The evening world. Newspaper, May 4, 1916, Page 19

Sas ante ae Aan AMR AY i wes ad dare 26 NOIR RONG ee A eg ERAS An Cutdoors Babi i padib (Copsright, 1915, by J. ft SYNorsis oF Pheer Broce Burt has Lippincott Co.) at wing fo a agce his mining Warralt, ance iuerel ‘Wetore thinites. But ne other, Brice Hierah ant 2"ueu CHAPTER VIII. Prophets of Evil. HE difference between suc- cess and failure is some- times only a hair's breadth, the turning of a hand, and although the man who loses 1a freqnently as deserving of com- mendation as the man who wins, he @eldom receives it, and Bruce knew that this would be particularly true of his attempt to shoot the dangerous rapids of the river with heavily load- ed boats. If he accomplished the feat he would be lauded as a marvel of nerve and skill and shrewdness; if he failed he would be known !n th terse language of Meadows as “One orazy d—n fool.” While the more conservative citl- sens the mountain towns re- frained from publicly expressing their thoughts, a coterie known as the “Old Timers” left him in no doubt a8 to their own opinion of the at- tempt. Hach day they came to the river benk as regularly as though they had office hours and stationed themselves on a pile of lumber near where Bruce caulked and tarred tho seams of the three boats which were to make the first trip through the rapids, They made Bruce think of so many ancient ravens, as they roosted in a row croaking disaster. By the time the machinery was due to ar- rive they spoke of the wreck of the bouts as something foreordained and settled, They differed only as to where it would happen. “1 really doubts, Burt, you 80 much us git through the Pine-Crick “I mind the time when Jake Haz- lett and his crew was drowned at the ‘Wild Goose.’ It seems the coroner was already there a settin’ on a corp’ that had come up in the eddy. ‘Go on through, boys!" he hollers to ‘em, ‘I'll wait for you down below, It'll save me another trip from Medders.’" Bruce worked on, apparently un- perturbed by these discouraging remi- ‘alacences. “They say they's a place down there where the river's so narrow it's bent over,” volunteered a third pessi- mist, as he cut an artistic initial in @ plank with the skill of long prac- tice, “And you'll go through the Black Canyon like a bat out o' hell. But I has no notion whatsoever that you'll ever come up when you hits that waterfall on the other end ‘When her nose dips under, heavy- like that, she'll sink and fill igne thar, Why 'Do you rickolect,” quavered a spry cub of eighty-two who talked @he Civil War and the Nez Perce as though they were the of yesterday, “do you remem- the time ‘Death-on-the-Trail’ lost dull outfit tryin’ to git through Devil's Teeth?’ The idea of an like him startin’ out alone! he wes all of seventy.” y the time ‘Starvation Bill’ over at Proctors's Falls?” another, “Fritz Yandell the river was full of grub— cans, prunes and the like o' for clost to a week. I never ed much to hear of an accident tim for we'd hac a Fellroad: in here twenty years ago if it hadn't tor Bill, The survey outfit took along for helper and he et up all the grub, s0 the Injin guide quit 'em cold ad they couldn't go on. I allus he'd starve to death somm'eres, afte, 1 of sickness from @wallerin’ a ham-bone, he died tryin’ te eat ix dozen aiga on a bet.” “Talkin’ of Fritz Yandell—he told me he fished him a compass and tran- ait out'n the river after them Govern- mint Yellow-Legs wrecked on Butch- ors * The speaker added cheer- fully: Whites come into the country 1 reckon all told you could count the boats that's got through without trouble on the fin- gers of one hand, If these boats was goin’ empty I'd say ‘all right—you're Hable to make it,” but sunk deep in the water With six or eight thousand pounds—Burt, you orter have your ad examined meat Bruce refused to let himself think of the accident, He knew water, he could handle # sy he meant to take every precaution and he could, he myst, get through The river wit rising rapidly now, not hata tine, bat inches, for “Since the the days were warmer=-warm enough to start rivulets running from shel- tered snowbanks in the mountains, Daily the distance ineres from shore to shore, Sprawling trees, driftwood, carcasses, the year's rub bish from draws and gulches, swept by the bosom he yellow flood, The half-submer)ed willows were bendin nthe trent. and wat K after watermark disap- peared on the bridge pi ce had not realized that the days of waiting had stretched his nerves to such a tension until he learned that the freight had really con He felt for a moment as though the burdens of the world had been suddenly rolled from his shoul- heMan From the Bitter Roots “By CAROLINE LOCKHART _ Author of ‘Me, Smith,” Ete. Det ih Ga hiA Bo PANDS # and went on stubbornly, the under- y Romance of was Ii -tfe time to indulge hi for there was now an extri temper, boat to upon which he must trust as front