why
that amt nothing. l guess / know a
good thing when see one. I'm loan
ing it to you, Mr.. Askew, at-any rate
you want to pay me-"
'Lafe, you're fool" said Hilary,
trying to keep his voice steady: "rm
tempted. But I'm not going to take
| it,"
'eThen guess I'll take fhe next boat
home! :" shouted LATE. 81 amt going
| to work for busted concern what's
going to leave me stranded up here in
midwinter, not drawing cent. and
! Clarice-my wife-and the kids in
Shoeburyport. No, sir! You take