Evening Star Newspaper, May 4, 1930, Page 103

FON, D. C, MAY 1930 nd _Adventure in the Southzvest g. They knew the station-keeper acre and loot awaiting them. f them. Her smile fled and her eyes grew old—frozen by the jealous anger of his look. she nodded to him as casually as if he had n one of the Mexican laborers back at the hining camp, and she went on talking with nereased gayety to Ed Sampson. But Ed was not so ready when it came to 1f-possession. His astonishment at the sight if the newcomer was mingled with regret. To oth of these emotions he gave voice. “Never looked to see you here,” he said sin- rely. *“Where you heading for?” Lee stepped aside. His face remained like thundercloud. “Reckon that stage willi get to Benson in ne for me to catch tonight's westbound n?” he demanded brusquely. “Can’t say.” Ed’s cheerfulness had returned. est as liable as not to be three hours late.” e bent over Eileen again. “How long did you y you was aiming to be over in Tombstone?"” “Only a few days.” She was smiling at him th a sweetness which lacerated Lee's inmost ing. “And when I am back, Ed, you'll come d see me?” “rll put up my horse,” Lee interrupted tly. “One of the boys will ride over after . He turned to the door; but Ed paid no bgard to him, for Eileen’s eyes were still rais- hg havoe with his emotions. So neither of em saw the shadow that had darkened the eshold; nor were they aware of the new ar- val until a voice broke the silence. It was a husky voice. There was a note of umph in it, the triumph of a mean soul. “Stick ’em up!” it said. Kettle was standing just outside the entrance, th his leveled revolver in his hand. A cold elty shone from his rheumy eyes. “And quick!” The husky voice took on a cious snap. The obese form tightened into a adly presence. They raised their hands above eir heads in silence. Kettle smiled loosely. “Sorry to bust in on this lettle party, folks.” e smile departed. “Keep 'em up, young feller. y that ag’in, an’ I'll drill you between the Eileen uttered a broken cry, and Lee restored s right hand to the specified elevation. Ket= ’s geniality returned. ““Sal right, miss, if he don't make no more ays for his six-shooter thet-a-way.” He epped inside. “Now, If you folks will just walk er there beside the wall—" The voice trailed off into an arid whisper. lis eyes had widened, and his face had turned mottled gray. There were two windows in the little rock ding. The first movement of his victims ward the designated wall had brought one of ese behind them, directly in the line of his sion. Through it he saw what would have lemed to & newer resident of Arizona to be a t of grimy rag among the boulders, where the side sloped away toward the plain. But e had seen such strips of cloth too many nes to mistake one of them. As he was ing at it, this one moved; he discovered the tch of rusty black hair bound by the turban, d a lean back gleaming in the sunlight like H copper. ETTLE reached behind him with his left hand and slammed the door. Without vering the muzzle of his. revolver, he groped the heavy bar and dropped it into its socket. ‘Injuns!” he said. s if it were with the idea of confirming his tement, the Apaches began the rush for ch they had been so carefully preparing the last half hour. The clatter of their es awoke a hundred echoes from the cliffs hind the buildine. Ammmanma CHOHHHOH B Ed Sampson picked up a carbine which was standing in the corner. “Another rifle’s hanging on the wall,” he shouted, and flung himself upon the floor be- side the nearer window. Lee ran to get the weapon; but before he took his place at the other window, he called to Eileen: “Get back, where you're out of danger.” Ket- tle had a glimpse of her face as she was draw- ing; and the memory of what he saw in her eyes stayed with him. A moment later he was kneeling on the earthen floor with Lee beside him, seeking a target out there in the blazing sunlight. On both sides of the building the land lay level for some 30 yards or so, beyond which it sloped away. Among the clumps of Spanish bayonet and the boulders bare bodies showed, hugging the hot earth, rising abruptly, dart- ing forward. So brief were the halts, so sud- den the transition, that there was a sense of unreality—flitting forms that seemed to vanish into thin air, every one to reappear in the next instant behind another rock or thorny clump, a little nearer than before. Wreaths of pow- der smoke were melting away. There came, through the din of firing, the thin tinkle of broken glass, the thud of leaden slugs on the rock walls. The three men within were shooting slowly, . but the powder smoke hung thick in here; the of the weapons made the air shiver. Suddenly the uproar ceased. The dark forms, which had apparently sprung to life out of the arid rocks, had vanished as abriptly a€ they had come, and with as much mystery—save three that were asprawl and very still in the white sunlight. Ed Sampson groaned. “My leg is busted,” he announced. The silence outside continued; the heat waves Her face was colorless and word. “Now?if one of you will fetch me some more ea’tridges,” Ed told them, “J can handle this here carbine as good as ever.” Lee brought a handful of ammunition and laid it beside him on the floor. “Twenty rounds—I'm splitting even with you.” He spoke quietly, but the girl caught the tightness in his voice. She heard Ed swear under his breath. “Pive hours of daylight, and them devils will stay with it till dark. 