New Britain Herald Newspaper, October 1, 1924, Page 16

(O A R L 4 . i 3 CITHE Caldron of Death—whoever nick- named Powder Valley knew what he was talking about,” Sutton said. ‘‘And this new nitro stul in thg tubs sounds like the slithering of death's wings.” “I never was one to make a fuss about feathers,"" Hazard answered betwee: strokes of his paddle in the tank of glutinous, electric-lighted nitroglycerin ovar which he was working The two teammates spoke In the even tones of professional nitro workers without looking up from the valves and paddles which they used to keep the dangerous stuff cooled and in motion, In Powder Valley—otherwise known as the Caldron of Death—even the outside workers spoke in whispers; men in woolen clothing and rubber-soled shoes, trundling from one death's residence to another cars of liquid annihilation, cold or hot to suit the most fastidious tastes. In those little glass-sided bouses, wide scattered throughout the hills, where men work always in pairs, so that none shall g0 to the great unknown alone, it is hardly less dangerous to draw a quick breath than it would be to throw stones in the manner of the proverb. Therefore, what sometimes happens to men left for a time alone is a thing to be considered with charity, for all human frail- ties crop out in Powder Valley. Of them all, Hazard and Sutton had most cause for caution, having chosen of all defiance to destruction the most treacher- ous—the testing of a new formula for re- ducing nitro compound to a solid mass which would explode under electrical impulsion— this, the latest discovery of the company's new chemist, a professor of annihilation of note, In fact, Hazard and Sutton both knew that a valuable Government contract de- pended upon the successful issue of this new explogive within a given time—now almost expired—which would sweep the company’s principal rival in this powder manufacture from the field. Theirs was work that few men cared to be engaged in unlese they possessed iron perve or had some strong incentive. Big blond Jack Hazard and black Jim Button, physically unalike as they were in other respects, at least possessed the. first attribute in perfection—or, at least, so Haz- ard had hitherto always thought of his Wore or less silent teammate. For the rest, the two men had® grown from boys in Powder Valley, where the business of making powerful explosives de- acends from father to son—sometimes of the suddenest. So far the tests of the new powder had Been attended with disastrous conditions of weather and luck. Both men were on edge with the strain, and the last week of vicious electrical storms—the one thing the professor did not want — culminating in an equally vicious earthshake,’’ as the powder men called the disturbance which had been instrumental n wiping out a house at one end of the valley row. “I hope it won't take us in rotations, ‘eause we're next but one,’’ Hazard said In & pause in the work. “We're cogs in the wheel, Jim. That counts is fo get the work dome without getting wheels.” ““A man can afford to be a cog for a while and get wheels, too,”" Sutton said, scowling at the thermometer that marked the temperature of the twin tank to Haz- ard's that he was working over, ‘“‘when he knews that he's working for a grub-stake Mke— Gawd!—that gave me a snapped merve, too!” In the irritation of the moment he had jerked his paddle from the mixing-tank, just missing the thermometer. Strained silence followed, with the slight fluttering of a bubbling mixture, as though death's wings had, indeed, grazed them in ssing. For friction or the merest shock in that sce meant—extermination. Huzard drew & deep breath. “If 1 thought you were trying to rattle my nerve with those careless tricks of gours, Jim"Sutton—'" he said, and stopped The nitro-room was no place even for ver- Aal quarrels. But Sutton gave a enarling laugh that was worse than the scare he had plainly shown “What a snap for those hill Powder people if something did happen to us here {n the valley,”" he said. ‘“They wouldn't shed tears over our lost Government contract, that's sure. Say, there's money in that fdea,”” he said, suddenly giving the rein to his ill temper. ““We're not all pulling down *hhnns from the professor and matri mony Into his family. If another powder company wants to play odd man out down here for a little delay and pay well for it—" He pulled up, consc 1 little too far even with his old chum who was winning out with the girl that is always at the bottom of broken friend- ships. that he was going OMEN were scarce in Powder Valley, but Miss Lucile, the professor’s daugh- ter, had dipped ber pretty fingers in the pie of this particular friendship