Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-04-24

1t was early afternoon and down
In the hollow which shielded the
scrambling little town of Dominion
the air was warm and lazy with'the
friendliness of May.
A long, sleek, yellow racer came
to a stop beside the gas tank and
/ wheezed into silence. A young man
/ rose from his almost fiat position in
1.-The low-slung drivers seat, stretched
himself and stared upward toward
| the glaring white of Mount Talu-
J chen. the highest peak of the CONT
mental backbone. frowning in the
GOODNESS of SHOWS hal never depart
| ed.
"Gas?"
yep The young man stretched
again. Fill up the tank-and bet
ter give me half a gallon of OIL"
Young he was. almost boyish: yet
counterbalancing this was a serious
ness of expression that almost ap-
preached somberness. The eyes were
dark with something thai approach
ed sorrow. the lips had a tightness
about them which gave evidence of
the pressure of suffering, all form
ing an expression which seemed to
come upon him unaware. But in n
flash 1t was gone, and boyish again.
he had turned, laughing. to survey
the gas tender.
Barry Houston, huh? Must be a
new make. l.
"Camou1age.s' laughed the young
man again. That's my name"
ooh. is it?" and the villagef
chuckled with him. you've got tn
plate right where tn name o. a car
is plastered usually. and it plum
fooled me. Where you headed for?'
"Over Hazard"
"Ain't daft. are your"
II hope not. It's May. isn't it?"
Look up there The old man
pointed to the splotches of white.
thousands of feet above. at may be
spring down here. boy, but it's Janu-
| airy up there. They's only been two
cars over Hazard since November
and they come through last week.
Both of 'em was old stagers. Both
of 'em come through here lookin'
like icicles an swearing L beat four
o. a kind"
A thrill shot through Barry Hous-
ton. His life had been that of the
smooth spaces. of the Easy ascent of
well paved grades, of streets and
comforts and of ~luxuries. The very
rasgedness of the thing before him
lurec him and drew him on.
Iiltl We Sol Ilt, CAME quietly.
"I'm-I'm going to make the try,"
The gears meshed. A stream of
smoke from the new oil spat out for
a second. Then. roaring and chort-
ling with the beginning of battle.
the machine swept away toward the
slight turn that indicated the scrag-
ely end of the little town of Domin-
ion, and the beginning of the first
grade.
"A six pei cent grade if it's an
inch," he murmured. And this is
only the beginning"
He settled more firmly in his seal
and gripped hard at the steering
wheel. Gradually the severity of
the grade had increased to ten, to
twelve and in short pitches to even
eighteen and twenty per cent.
A stop. while the'red, kissing wa
ter splattered from the radiator cock
and the lifted hood gave the ma
chine a chance to cool before re-
punishment came from the murky,
discolored stream of melted snow
water. Painting and light-headed
from the altitude. Barry leaned
| against the machine for a moment:
something touched his face and
melted there-snow,
An hour-and three more after
that-a last final. gathering journey,
and Barry leaped from the sea with
something akin to enthusiasm.
Through the swirling snow which
sifted past the glare of his head
lights he could discern a sign which
told him he had reached the summit.
hat he now stood at the literal top
of the world.
From now on he could progress
with the knowledge that his engine
at least iced labor no longer. But
the dangersi Barry knew that they
had only begun. The descent would
be as steep as the climb he had just
made.
Again he started, the brake bands
~squeaking and protesting, the ma
chine sloughing dangerously as now
and again its sheer weight forced 1t
forward al dangerous speeds.
He grasped desperately for the
emergency brake. For five minutes
there had come the strong odor of
burning rubber; the foot-brake lin
ings were gone: everything depended
upon the emergency now! And al
most with the first strain
Careening, the car seemed to leap
beneath him. The brakes were gone,
the emergency had not even lasted
through the first hill. Barry Hous-
ton was now a prisoner of speed
cramped in the sea of a runaway
car, %clutching tight at the wheel,
leaning, white, tense-faced out into
the snow, rs he struggled to nego-
tiate the turns. to hold the great
piece of runaway machinery to the
road and check its speed from time
to time in the snowbanks.
One chance was left. and Barry
took 1.-THE burning of the gears
in lieu of a brake. If the buried
gears could only hold the car for a
mile or so more
But a sudden. swapping crackle
ended his hope. The gears had
meshed. and meshing. had broken
Again a wild. careening thing, the
car was speeding down the steepest
of grades like a human thing de-
termined upon self-destruction.
A skidding curve. then a straight
away. while Barry chung to the
wheel with fingers that were white
with the tightness of their grip. A
second turn. while a wheel hung
over the edge, a third and
The awful. suspended agony of
space. A cry. A crash and a duh.
twisting moment of deadened suffer
ing. After that-blackress.
Slowly. YEARLY, Barry Houston
opened his eyes.
1t was the room of a mountain