'Pears like we're out of luck unless somebody comes along.” Where he was crouching by the other win- dow, Kettle heard this. He rose from his knees, and his soggy face became intent as he looked upon the three of them—the silent girl, the two men talking in low tones. Little squirming lines of fear crept about his rheumy eyes. He had never appeared so utterly ignoble as he did now. NON! of the others heard his footstep on the earth floor nor the raising of the heavy wooden bar, the stealthy squeak of the hinges as he opened the door for a few inches. He peered through the crack, searching the land- scape. The saddle horse which Lee had left before the entrance stood with uplifted head 100 yards away. Kettle flung the door wide and darted out. The others looked around at the sound. By the time they discovered him, he had put more than 20 yards behind him. Lee leaped to his feet and started for the door in pursuit. < The fat man was running with bent knees; his body hung low, his arms were pumping gro- tesquely. Little spurts of dust rose from the dry earth before him and behind; a clattering of flat reports came from the hillside. Once he seemed to falter; he swerved like a drunken man; then he ran on. He gained the pony’s side; they saw him swing into the saddle and ride away. Lee slammed the door and dropped the bar into its place. A moment later the Apaches came again. How long that rush lasted the three within the building never knew. It seemed like hours before the uncanny silence had settled down once more. The two men took stock of their cartridges. Twelve rounds remained. Ed Samp- son was ransacking his vocabulary for some’ epithet sufficiently vile to convey his opinion of Kettle. Now and again, discovering one that promised well, he whispered it to himself. He might have spoken aloud without danger of Eileen overhearing. She was standing beside Lee; her head was on his breast, his arms were holding her close. She had come to him without a word. There was no word spoken between them now. So they stood until the ugly flat voices of the rifles called him back to his window. An hour later Lee was kneeling by the win- dow; his empty rifle lay on the floor, his re- volver was in his hand. Two cartridges were left in the cylinder. He had been waiting for a dreary time in expectation of the next rush. It would be the final closing in; there was no doubt of that. But for some reason of their own, the Apaches were still holding back. His eyes went to Eileen; she was standing in . the corner whither he had sent her at the begin- ning—ages ago it seemed to him now—and her eyes were on him. That look of theirs was as a last embrace. One cartridge for her, one for himself, when the time came . . . Suddenly the venomous chorus of the rifles began. A leaden slug ricocheted from the wall beside the window, showering his face with fragments of rock and hot metal, leaving him blinded for the moment. The uproar swelled; it had never been so loud before; he had an indistinct vision of tawny bodies leaping from the shelter of the rocks. He dashed his sleeve across his eyes. They were at the front of the building now; he could hear their yells through the firing as they swept upon the place to overwhelm them. His vision cleared; there came a rush of footsteps and the open space before the window was a'ive with me=n. 13 14— e s i Men in dust-stained blue, with here and there a flash of yellow facings on the trousers, show- ing through the mist of powder smoke! The Apaches had gone. A sunburned young lieutenant, booted and spurred and still maintaining a jaunty neat- ness in spite of the film of alkali which had settled down upon him in that ride from the post, stood on the threshold when Lee flung the door open. “FLucky for you,” he said, “that the fort wasn't 5 miles farther on. That fat man never would have made it. He was just able to tell us what had happened. Before the men were in the saddle, he was dead.” Departing from the station two hours after- By Frederick R. Bechdolt ward, the westhound stage carried three pas- sengers. Of these Ed Sampson was one, en route to Tombstone and the doctor. He had a seat to himself, with the broken leg out- stretched upon it. And he was speaking to the other two: “Funny, the way things happen. Them Apaches came to kill us, and now. the most of ‘em is dead. That feller came to rob us; and he died to save us. You