Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1922-09-08
CHAPTER VIII-continued.
10


Kitty rose. 81 don't know now thai
I've done right" she said. Il hope yol
won't come to have any feeling agains
me, dear. Only you didn't seem to un
derstand-well, things. And what I'm
saying hasn't anything to do with Mr.
Bowyer, If you feel that you don't care
for him"
"Care for that beast !" said Molly.
Day by day the trestling grew. and
the embankment appeared about 1t un.
til the first part was hidden under the
permanent way. Thousands of feet OF
logs had gone into the building. Each
day the engine pushed the laden bal
last trucks farther out upon the creak-
ing. swaying structure. Then the pres
sure of the lever, tons of debris dis
charged through the frame of the
woodwork, and the engine went snort
ing back toward the ballast pit, drag
ging the empty trucks behind 1t.
Kitty had gone back to Clayton. She
had said that she would return, but
Wilton doubted it. He still cherished
the hope of friendship, when time had
obliterated their joint memory of that
afternoon. He could not bear to lose
her. She seemed part of Joe, and he
found 1t hard to shake his mind free
of his preconceptions. For the present,
however, he recognized that her re-
naming there would prove an embar-
rassment.
He sent her back to Clayton with An
iersen, who had proved entirely trust
worthy since the first night, and was
going in on business for him.
And he had very little time to think
of Kitty in the critical period that fol
owed. Wilton slept only few hours
lightly. For five days he could not
ven go to the portage. On the sixth
recess appeared at hand. The sink
oles had been filed in and there was
OF the slightest subsistence of the
grade Andersen returned that night
and Wilton went to bed in confidence.
Chambers was as confident as he.
On the following morning, as he left
his shack, the workmen came running
toward him. jabbering and gesticulat-
Ing. The foreman, hurrying up behind
them, shouted and pointed In excite
ment In the direction of the muskeg.
When Wilton reached the shore he
found that his worst fears had been
Two-thirds of the trestle-work had
including great stretch
of the foundation. over which the loco
motives and ballast trucks had passed
the day before. The subsistence was
seventy or eighty yards in length. The
top alone remained above the treacher-
Gus swamp. and the rails hung fes-
TONED in midair.
The whole embankment would have
to be reconstructed. AS the mere me-
process OF dumping might
serve merely to add to the weight SUI
perimposed upon the treacherous bot
tom, Wilton determined to lay down a
corduroy over the slnkhoIes-a mat
uess Of tree-trunks. The depositing OF
the ballast on this would serve to COM
press the muskeg and loose rock. max
ng firm foundation, and the trunks,
rs they became waterlogged, would
arden, increasing the strength of the
hole structure as time went by
But for few hours he almost aban-
}oned hope Al the best, II meant hold
ing up me construction Of the line, for
the permanent way was now only
few miles behind, and he dared not
start operations on the east shore until
ne kI.,1y whether the musheg could be
rauHct