sweepman, all worked early and late, building the extra barge, dividing the welght and loading the unwieldly ma- chinery, but the best they could do, counting four boats to a trip instead of three, each barge drew from eight to twelve inches of water. Though he gave no outward sign taking under such conditions—even to Bruce—looked foolhardy, while the croakings of the “Old Timers" rose to a wail of lamentation. ‘The last nail was driven and tho last piece loaded and Bruce and his boatmen stood on the banks at dusk looking at the four barges, securely tied with bow and stern lines riding on the rising flood, Thirty-seven feet long they were, five feet high, eight feet wide, while the sweeps were of two young fir tres over six inches in diameter and twenty feet in length. A twelve foot plank formed the blade. which was bolted obliquely to one end and the whoje balanced on a pin. They were clumsy looking enough, these flat-bottomed barges, but the only type of boat that could ride the rough water and skim the rocks so menacingly close to the surface, “There's nothin’ left to do now but say our prayers.” Smaltz’s jocularity broke the silence, “My wife hasn't quit snifflin’ since she heard the weight I was goin’ to take," said Saunders, the boatman upon whom Bruce counted most. “If T hadn't promised I don’t know as I'd take the risk, I wouldn't, as it for anybody else, but I Know what it means to you.” “And [ sure hat answered gravely. Pens ['ll_ ne “Well—we can—and hope,” said Saunders, “The water's as near right as it ever will be; and I wouldn't worry if it wasn't for the load.” “To-morrow at elght, boys, and be prompt. Every hour is counting from now on, with two more trips to make.” Bruce walked slowly up the atreet and went to his room, too tired and depressed for conversation down be- low. The weigh-bill from the station nt was even worse than he had expected; and the question which he asked himself over and over was whether Jenning’s under-estimation of the weight deliberate misrep- resentation or bad figuring?) Wha ever the cause the costly error had shaken his faith in Jennings, Bruce was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow, The last thing he remembered was Smaltz’s raucous voice in the barroom below boasting of the wicked rapids he had shot in the tumultuous “Colorady” and on the Staikine in the far north. ‘The noise of the barroom ceased at an early hour and the little mountain town grew quiet, but Bruce was not conscious of the change. It was mid- night—and_ long past—well toward morning when in the sleep which had been so profound he heagd his mother calling, calling in the same dear, to ask it,” Bruce “It anything hap- sweet y that she used to call him when, tired out with following his father on long rides, he had over- slept in the morning. “Bruce! Bruce-bo: Up-adatsy!" He stirred uneasily and imi that he answered The volce came again and there was pleading in the shrill, staccato notes: “Bruce! Bruce! Bruce!” ‘The cry from dreamland roused his consciousness at last. He sat up startled. There was no thought in his mind but the boats—the boats! In seconds, not minutes, he was in his clothes and stumbling down the dark stairway. There was something ghostly in the hollow echo of his foot- steps on the plank sidewalk as he ran through the main street of the still village. He saw that one boat was gone from {ts mooring before he reached the bank! He could see plainly the space where it had been, The other boats were safe—but the fourth, He stopped short on the bank for one brief second weak with relief, The fourth barge, though loos, by some miracle had jammed against the third barge which was holding it temporarily, The water was slapping against the side that was turned to the stream and tha other was bumping, bumping against the stern of the third boat, but the loose barge was working a Httle closer the current with each buinp, A matter of five minutes more at the most and {t would have been started on its journey to destruction, Bruce sprang to the stern of tha third barge and dragged the loose how-lina from the water. It was shorter by many feet—the stout, new rope had been cut! It was not neces- sary to strike a match—the starlight was sufficient to show him that, He stared at it, unable to credit his own eyes, He scrambled over tho ma- chinery to the stern, The stern-line was the same—cut square and clean, If further evidence was needed, {t was furnished by the severed portion, which was stil? tied around a bush. ‘There was No more sleep for Bruce that night, Rewtldered, dumfounded hy the diseovery, he rolled himself in a “tarp” and lay down on the boat's platform, So far as he knew he had not an enemy in the town, Thera seemed absolutely no reasonable ex planation for tha act CHAPTER IX. At the Big Mallard. T 11K sun rose the next morn- ing upon an eventful day in Bruce's life. He was back- ing his judgment—or was !t only his mulish obstinacy ?