when she first came to Powder Valley with her father, the chemist Now, with Hazard naturally taking prece- dence over him and in line for further benefits in lucre and love if they succeeded in their common work of peril, Jim Sutton knew there wasn't much of a show for him. And he wae of the men who turn to the next best thing, even to taking a long chance in the feathering of their own nest Hazard knew his mate's temper so well be was not even listening He had stepped to the door to greet a burly, red-bearded man, the professor him- self, who stood, with the superintendent beside him, screwing up his calm blue eyes in approval at what seemed the orderly and safe aspect of the room. Both men moved paftly inside, treading always on the smooth e N 1 5 L5 At S5 13t 7 M S A R v A A \ \ Bourke %\ 3 and \ w‘\t:\(m“\ \ “‘\\\\\}‘1; L \\\‘ Qarles Fancis ‘\ : rubber matting with carefully lifted feet. *‘So!" the chemist smiled, his glance flitting from the cool young men to the tanks with their sighing mixture, ‘‘so, all is well yet? I see those little thunder heads we have been having have left a mark on your faces—it will pass! And the pow- der that will not harden as I wish, how goes it with that?"’ With catlike tread he moved about the tanks, comparing the relative thermometers, fixtures, éverything. There were places in that vaporizing mass where a spider’s web might hang un- detected—but here, with his picked men, everything was right. “Pipe cool, conneeting the tubs, so that the mixtures may mix while you mix, good. Valve free, to dump the contents of the tubs into the drowning vat in case of need —that's well! You are twins, working at the Siamese twin tubs—and have you any complaint?”’ “Why, it's this way, professor,”” Hazt ard said, speaking his mind as to one of safe sympathy. There are times when one man is left alone here, and too much depends on the work of us to afford to have anything bappen, from inside or out. Now that we are gettiug near the end, I sig- gest that two be always together—and there be a watcher at off times. It's dangerous, you know, and then, the Government tests are §o near—'' E WAS not even thinking of what Sut- ton had said, but his fellow mate The professor nodded. It shall be done. The work must go forward—if this devilish thunder weather permit. For the powder, that would be only dangerous when it begins to solidify, and so far that has not happened. Then, a spark—anything—might set it off, We shall see.”” ““Well, nitro will burn, and do it mighty quick, at the best,” Hazard insisted, ‘‘and there's all this prepared metal, and the imported fixings that we couldn’t replace— not in t anyway. "’ He was fighting for his chance at a safe and happy future, when this dangerous work should be over, and he cared neither for the professor's knowing smile nor Sut- ton's scowl. Every man for himself in Powder Valley “That is all it will do, now—unless a wire with a p er current be dropped in the thickening mass. Even that now would merely shock the mixture into fire. So fear nothing."’ The big chemist was familiar with the whims of nitro workers and for their sake often taw no danger where danger by com- mon consent existed But Hazard had spoken because, as Sutton said, he was in- terested in the success of the experiment As for Sutton himself. no man but him- self knew what his snarling nerves wera gaying ,to his own dissatistied outlook on life. He had taken himself to the open door- way, gazing out on the Valley of Death while the men within talked over its de- tails. No one consulted him, he reflected bit- terly—always Hazard had the lead, with the girl's favor, the professor's success, everything. And what was this *‘Professor’s Powder,"” after all, but food for great warships' guns, to annihilate lives and property, even as it threatened to annihilate®the men who were forced to tend it in its infancy of conception? A man wouldn't be blamed for delaying such a work, Sntton pondered, gazing out where men in sdence went their daily rounds of Is at death’s houses pose one of these ominous houses d down, as might happen to this very anything go wrong with the powder in its present stage. That would not endanger life. It would make one threat less In the back of his head Sutton kept harping on the sophistrs of the prineely reward that could be claimed from the rival mixing shack powder company as the price of a good deed * though he did not figure how be should collect it “It's on the carde that another would give those Hill people a hand up if I didn't,” he argued with the temptation, not stopping to analyze it any more than he had his own obliquits. “And 1'd be doing ‘a favor to the poor devils that might get shot up with the powder—there's enough devilish stuff loose now, Heaven knows!