The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-04-25

not call for a horse anu ride over as she had intended. What could she say if she located him? If he had wanted to see her. he'd had q month in which to visit Big Tom Town.
 Sho stuck, literally and figura- lively. It seemed as the summer pro gressed that she was glued to the high stool over her drawing board, checking progress with Big Toms specifications. The heat burned down through the boards of her shack until even Delphy, who usu- ally congealed in the winter and thawed into comfort at midsummer, admitted it lam quite wa'm."
 Cunard sent insulating board up from Laredo, which helped little. Awnings at the windows, made by some of the engineers from old can vas and daubed with vari-colored paint, added to the comfort. Del phys window boxes with their pro- fusion of petunias and nasturtiums broke the drabness of the outlook.
 Down in Big Tom Town, tents and motor houses were graced with coffee tins, sprouting blossoms. gifts of seed from Delphy.
 X ND then the storm season an- nounced it's approach with brassy sky and sultry heat. For days it seemed the air was filled with finty bits of bronze. Judith watched the sky with apprehension, held long consultations with Scoggins and Scofield. The dam town had grown to a dangerous size, if one were to trH to find place for them in the safety of the ship rock.
 Tt wouldn't come a flood two years together" comforted Scog- gins.
 1t wouldn't any place else in the world" Judith agreed, but let's be sure our people are above the dan ger line at the time of the first storm"
 She saw the first storm coming, a blue-black mist which spread like smoke against the northern skies, then rose and deepened in color. She went back to the house, sent Delphy with messages to the stables and had the boys ride out to warn the men working in the river chan mel. The women and children were brought to her house.
 They laughed at her for her alarm and she laughed with them, but she wanted no loss of life.
 She watched the storms ap- grateful that it did not look as formidable as the previous year. but formidable enough at that.
 Told Mother Summer is weepin' ths sky" chanted Tommy Scog- gins, who had discovered her re- treat. He looked up at her and smiled a toothless smile which seemed strangely charming on his fat, freckled face.
 Judith smiled back, tears behind her smile. Last year how different ithad been. Big Tom had been there and she had sat snugly in the curve of Norman's arm. She wondered where he was now.
 F'Know what it makes me think of, Miss Judy?" inquired Tommy, pointing to black clouds which had separated from the mass and were blowing forward, slashed with red forked lightning. Witches, black ones, ridin' brooms. Say, Miss Judy, d'y' reckon you could talk Pop into buyin' me an airplane stead of a car? Gee there ain't no place here a fellow can drive car"
 Judith turned from the storm swept sky, Would you be terribly disappointed if you didn't get either one?"
 "You mean maybe there won't be no .. mean any, oil?"
 "How far down are they now?"
 "Past two thousand" he ad- mitted. Then, with bravado, Gee, could get along with horse just as well, if could have two guns to go with it."
 The near cannonade of thunder sent them back down hill and few moments later the storm struck. Daylight this time. excepting for the twilight of greenish black clouds. They could see the blue white flame of lightning. ringing down in snaky darts, crashing with brittle force.
 The river was rising. Judith, Lar son and the engineers watched it with interest and apprehension. It flooded theslow basin, Tapped the base of Scoggins No. 1. They saw it tapping the lowest tents and then with one great roar, Scoggins No. 1 burst into flame, a flame that seemed to rise to meet a red dart hurled from the clouds.
 She's gone .. she struck the derrick"
 Judith stood white Tipped, silent. She had no more reserve funds to rebuild.
 fCopuioht. 19S4. by Jeanne BoDmdn) s Tomorrow, Judith faces calamity.