— against the conviction of the com- munity. He knew that !f tt had not ders. His relief was short-lived, It been for their personal friendship for shonged to. consternpslon, when hed himself the married men among his saw the last of the machinery piled 4 Atle 4 upon the hank for loading, It weighea hoatmen would maya backed out, not fifty thousand pounds, There were excitement and tension ninety—nearer a hundred in the air, founded for the moment, ha widaywallawinivan was TUnEing gee how he could take i, - that he had made on the purchase /!ke a millrace, bending the willows, price was caten up by the extra lapping hungrily at the crumbling Weight owing to the excessive frelght shore, ‘The bank was black with rates from the coast an on he ‘ cannle, branch line tc Meadows, More than ZTUPS of people, tearful wives that, Jennings had disobeyed his ex- and whimpering children, lugubrious Bilolt orders to box the smaller parts neighbors, pessimistic citizens, Bruce Of each machine together, All had catied the me Pune chi Bean thrown in the car hoiter-skelter, Culled the inen together and assigned Not since he had raged at “Slim? S@Ch boat tts place in line, Beyond Bad Bruce been so furious, but there caplicit orders that no boatman a nn em should attempt to pass another and the barges must be kept a safe dis- tance apart he gave few instruc tions, for they bad only to follow his lead. “But 1f you see I'm in trouble, fol- low Saunders, who's second. And, Jim, do exactly as Smaltz tells you— you'll be on the hind sweep in the third boat with him,” In addition to a head and hind sweepman, each barge carried a batler, for there were rapids where at any stage of the water a boat partiaily filled. The men now silently took their places, and Bruce on his platform~ gripped the sweep-handle and nodded— “Cast off." The barge drifted a little distance slowly, then faster the current caught it and it started on its journey like some great swift-swimming bird. As he glided into the shadow of the bridge Saunders started; before he turned the bend Smaltz was waving his farewells, and as Meadows van- ished from his sight the fourth boat, the heaviest loaded, was on its way, Bruce drew a deep breath, rest was behind him, the next three days would be hours of almost continual anxiety and strain. The forenoon of the first day was comparatively easy going, though there were places enough for an ama- teur to wreck; but the real battle with the river began at the Pine Creek Rupids—the battle that no ex- Perienced boatinan ever was rash enough to prophesy the result, ‘The sinister stream, with its rapids and whirlpools, its watetfalls and danger- ous channel-rocks, had claimed count- lass victims in the old days of the gold rush and there were years to- gether since the white people had set- ed in Meadows that no boat had gone even a third of its length. Wherever the name of the river was known its ill-fame went with it, and those feared it most who knew It best. Only the inexperienced, those too unfamiliar with water to recog- nize its perils 90 long as nothing hap- pened, spoke liehtly of its dangers. Above the Pine Creek Rapids, Bruce into an eddy to tie up for besides, he wanted to aea how Smaltz handled his sweep. Smaltz came on, grinning, and Porcupine Jim, bareheaded, his yellow pompa- dour shining in the sun like corn-silk, responded instantly to every order with a stroke, They were working together perfectly, Bruce noted with relief, and the landing Smalts made In the eddy was quite as good as the one he had made himself Once more Bruce had to admit that Smaltz boasted, he always made good his boast, He believed there was little doubt but that he was equal to the work An om ous roar was coming from the rapids, a continuous rumble like thunder far back in the hills, It was not the most cheerful sound by which to eat and the meal was brief. The the boatmen who knew was contagious and the grin faded gradually from Smaltz's face Life preservers were dragged out within easy reach, the sweepmen re placed their boots with rubber-soled canvas ties and cleared their plat- form of every nail and splinter, When all were ready, Kruce swung off his river hat and laid both hands upon hia sweep. Throw off the jines,” he maid wietly and his blach eyes took on a tendy shine Thera was something ereepy, por- fentfous, in tha seemingly deliberate duiginess with whic the boat erept ne Can You Beat It? «xtmetna, The Evening World Daily Magazine, Thursday, Ma 1 HAVE BEEN TRYING MY BEST To ATTRACT YOUR ATTENTION ~ But You WOULDN'T Loot aT ME from the still water of the eddy to- ward the chann The bailer in the stern changed color and no one spo! There was an occasional ripple against tho sido of the boat, but save for that distant roar no other sound broke the strained liness. Bruce crouched over his sweep like some hugo cat, & cougar iting to grapple with