The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-02-15
Continued From Our Last Issue)

Continued From Our Last Issue)
Again one of those agonizfne
waits, racking to the two men whose
future depended largely upon che
happenings atop the range. Far on
the other side, fighting slowly up
ward, was freight train loaded with
the necessary materials of large
sawmill.
Guess it's all Off" came at last
"The general superintendent in Den.
ver's on the. wire. Says to s. back
up everything to Tonifer, including
the plows, and give up the ghost"
"Give it up?" Houston stared
blankly at the telegrapher. "But
that's not railroading!"
81 know. I'll call Denver"
He turned to the key and ham
mered doggedly. Only soggy dead.
ness answered. The line was gone!
CHAPTER XVI
It'd take a guy with a diving
suit to find some of them wires,
guess" the operator hazarded, as ne
finally ceased his efforts and reach
ed for his coat and hat and snow
shoes "There amt no use staying
here. You fellows are going to sleep
in town tonight, amt you?"
There was little else to do. They
fought their way to the rambling
boarding house.
Morning brought no relief. The
storm was worse, and they faced
drifts waist high at the doorway.
Two hours later, the agent once
more at his dead key, Ba'tiste turned
to Houston.
"Ect is no use here" he an
nounccd eve must get to camp and
assemble the men to help those who
are not fortunate. There is death
in this storm"
Again with their waist-belt guide
lines, they started forth, to bend
against the storm in a struggle and
at last to reach the squat, snowedih
buildings of camp. There, lBa'tistc
assembled the workmen in the bunk
house,
''There are greater things than
this now,' he announced. owe want
the strong men-who will go back
with us to Tabernacle, and who will
be willing to take the risk to help
the countryside. Eet is the danger
ahead. How many of you will go?"
One after another they reached
for their snowshoes, silent men VINO
acted, rather than spoke.
Guide lines were affixed. Huddled,
clumsy figures of white, one follow
ing the other, made the gruelling
trip back to Tabernacle. Already The
reports were beginning to come in,
brought by storm weakened, biz
zard-battered men, Of houses where
the roofs had crashed beneath the
weight of snow, of lost ranchmen,
of bawling cattle, drifting before
the storm--to death. 1t was the be-
ginning of weeks siege of q
white inferno.
The whole world was one great,
bleak thing of dreary whitea desert
in which there was life only that
there might be death, where the bat
tie for existence continued only as
matter of instinct.
And over this bleak desert went
the men of the West Country, silent,
frost-burned men, their lips cracked
from the cut of wind, their eye,
blood-red with inflammation, strug-
Cling here and there with a pack
of food upon their backs that they
might reach some desolate home
where there were women and chill
dren; or stopping to pull and tug
at a snow-trapped steer and by mhin
effort, drag him into a barren spot
where the sweep of the gale had
kept the ground fairly clear Of
snow.
A two-inch crust Of snow formed
over the main snowfall. permitting
small sleds to be pulled behind
struggling men; the world beneath
had been frozen in, to give place to
new one above. And with. that:
ITS open! It's open!" The shout
4 AS8t 3st ~