Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1934-11-30

uuently lOfCeu ltAtA W. hAc thr uoVt
ota rapidly accelerated elevator. The
lightning came nearer. The thunder
was continual II was hard to hear
the voice Of ones nearest neighbor.
Tony. with half dozen others. rushed
into the brightly illuminated women's
dormltory and hurriedly brought from
It Into the tumult and rain those who
had remained there.
BY ten O'Clock the violence Of the
quakes was great enough so that It
was dlficult to stand. The people hud-
died like sheep In a storm in the lee Of
the buildings Lightning hammered In
eessantly on the tall steel tower which
surrounded the space-nyer. Tony
moved through the assembled people
shouting words Of encouragement he
did not feel.
Shortly after eleven an extraordi-
narily violent shock lifted one end Of
the mems building so that bricks and
cement cascaded from its wall. Tony
had the hoodlights thrown on the land
Ing Geld. and every one migrated
thither.
Before midnight some caprice Of the
seismic disturbance snapped of the
power. At one O'Clock In the morn
ing truck from the kitchen OF the
dining halls noundered through the
mud with sandwiches and coffee. AT
two O'Clock the temperature Of the
Wind dropped. and the wet multitude
Shivered and chartered with cold Hall
tell In place Of rain.
Half an hour later the wind stopped
abruptly; II pulled. veered, and came
back from the southwest II blew
Afty miles an hour. q hundred. and
then rose from that velocity to an
Unreasonable degree. Every man and
woman was compelled to lie face down
On the muddy earth. the lndulatlons
Of which increased.
They lay for an hour or more, shiv-
sring. gasping for breath, hiding their
faces. Then q particularly violent
Vhock suddenly separated the landing
Geld into two parts, one Of which rose
eight or zine feet above the other,
leaving 4 sharp dlminutive precipice
across the middle Of the field.
There was no dawn, no daylight,
snly a diffused inadequate grayness.
The people lay on the ground, each
man wrapped In the terrors Of his own
soul, with fingers clutching the grass
Or buried In the earth. And so the day
began. The air grew perpetually more
warm. An augmented fury Of the
gale brought a faint odor Of sulphur.
Midday held no respite. II was i'm.
possible to bring up food against the
gale. impossible even to stand. The
sulphurous odors and the heat In
creased The driven rain seemed hot.
Toward what would have been after
noon. and In the absolute darkness,
there was a sudden abatement; and
the. wind. while II still blew strong. al
lowed the shaken populace TO rise and
70 stare through the lmpenetrahle
murk. Fifty or more Of the men made
rush for the dining halls They
found them. and were surprised that
/ they had not collapsed. The low hills
around had furnished them with pro-
lection. There was no time to prepare
food Snatching what they could. and
loading themselves with containers Of
drinking water. they fought their way
4 back TO the field. There. Hike animals,
the people drank and ate, finishing In
time only to throw themselves once
again on the bare ground under the
renewed fury Of the storm.
Night came again. The sulphur in
the air, the fumes and gases, the heat
and smoke and dust, the hot rain, al
most extinguished their frantically de-
Tended lives. The dust and rain com
bined with the wind to make diagonal
downfall Of foetid mud which blistered
them and covered the earth.
The respite brorght by the second
morning was comparative rather than
real The wind abated: the torrential
rain became Intermittent; and the visi-
billty returned, though no one could
have told ehether II was early morn
Ing or twilight.
Tony rose to his feet the Instant the
wind Stacked. Through all the long
and terrible hours he had been absent
from Eve. It would have been utterly
unthinkabls to attempt to locate her In
the Midst Of that sound andsfury. He
found. however. that there was no
use in looking FOR her Immediately. So
heavy had been the downpour Of rain
and ashes from the sky. that 1t not
only reduced the iield to a quagimire,
but II covered the human beings who
had lain there with a thick chocolate
colored coating. so that as one BY one
the people arose to sitting and stand
ing postures, he found 1t difficult even
to distinguish man from woman.
BE was compelled to put Eve from
his mind. It was necessary to think
Of an and not one. Many Of those
who had been In the aeld were unable
to rise. Several had been injured. OF
the older men number were suffering
perhaps fatally from exposure.
Tony found that his limbs would
scarcely support him. but after he had
staggered for some distance through
the mufk, his numbed circulation was
restored, and his muscles responded.
Out Of the subslding maelstrom he
collected some thirty or forty persons,
most Of them men.
"Aby Of you men working on the
power plantT he shouted. Right.
You two come over here. Now who
else here was III the machine shopi
Good. fou fellows get to work on
startahs Up the lights. They'll be tho
first thing. Nov | want half of you
to get beds In shape In the wuinnns