™ Nerves it might be, with Jim Sutton “nitro-worker's nerves”” — that make all things easy and confuse the good with the evil once a man surrenders to their mas- tery. But they had mastered Jim Sutton The chime of the midday gong was call ing the nitro workers to the big hotel on the hill—the one break in the day's routine of perils—when the telephone tinkled. Hazard took down the receiver, then turned to the professor with a little smile: *Miss Lucille calling you, sir,” he said Qperative Sutton’s face was not good to see @8 be listened. “Yes, I will fetch Friend Hazard to dinner with us—with this storm grumbling in the valley he will be safer,” the pro- A great burst of \\l, smoke belched from the vat and a sheet of flame fell on them fessor was saying. ‘‘Providence is a great hand with wireless explosives such as mine."" Sutton glanced at the black bank of clouds over the valley He had not thought of the storm, except as it meant a layoff for the nitro workers when it broke We may give Providence a chance, eh?" But nobody thought of him. . As the men passed him going ont he had to grip himself to keepfrom laughing at the opportunity ther were giving him. ““They'l ve to start building when they get back.” he muttered. The plun that sprang full-fledged in his brain was simplicity itself, now that he had the house to himself His tools of destruction were all at hand— the telephone, the nitro tanks and the com- ing storm The connecting link he formed with a bit of wire, imperceptible where he wound it round a coil in the tank. The other end he twisted round the telephone wire on the wall beyond the tank and back of it. This finished, he could wait for the elec- tric storm to do the rest “The telephone wire will carry the elec- tricity into the mixture just like a lightning- rod,” he said. *‘It will help out this Provi- dence game.” Sutton had no certainty of what might happen once the wire carried the electric fluid into the mitro tank. But the storm had the whole length of the valley wire to play upon. and the lightning at least, with euch a conductor, should set the stuff on fire. That was what the professor thought would happen, and Sutton’s mind was will- ing to believe anything just then—even that lie himself contemplated no great harm “I'm only delaying the manufacture of structive force and rting a rs to myself,”” he argued with him It will be safer for us all here with this place gone— What was that?" The first low rumbling came from the hills, followed by a flicker of lightning \ph A\l .\‘j,a“ g ‘,";“h N UK RN A 1'1"\;\‘“‘ TR ity v't\\ 1 searching for some nearer opening for the storm. Sutton knew that was the signal for the workers to lay off, and he drew a deep breath. The §mpulse seized him to go, too, but he shook it off. “I'm taking all the risk—if there is any. The stuff won't explode; we've proved that. T'll stay till the fire starts to make sure 1 haven't missed connections; mustn’t waste this chance,”” he muttered. He sank into a chair, his head heavy and strangely numb with the heavily charged gtmosphere. “I don't want to fall off here, though. I've got—to go soon."" It was pouring rain when he awoke. He heard voices, and before he could move in the fear that held him in the chair three men hurried into the shack—the prov fessor and Hazard and another man in the uniform of an army officer. “Heavens!" the professor was saying, “we got ourselves soaking by accident, but now we are here we will get good and dry again.”’ TARING dumbly, Sutton gathered they had come, with the breakup of the storm, with the officer to test the powder once more and had been caught in a sudden equall —‘‘out of a clear sky." He must have slept for hours, und the other men were back at their work—as he chould have been “‘Let us see if harm has come to my mix- ture that this sleepy fool hns neglected—'" The professor's veice teached him like the knell of doom. No! It seems safe enough, since it is not solidifying.” Sutton, better than any one, knew he had neglected his work as he watched the sticky mass surge slowly before the wooden paddle the professor carefully wielded. Nolidi- fying? The stuff was solid compared to what it had been when he dropped the little wire into it! His culminating horror came with the About Persons You Know He Boils His Own EPRESENTATIVE EDWARD W, Pou, of North Carolina, who has been coming to Congress steadily since the Fifty- seventh Congress, has ground about every- thing out of the legislative mill but good coffee. And since he has recently been ill and put on a strict diet with almost every- thing but coffee