Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-05-05
Continued From Our Last Issue)

grade, four engines to pillow, the
jets of steam shrilling upward
coughing columns of smoke leaping
blackly up the mountain side.
A Earring crash that all but threw
the men of the first crews form their
feet, and the Death Trail had been
met. Their churning, snarling, roar
ing, the snow flying in cloud-llke
masses past them, the first plow bit
its way deep into the tremendous
mass, while sweating men, Barry
Houston among them, crammed coal
into the open, angry fire boxes, the
sand streamed on greasy tracks
and the cavalcade went on.
A hundred yards-the beams
knocking down the snow above and
all but covering the engines which
forced their way through.
A shout. A pull at the whistle,
screeching forth its note of victory.
Then, the blare of the whistles was
drowned in a greater sound, a roar
that reverberated through the hills
like the below of thousand thun-
ders, the cracking and crashing of
trees, the splintering of great rocks
as the SHOWS of the granite spires
above the Death Trail loosed at last
and crashed downward in an all-con-
Stunning rush of destruction. Trees
Ia
gathering mass of white, and joined
in the downfall. Great boulders,
abatting rocks, slides of shale! On it
went, laundering toward the valley
and cleaning lake, at last to crash
there; to send the ten-foot thick
nesses of ice splintering like broken
glass; to pyramid, to spray the whole
neither world with ice and snow and
scattering rock; then to settle, a
jumbled conglomerate mass of de-
structiyeness, robbed of its prey.
And the men shouted, and
screamed and beat at one another in
their frenzy of happiness, in spite of
the fact that the track had been
torn away from behind them as
though it never had existed, and
that they now were cut off entirely
from the rest of the world. Only
one snowshed remained, with but
feeble bulwark Of drifts before it.
Night faded. Dawn came and
then-the sun! Clear and brilliant
with the promise of spring again and
Of melting SHOWS. The fight was
ever.
Morning of the second day-and
again the sunshine.
Tabernacle was in the distance,
while men and women waded
through the soggy SHOWS to be the
first to reach the train. Eagerly
Barry searched the thronging crowd,
at last to catch sight of gigantic
figure, his wolf-dog beside HIM.
"Ba'tiste!' he called. "Ba'tistew
Great arms opened wide. A sob
came from the throat of giant.
mon BARGE! Mon Bareep 1t was
all he could say for a moment.
We've mon, Batiste! The lines
open--they'll be running trains
through before night. And if she
keeps her promise"
"She?" Ba'tiste stared down at
him. They had drawn away from
the rest of the excited noisy throng.
"She 2 You mean"
Agnes. You've been taking care
OF her, haven't you? l found her
she promised that she would tell the
truth for me when l got back, that
she would explain the lease and con-
tract and tell Medaine that it was all
a lie. She"
But Ba'tiste Renaud shook his
head.
No. BARGE. Eet is the too late.
have JUS cOme-from there. | have
close her eyes"
CHAPTER Xxx
Dead! Houston saw Madame
Robinette pass in the distance. and
his eyes followed her until she had
rounded the curve by the dead as
pens-the eyes of lost hope.
Without a word" 1t spelled
biackness for Houston. Il SUD-
pose you've taken charge of every-
thing"
oul! But l have look at moth
ing"
i Just had something here" Hous-
ton fumbled in his pockets. "She
would want it around her neck"
But the sudden glare in Ba'tiste's
eyes stopped him as he brought forth
the crucifix and its tangled chain.
The giants hands raised. His bip
lips twisted. A lunge and he had
come forward, savage, almost beast
like.
You" he beloved. "Where Won
get that? Hear me, where you pet
that?" 6e'
From her. She"
Then come! Come-ouiek with
mel Ell almost dragged the Younger
man away, hurrying him toward the
sled and its broad-backed old horses
we must go to the cabin, OUT
yes! hurry" Get is the thing 7
look for-the thing I look forv' -.