The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-09-15
CHAPTER VlIl-Continucd.
10


Kitty rose. II don't know now that
I've done right" she said. 81 hope you
won't come TO have any feeling against
me, dear. only you didn't seem to I'M
derstand-well, things. And @hat I'm
saying hasn't anything to do with Mr..
Bowyer, IL 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 it TN
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 ne 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 it.
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 20 lose
her. She seemed a part Of Joe, and he
found it Hard 10 shake his mind free
of his preconceptions. For the present,
however, he recognized that her. re-
manning there would prove an embar-
easement.
dersen, 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-
lowed. Wilton slept only a few hours
Nightly. For five days he could o
even 60 to the portage. On the sixth
success appeared at hand. The sink
holes had been filed in and there was
not the slightest subsistence of the
and Wilton went to bed in confidence.
Chambers was rs confident as he.
On the following morning. as he left
his shack, the workmen came running
toward him, jabbering and g%esticulat-
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
exceeded.
Twothirds Of the trestle-wOrk had
disappeared, including a great stretch
Of tile foundation, over which the loco
motives and ballast tricks 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 embanklnent would have
to be reconstructed. AS the mere me-
chanical 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 sink-holes-a mat
tress Of tree-trunks. The depositing OF
, the ballast ON this would serve to com.
press the muskeg and loose rock. max.
Ing a Arm foundation, and the trunks
ns they became water-lOgged, would
harden, increasing the strength Of the
whole structure rs time went by.
But for q few hours he almost aban'
doned hope. AT the best, 1t meant hold
Ing up the construction Of the line, FOL
the permanent way was now only
Few miles behind. and he dared no
start operations or the east shore unit
| he knew whether the muskcs could b'
Spsancd