eliminated, he has taken to ing his own.”" Not long ago a party of schbolgirls Tunch- ing in the cafe at the Capitol was surprised to see this dignified member of Congress, noted for. his fastidiousness in food and dress, enter with a tin can in one hand and a loaf of brown bread in the other. Ubiq- uitous waiters settled him at the table, brought & cup of hot water and waited for bim to wait on himself. The Copgressman took a spoonful of coffee from the tin, stirred it in the hot water, broke his brown bread into chunks and the two-course meal was on “I can’t call that frenzied gastronomics,” remarked one of the young women as she turned to take up a discussion of the latest Tea Pot scandal. Unrequited Ambition ELASCO, the theatre director, was a fellow guest at a luncheon at the capi- tal with Senator Pat Harrison. He watched the Mississippian, noted for his graceful form and flow of words, with complete fas- cination. Finally he smd to the South- erngr: “*Oh, that T could have got hold of you for the stage before politics had you in its clutches!" “Do you really think I would have made an actol eagerly demanded the Senator. “You are already,” replied Belasco, “‘but on the stage you would have been famous.' Ever gince then the Senator from Mis- sissippi has had his head in the clouds, dreaming of the fame he might have had, playing’to packed houses instead of speaking to empty seats! Cengright. 1034, by Publie Ledper Campany \ e, | L /| . m -‘l il 1 | i professor’s words, spoken slowly and with great satisfaction. “I am mistaken, gentlemen! The nitro is thicker, truly, but that could happen. And the temperature is quite right. +There is no great danger of this man's neglect, but the explosive is more danger- ous. It is thickened, because it has stood at rest, and that is the secret I have been trying to find." “You mean you have been trying how to make it solid—make it into powder?" the officer said. In the plain satisfaction’ of the chemist beaming over the werk that had unexpect- edly become gnod, the others gathered round him, watching him manipulate the terrible stuff of death. UTTON, still silent, was forgotten. S “Some accident—mayhe the electricity of the storm—is turning it into a most terrible explosive,” the “professor beamed. “‘That proves the preportions are right! Also, in its present state an electric spark— 8 slight shock even—in the heart of this mixture, and this valley of our—poof!" A more hideous shock than ever sped from a dynamo froze Sutton to the floor. The whole scene had passed so quickly— almost before the men had ceased stirring from the door or even thought to shake out their wet clothes—that his numbed senses had not understood. But he understood now. He knew that no accidental electricity from the storm had thickened that hideous mass in the tanks; or, if it had, the current passed— was passing then—by way of the electric wire he had fastened-in it. The phenomenon that pleased the profes- sor and perfected his work was due to his hande—the murderously destructive hands of Jim Sutton—and the ery that he gave as the whole terrible truth burst upon him petrified the others in their turn. * “The telephone will explode i he gasped. ‘‘Let me at it!" *‘Good Lord, the man is crazy!" Hazard cried. . “‘Send him to the hotel,"” the professor «pid impatiently. *‘Or wait! I expected my daughter to call me by now. I will ask ber to send the doetor quickly. It igrfiot the poor fellow’s fault that he is interfering with my work. It is good we catne!" His ork? Good they came? Sutton sprang upon the bearded German, foreing him back from the telephone. “‘Heavens above us, don't ring! You say a spark of electricity may fire that stuffi—Heaven knows why it hasn't done it yet! Dump it out. Dump it all into the drowning vats, I tell you. Damn you, Haz- ard, let me get to that cursed wire! We'll all be blown up—four ways!" He was tighting for his life now, trying to get to the thread of wire that linked all these men to life or death, and they had all they could do to hold him fast. He was fighting like a madman, but Jack Hazard knew very well that Sutton was not 2 man to lose his senses without good reason. “Nitro-workers' nerves'' might seize hirf, yes, and he might for a time do =illy things that seemed to him eminently sane. That is one of the perils of the powder worker’s life. And that morning he had suspected that Jim Sutton was in a critical stata. ITROGLYCERIN, or even TNT, is mild and innocuous compared with the deadly chemical dis- tilled in a man’s blood by love. The old professor’s daughter smiled on big blond Jack Hazard there in Powder: Valley, where disaster _rode on every breath of air, and hate was born in the heart of black Jim Sutton. The girl had made him forget them, but he knew the teammate he had worked side by side with was in terrible earnest now, and he added his voice to Sutton's. “Dump the stuff, professor!'” he cried. ““Whatever's happened, Jim here knows about it, Where's that wire, Jim? Whay wire, do’ you mean?"’ The others were plainly more in sympathy than alarm. The professor shrugged big brawny shoulders. “Bah! He's sick—bysterical. Why should I destroy my work just when it hag reached perfectiony~"" = “Because I did it! T stuck the tele: phone wire in it that curdled it up in the storm. And the wife's still there, wait- ing for some one to ring up and slam bang +he current into it. You said a spark would set it off now—and here you're holding ma like fools. “Bah, fairy tales, you're both fooln!" The burly professor was holding them bo#h off now, angrier than ever in the chagrih thyt seized him. F THEM all, the army officer had stoo quietly with folded arms, as one looking - on at a play that was verging slowly bud surely into drama. Now he spoke, ignorand of the real crisis. “If it is true what this man l-ys—ln‘l véu, professor, maybe we had better investi Tate. I myself saw a thread of wire Whey the vapor cleli in the tank yonder. Where the other end leads—"" “For your lives, out!" -roared the pro- ("}'l:rrurhd below the tank, lifting strongly on a long lever that should drop the‘ con- tents into the tank of drowning mixture Aelow, He straightened up, groaning. FU1¢ clogs—it runs too slowly—out!" he cried again. “Don’t you see the man has grounded a veritable lightning rod in the powder? out}" Out in Powder Valley men saw the fleeing figures—the last the great furn? of the pro- fessor, tragic in the di-uppou_nment ghu made him stop and glare back in the fight to the hills. Panic travels quickly in pow- ants. da;‘plm.‘ mixing house emptied itself men faded away in every direction, none stopping to ask the cause of the flighf? none eurious to know why the canopy was not opening above them even then. Only smoke pogred out. u:)n!’ Jack Hazard end Jim Sutten, his teammate, knew the reasen of that. When the truth flashed, like an explosion, upen the brains of all, Hazard alone had one strenger feeling than fear. Shame shook him like a blow, that his partner had failed in his trust. Then in a culminating shock he heard Sutton babbling behind the tank. “It serves me right—I deserve to get blown up. Fool, that I didn’t know that the girl might call up any minute—shoot a current into the stuff!" The girl on the other end of the tele- phone! Hazard sprang for Lim. “By Jove, you are a scoundrel!'" he cried. . A great burst of smoke belched from the vat and a sheet of flame fell on them. Plunging out, with Sutton in his arms, Hazard heard the tinkle of a telephone. But no cataclysm followed. “It's all right—I cut the connection,” Sutton gasped, ‘‘the wire that led into the tank." Hazard dropped him. “‘If the stuff is only going to burn—'"" he said. Lying help- less, Sutton heard his groaning voice at the telephone— “‘All right, Miss Lucy— father's safe!” He came out on the second burst of fire and smoke ! “You don't deserve it," he snarled at Sutton, “‘but I'm going to save you from being Llown te bits—and finish the job myself afterward. Or the professor will!" He was running with his helpless burden when the long-waited-for blast shook the earth! The special Government powder invented by the famous professor and perfected by the malicious spirit in Jim Sutton did not lose anything in waiting to let go with all the force of a dozen first-class Vesuviuses all in the finest working order. But the moment's delay, while part of the smoldering mass dribbled into the drowning vat, meant salvation to all con- cerned in the work of Powder Valley. Then came the final roar! Hazard and Sutton were thrown forward and, rolling over and over, wrapped in each otber's arms and propelled by the mon- strons blast, flung up the mountainside to the feet of the grim professor, who stood like Jove on the hillside! When the heavens had elosed and the earth resumed its wonted solidity they were all standing there blackened and bruised and silent. Hazard was feeling himself over to see what was left ang glaring at Sutton, whe staggered, hut still stood ready to take his punishment like a man at least. The professor only made one remark : “The man,” he said cryptically, “is too much hurt—yet."” Then when Hazard with a touch of sym- pathy tried to explain what the strain of Powder Valley did to men's nerves at times the professor nodded. . “And what men's fool nerves do to my invention! Never mind,” bhe said grimly, Jem wait!"” To-naczodmo a2