The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-01-22

WN1 49, ~ 4GN 49, IL
"An right, my dear, all right" ne
mumbled. Don't you worry. Nothing to
bother about. I'll get it for you Before
anybody else has a chance. Nobody snaIl
see 1t. That's certain. Just leave 1T to me.
And now run away home before you eaten
your death of cold"
He watched her trip away down the
street, and then. passing into the house,
he stood irresOlute in the hall for a few
seconds.
"~Confoundedly annoying" he grumbled.
Careless little beggar. Mustn't write any
more letters to her. Nor to any other girl.
Too risky. What If anybody got hold OF it,
I'd be the laughing stock Of the town.
Though what the deuce I'm to do / don
know. S'pOse I'll have to go to the mill
and try TO find the blamed thing"
Expressed in words, the enterprise
sounded prepOsterOusly simple, but ne
recognized the task as one Of enormous
difficulty. An expedition through the dark
forest Of machinery to that girls looms.
Still, there was no other way. Whatever
was done his hand must do. At once. Be
fore he slept. While there were no wide
awake eyes to pry upon him. Luckily, OLD
Hughie, the night Waterman, was credited
Y legend with being a sound sleeper, ana
even should he happen to be on his rounds
it would not be impossible to spin some
tarradiddle plausible enough to deceive.
Though they were not likely to meet.
There was that side door his father used
so often and for which, as luck would have
it, he also had q key.
His preparations occupied little time.
Mounting the stairs to his own room, he
took from the same drawer a couple OF
keys and an electric torch, rejected his
hat for a cap, and, treading with stealth,
passed out again into the night, his APP
prOach to the mill being made by way or
the garden and that private door. Over the
passage Of the factory yard, however, ne
seemed to be strewn with obstacles on
which by day he had never set eyes, and
only by sheer good fortune did he manage
to enter the building without discovery.
/ 60 for oil his mnVnmnnfG had hnnm 00n-
Quoted in the dark, and not until he had
locked the weaving shed door behind him
did he venture to turn on his torch. But
light was not everything. At first it mere
lily gave form and substance to the magnl
tude of his task. 1t was an eerie sort OF
place to be in at night alone, one that
weaker nerves would have fled from in
dismay. 1t was so mOnstrOus, illimitable,
without boundaries. Advance into that
region of distorted shadows and impen-
iterable gloom was like going out into an
uneXplOred country. Even before he started
he was lost. Under the glass roof which
he could not see a thousand looms or
more were ranged with mathematical pre-
ciSiOn, but the rays of his torch encOm-
passed only half a dozen. Beyond the
fringe of fulyOus glow all was vague, a
mass Of g~rOtesque forms fading away into
|infinity. Outside that tiny arc of light the
visible was repeated a thousand fOld-an
immense, orderly organism, a legion of
beams each one carrying millions of miles
of spidery warp, rollers wound about with
webs of finished cloth, dropping strings
Of lumber healds, gin and metal combs
known to the cotton folks as reeds, picking
/ ! sticks no longer playing pitch and toss
/ with steel tipped ShuttleS, but fearSOme
even in their rest, a thousand ladders of
l leather betting climbing up into the black
Z vault of the roof, rank upon rank of shaft
ing, drums and cOgS. springs and ropes
$ and weights. Everything concealed except
! his own paitry patch.
d Staring away into the tenebrOus pail
5 Roger ClOugh became chilled, daunted by
= NNhn frnrrnnnEffE Of his nnnGf Gnnnnmhnpn IN
y the void a weft can, eighteen inches by
= twelve, lay tucked away among four OF
! those looms. and in that can a letter
u searching a bundle of hay for a needle was
e not much harder than this. He tried Il
5 visualize the place with Mabel at hel
work, to locate her alley, fancied that j
was the fourth, though it might be tn
h third or even the fifth. Then there was tn
intersecting line, the cross alley-he wa
/ quite sure that this was about the middle
II decided that it bore away from near t.
5 Number 3 tackler's bench. And so, witt
T no surer points for his guidance, he EN-
u barked on his pilgrimage.
= I'll be here at daylight" he grOaned
but, remembering his mission, he savagel,
o added: Don't care. Got to get that letter
Those other weavers. If one Of them fOun.
the thing, it would go through the mil
in an hour"
He had no occasion for worry. The lette
lie was safe enough; far safer than he wOul
s ever have imagined or planned to make L
ID The shadows which encircled him an
danced around were Ieagued in it's defensi
to A third of the way down that fourth allie
ii one of them made its pOunce, a shadow {
- terrific power, destined to bear him con
Id pany through all the years of his life.
be Jerkily recOiling from it's fancied mel
ace, he slipped on the oil soaked floor.
III a cOnvulsive attempt to save himself l
be threw out both his hands; the right OF
en- struck hard against the end OF a shuttle
1 box, and the torch it carried shot swift
- from his grasp. ROcketlike, 1t curve
ig through the ~blackness; there was a meta
g. lie crash, and darkness complete enfoldt
ne him.
is Helpless and horror stricken, he remain
,e- there, rooted to the spot. For the letter
/ cared no longer; 1t was forgotten. /
thought of nothing but escape. And he W
m trapped like a rat in a cage. He knew n
Ike which way to turn, for the shock b;
robbed him of all sense of locality.
TIL door vanished with the light;
- could not say now whether it lay on /
\ right hand or his left, behind or in frOl
He might wander about for ages and n
find it. But escape he must, for this W
wintertime, and long before the sun W
up the tacklers would come to light tho
hundreds Of gas Jets. He must find (
wall, Snuff ehis way OF Of the alley
its blank eXpanse, and then grope alo
its broken surface until he reached [
door.
He had come for a letter, and now
was to search for a wall. He felt in
pocket for his matches, struck one, a
held it alOft. So, in a feeble flicker, I
light came back, and the light was M
terrible than the darkness. Thrusting f
ward, be searched the Obscurity; swift
the flame ran down the tiny strip Of wO
its brief life almost over, he tossed
away, the most powerful match he /
ever rubbed upon a box. With its dyi
flicker it kindled the mightiest glare
had ever seen. Only a few feet through
air did it spin; falling, it drop
\ upon a pack of fluff; the mill spOuted f
u Along the floor a wave Of ~incandesc
fury rushed, licking up everything lying
it's path. Upward it leaped to the bea
Of warp and turned them into torches, fl
in a mans breath-that mans breath.
swirled from loom to loom, swathed
oily pillars, climbed those leather ladd
p to the roof, vOlleyed and Kissed and rOal
From the heart of the furnace the sp
of fear also pounced, and Roger ClOl
fled for his life. No longer had he
reason to remain. With his own hands
had lighted a way to that lost door.
Madly he flung himself upon it, wresi
with it, dragged it open just in time,
only that he himself might pass out,
also that the winds Of heaven might sW
in. Then, driven by the blast, the fire, Y
the roar Of thunder, leaped upon it's p
and the kingdom that old Stephen Clio
had founded burst into mOnstrOu SCI
III.