two came to take the stage for different places; now you’re on your way to Tombstone to get married. ‘Pears like nobody did what they set out to do, this afteg- noon.” He sighed and was silent for some moments. “Not even -me,” he added pensively. Testing Motoring Reactions. Continued from Seventh Page uttermost fatigue was rated at 34. Invariably the fatigue score of the driver is higher than that of the passengers because of the added burden of piloting the car imposed upon him, DR. MOSS is now revising his wabblemeters so that they can be used as standard equip- ment for road tests. Among other things this investigator seeks to ascertain the different “wabbles” and loss of balance produced by rides of 100, 200, 300 miles and the like up to the 500-mile limit in one day under identical con- ditions. Taxicab drivers, bus operators and similar professional chauffeurs will be examined, while various types of automotive springs, shock absorbers, cushions and other devises that facil- itate riding comfort will be testéd under sim- ilar condition. Future motor cars will be im- proved in riding quality as a result ‘of Dr. Moss’ persistent research campaign. The leading motor manufacturers are keeping close tab on his results and stand ready to capitalize on all these “scientific findings” which are practical and efficient. Prof. M. L. Fox, in charge of research for a leading engineering company, has perfected a gyro-accelerator ‘which is ferreting riddles of riding comfort and fatigue along entirely dif- ferent lines from those- attacked by Dr. Moss. This unique apparatus is designed for measur- ing all the angular motions developed in an automobile on the road. Its use eliminates the “driver and passenger guesswork,” which here- tofore l'as been the sole method of judging riding quality. Prof. Fox developed the gyro-accelerator while engaged in automotive research work at Jowa State University. His experiments have resulted in the perfection of a standard riding scale based on the maximum angular-acceler- ation values recorded by the gyro-accelerator when used in the so-called standard bump test.. The standard bump is a wooden obstruction 55 inches wide and 253 inches high which is anchored in the road. The test car is then driven over this obstacle while the gyro-accel- erator, serving as an efficient sleuth of science, records what happens. The gyro-accelerator consists of a wheel with a heavy rim turned at a uniform speed by an electric motor. The spin axis of this wheel is held in a gimbal-ring supported by a bracket attached to the base. The gimbal-ring is pre- vented from revolving by a restraining spring located between it and this bracket. A pencil marker is fastened by an arm to the gimbal- ring and keeps tab on the amount of the swing on a paper recorder. A belt made of piano wire runs over a grooved pulley fastened to the gimbal-ring. This belt operates a second pulley attached to a shaft extending through the base and actuating a vane in the supplementary ofl cylinder which is a part of the equipment. This vane uses up the energy stored in the spring above that necessary to bring the gimbal back to proper position. This is accomplished by maintaining exactly the right proportion be- tween the velocity of the vane and the viscosity of the oil used. WHEN a car is subjected to a bump test, the gyro-accelerator is mounted in front of the rear seat of the automobile. The car is then driven over the simulated road bump or chuck- hole. The tires deform, of course, and absorb part of the shock. Because the bump is locited below the car’s center of gravity, the tendency is for the car to nose down before it feels the effect of the upward action induced by the front wheels going over the bump. This up- ward movement at the front produces an angu- lar velocity of the car body in a counter-clock- wise direction, as seen from the right side. The rear wheels passing over the bump develop high angular acceleration. A time comes when this reaction from the rear combines with the mo- tion of this car. It is dependent on the speed of travel and the length of the wheelbase. If this combination occurs just before the front end of the car attains the peak of its upward movement, an unpleasant motion develops which resembles a vigorous kick more than any- thing else. At other speeds the rear end re- action combines so as to be practically neutral- ized by the body motion. To improve riding comfort the springs and shock absorbers must be so designed and ad- justed to absorb the maximum energy just when the greatest angular acceleration is developed. This gyro-accelerometer makes it possible to determine exactly what type of shock ob- sorber and what adjustment will give a cer- utln car the most desirable riding character- Istics. 