Evening star., 1938-11-20

it At three O'Clock he was confronted
bv calamity. Fifty feet below the top
there was a peg missing. He Clung
there, $50 feet up, while helpers below
found a longer ladder BY the time he
had hauled this up, the day was end
ing, and he was nearly exhausted. He
made three attempts before he could
hook the long ladder on the next peg.
At last he hooked his chair to the
top rung of the ladder hanging from
the topmost peg What now? Above
him loomed the iron Caphead of the
chimney. angled out at as degrees.
The caphead was five feet thick, and
to that he must add two or three feet
before his fingers could grip the edge
of the flue vent. There was no chance
now to make an emergency lashing
for his pulleys; he was dragging two
hundred feet of line besides his climb
ing equipment and was too tired to
cling to a ladder and haul up the
heavy gear. He had to go on five feet
more - on the under side of As
degree angle.
A lightning rod went up over the
top 1t had been there 40 years. Smoke
and gas might have corroded its fast
cnings to the flimslness of paper He
tried it gingerly with one hand. and it
Sagged and bent. AS support no
prudent man would have trusted it to
climb to the roof Of his front porch.
Yet it was that or nothing With a
line he took turn around the light
ming rod near its top fastening on the
side of the chimney. where it looked
safer He tried his weight on the chair.
The rod held He stood up in the char.
holding to the rod. which at once bent
horribly, sagglng away from the con-
tour of the caphead. Stceple Tom
quickly came back into the chair.
He hltched the char higher, and
still the rod held his weight. Then
he hooked the chair up as high as he
could reach and pulled up precarlously
to that point. By standing on it now,
he knew he could reach over into the
flue Stceple Tom never prayed more
fervently in his life than ne did when he
made that last. desperate attempt,
standing on an unstable bos'n's chair
and gong up lightning rod that bent
like whip. One arm went over the
top, he clutched the edge of the flue.
came up with the other hand. and
with one pull dragged his body over
the rim - all in second.
For long time he just lay there
face down, shaking the terror out of
his nerves 1t was dusk. and he be-
came aware OF lights on the ground
below The whole town was there
watching - watching IN dead silence.
When Tom recovered some strength,
he made his inspection, then called
down for the tackle to be tied to his
lead rope Painfully he dragged it up,
fastened it. Then new difficulty His
lines fouled in those iron pegs left in
the chimney Volunteers worked with
lanterns and flashlights to jerk them
clear. 1t was now pitch-dark.
Then Tom remembered something.
The new lines in the tackle were not
long enough to lower him 200 feet He
had a spare line on the ground but
had neglected to splice it to the new.
He called down to ask if anyone could
make knot that would hold and still
pass through the blocks. There was
silence, and then somebody yelled up
that they were sending for a Boy
Scout who had taken prizes in tying
and splicing ropes
After while the boy came, calling
up that he could make a knot. At last,
Stecple Tom went over the edge of the
caphcad into his chair lie prayed all
the way down that the boy knew what
he was talking about The rope held,
and at PM Toms feet touched the