Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-01-11
WI

XVII
For a moment Bill gave little at
tention to the deepening clouds of
pungent, biting wood smoke that
the wind, suddenly shifting. whip
ped in through the hole he had cut
in the door
This vas the most bitter moment
of his life, and he was lost and re-
mote in his dark broodings. The
smoke didn't matter.
The fight for life no longer SEEM
ed worth while.
The smoke d%eepened in the cabin.
1t seemed to be affecting his power
to stand erect. He tried to think of
some way to save himself; his mind
was slow and dull.
He knew that he couldn't get out
of the cabin.
There was only a little hole in the
door; to crawl through it, inch by
inch as he had entered, would sub
ject him to the full fury of the
flames.
Meanwhile the fire burned higher,
the wind blew the clouds of smoke
from the green wood through the
hole as if it were high pressure
steam.
1t 500 was impossible for Bill to
see-even to hold his eyes open,
the cruel smoke tortured them so.
If aver a man were caught in a
terrible trap of his own making that
man was Bill Bronson.
His AK! With his ak he could chop
the door away. His hand fumbled al
his belt. But he remembered now;
he had left his AK outside the cabin,
its blade thrust into the spruce log
that had supplied his fuel.
Suddenly he saw himself face to
face with SepminGly certain death,
The smoke clouds were swiftly and
surely strangling him. Already his
consciousness was departing. He
leaped for the opening again and
fell sprawling on the dirt floor. He
started to spring up
But he suddenly grew inert,
breathing deeply. There was still
air close to the ground. Strange he
hadn't thought of it before-just to
lie still, face close to the dirt. 1t
panied him to breathe; his eyes
throbbed and burned, but at least it
was life. Then all was confused
oblivion.
When Bill Weakened again the last
pale glimmer of the lighted smoke
was gone.
Tho fire had evidently burned
down and out.
His fumbling hands encountered
the log walls; then he CROPPED about
till he found the plank door. His
hands smarted, but their sense OF
touch did not seem blunted.
He had never known a darker
night!
His muscles were more at his
command now; with a great lurch
he sprang up n thrust head and
shoulders through the hole in the
door.
The hot ashes punished his face,
and his hand encountered hot Goals
as he thrust them through. Yet
with a mighty effort he pushed on
until his wrists touched the Icy
snow. He knew that he was safe.
He stood erect, scarcely believing
in his de1iverance.
The wind still blew the snow dust
"a singing lash from the north
and west.
1t was curious that a cloudy night
could be so cold. Yet he could not
see the CLEAN of a star.
The Goals of the fire, too, wera
smothered and obscured in ashes.
He stepped toward them, intending
to rake them up for such heat as
they could yield. -.
Presently he halted, gazing with
fascinated horror at the ground.
He was suddenly struck with a
ghastly and terrible possibility.
His hand CROPPED for a match.
He heard it crack in the silence
but evidently it was a dud! The
darkness before his eyes remained
unbroken.
Filled with a sick fear, he re-
moved his glove and passed his hand
over the upheld match. There was
no longer a possibility for doubt.
The tiny flame smarted his flesh.
Blind! he cried. "Out here in
the snow and the forest-blind!"
1t was true. The pungent wood
smoke had done a cruel work,
XVIII
Standing m%otionless in the dread
full gloom of blindness, ~insensible to
the growing cold, Bill made himself
look his situation in the face.
Finally his thought seized upon
an idea so fantastic, seemingly i'm
possible of achievement, that at
first he could not give 1t credence.
His snowshoe tracks probably
were not yet obliterated under the
wind-blown snow. Could he feel
his way along them back to the
cabin? !
The miles We're many and long,
but he wouldn't have to creep on
hands and knees all the way. He
CROPPED about at the side of the
cabin for his s~nowshoes.
He found them in a minute, then
walked straight as he could fifty
feet out from the door. Once more
he went on hands and knees, CROP
ing4in the icy snow. He started to
make a great circle.
Fifteen feet farther he felt a
break in the ven surface. The snow
had been so soft and his shoes had
sunk so. deep that the powdered
flakes the wind had strewn during
the night had only half filled his
tracks. He started to follow them
down.
He would walk ahead five PAGES,
then drop down and grope again for
the tracks. Sometimes he found
them at once, often he had to go on
his hands and knees and start to
circle. Then. finding the trail, he
would mush on for five steps more.
Oh, the way was cruel! He could
not see to avoid the singing lash of
the spruce needles, the cruel blows
of the branches. Already the at
tempt began to partake of q quality
of nightmare.
He could not judge distance or
time. Already it seemed to him that
he had been upon the jC ney end
less hours. He didn't know how far
he had come. The only thought he
had left was always to count his
terrible five steps. and count five
more.
On and on, through the long
hours Rl1t the fight was almost