3 In addition to being a boon to automotive en- gineering by making it possible to rate cars according to riding qualities, the gyro-acceler- ometer is invaluable in the determination of proper weight distributin» in the modern auto- mobile and the most advfinhgeoua locations for spring supports. The apparatux is also useful in ascertaining the exact angle 3* whiech =kide ding or pivoting will occur and in determining the angle of roll. - This research discloses that at various speeds the angular velocities of the car change, dwe to the combination of the varying proportion of the action of the wheels passing over the bump and the reactions of the springs and body. In all instances at speeds of 10 and 15 miles per hour the angular velocity was higher when the rear. wheels passed over the bump, while at 20 miles per hour it was greater when the front wheels passed over the bump. At higher speeds the maximum angular velocity depends on na- tural characteristics of the body and springs. The gyro-accelcrometer tests prove that some cars are superior to others in riding quality and the consequent reduction in the nerve fatigue and motoring discomfort which they induce in the motorists who use them. That a short wheelbase car need not have poor riding quality. nor a long wheelbase good “ridability” has been proved by road tests. For in all such cases the gyro-accelerator is efficient in locating de- fects which can be remedied with proper springs and energy-absorbing devices. Prof. Fox reports from comprehensive tests that the riding ease of your car or mine can be increased by- the provision of shock ab- sorbers so adjust:d that they will absorb the most energy near the point of maximum travel which occurs when the front springs are fully, extended. At about mid-travel such ‘devices should absorb the minimum amount of energy. Future car designers by making use of the im- portant information provided by gyro-acceler- ator tests can perfect motor cars of better riding qualities than any previously operated in this or other countries. Restorin g Canal. Continued from Third Page to look upon. Not only will the restoration and the working model housed on the reservation remind all who visit the falls that Washington was an engineer, but show besides, in restored form, the first engineering work of its kind in America. The cost of the restoration would be in the neighborhood of $150,000, according to the Army engineers. This cost includes the erec- tion of two houses, one for housing the model of the canal and locks at Great Falls and the other for domiciling a caretaker of the area; the working model of the canal and locks; construction of roads and paths throughout the area and actual reconstruction of the old canal and locks and other expenses incident to the perfectiffg of the memorial. The building of the Potomack Canal by the gentry of early America pegs an era in the economic development of the country. By pro- jecting oneself’s back 145 years—to the year 1785—one can get an understanding picture of what was had in mind by those who, en- thusiastically at first if not at all times, sup- ported the idea of a waterway from the Potomac to the Ohio country. The war was over in ’85 and Washington was back home under “the shadow of my own vine and fig tree,” spoken of so hopefully in a letter to the Chevalier de Chastellux from Princeton ¥n 1783. Independence had been won from the “mother country” and before the eyes of the “fathers” and the Nation at large lay the de- velopment of the land. Washington was as interested in this as in winning freedom for the Colonies. Footsteps led from the field of war to the flelds of peace; from the East to the West thoughts were beginning to turn. To Washington the end of the war and the pursuit of peace meant opening the Western country and, as the Spanish controlled the mouth of the Mississippi, there was but one means of communication with the sea for the Ohio country and that was by way of the Potomac, and but one impediment on the way and that the Great Falls in the Potomac River. Boats cow’™ come down the streams tributary to the Poton »c and down the Potomac to such cities as (forgetown and Alexandria if some way could be found to negotiate the falls. To Washington and the men of his time the opening of the Potomac to navigation for set- tlement and trade West was momentous; the™ only error, their failure to realize the stupend- ousness of the undertaking in a country where, as yel, no such undertaking like it, both as to character and magnitude, had ever been at- tempted. This made for slowness in the carry- ing out of the project and time did the rest. A book for subscriptions to stock in the Potomack Canal Co. was opened at Annapolis, Md, in February, 1785, according to a notice carried in the Maryland Gazette of that year and month. It was to remain open until May 10. Books were also opened at Frederick and Georgetown, Md., and at Richmond, Alexandria and Winchester, in Virginia. Virginia and IMaryland, by acts ¢/ their respective Assemblies, were back off the enicrprise,