an enemy as wily and as formidable as himself. ‘The boat slipped forward with a kind of stealth and then the current caught it, Faster it moved, then faster and faster. The rocks and bushes at the water's edge flew by, The sound was now a@ steady boom! boom! growing louder with every heart-beat, until it was like the indeseribable roar of a cloudburst In a canyon—an ava- Janche of water dropping from great height. The boat was racing now with a speed which made and foliage along the shore a blur— racing toward a white stretch of churning spray and foam that reached as far down the river as it was pos- sible to see, From the water which dashed itself to whiteness against the rocks there still came the mighty boon! boom! which hed put fear into many a heart. The barge was leaping toward it as though drawn by the invisible force of some great suction pump. The hind sweepman gripped the handle of tho sweep until his knuckles went white, and Bruce over his shoulder watched the wild water with a jaw eet and rigid, The heavy barge seemed to pause for an instant on the edge of a preci- pice with half her length tn mid-air hefore her bow dropped heavily into a curve of water that was Ike the hol- low of a great green shell. The roar that followed was deafening. The sheet of water that broke over the boat for an instant shut out the sun, Then she came up like a clumsy New- foundland, with the water streaming the platform and swishing through the machine and all on board drenched to the ekin, Bruce stood at his post unshaken, throwing his great strength on the sweep this way and that—endeavor- ing to keep it in the centre of the cur- rent-in the middle of the tortuous channel through which the boat was racing like mad. And the hind- sweepman, doing his part, reaponded, with all the weight of body and strength he possessed, to Bruce's low voiced orders almost before they had left his Nps. Quick and tremendous action was imperative, for there were places where a single instant’s tardiness meant destruction, ‘There was no time in that mad rush to rectify mis- takes. A miscalculation, a atroke of the sweep too Httle or too much, would send the heavily loaded boat witn that tremendous, terrifying force behind It, crashing and aplinter- ing on a rock like @ filmey-bottomed strawberry bo Vor al! of seven miles Bruce never Nfted his eyos, training them aa he wielded his sweep for the deceptive, submerged granite boulders which the water slid in a thin sheet, Immovable, tense, he steered with the sureness of knowledge and grim dr termination until the boat ceased to. lean and ahead lay @ Httle stretch of peace, Then he turned and looked at the , Joling tongues behind him that seemed stil reaching for the boat ind straightening up he shook his fist You didn't get me thas time, 4 » you, and what's more you won't All threa boats were coming, rearing and plunging, disappearing and re- the flying rocks bo; over | appearing. Anxiously he watched Smaltz work until a bend of the river shut them all from sight. It was many miles before the river strs tened but when it did caw them all riding safely, with Smalts holding his place in line. Stretches of white water came at frequent intervals all day, but Bruce slept on the that night more soundly than he ever had dared hope. Each hour that passed, each rapid that they put be- hind them, was so much done; he was 80 much nearer his goal, On the second night when they tied up, with the Devil's Teeth, the Black Canyon and the Whiplash passed in safety, Bruce felt alinost secure, al- though the rapid that he dreaded it remained for the third and last out again, stood, a nt group, at the Big Mallard. “She's a bad one, ys—and looking wicked as I've ever seen he ‘There was a fur- row of anxiety between Bruce's heavy brows. Every grave face was a shade aler and Porcupine Jim's eyes looked ike two blue buttons sewed on white paper as he stared. “LT wish I was back in Meen sota.” The unimaginative Swede's voice was plaintive, “We dare not risk the other chan- nel, Saunders,’ said Bruce briefly, “the water's hardly up enough for that.” don't believe we could) make it,” Saunders answered; “it's too jong & chance.” Smalts was stulying the rocks and current intently, as though to {mpress upon his mind every twist and turn. His face was serious, but ho made no comment and walked back tn silen By Maurice Ketten platform of his barge !t a y 4, 1916 ! | | Here is the story you've been looking for—the abso- lutely new type of myster: erest reader cannot guess in is to be solved. It is tale, wherein the very cley- advance how the problem The House of the Purple Stairs By Jeannet te I. Helm Next Week's Complete Novel in The Evening World Try your s this story's mystery. you won't be able to. But ‘unemotionally—dully- he = might have said—"I'm sick; I'm hungry" “They've struc Yes—they had atruck. had not been so absorbed he might have heard the bottom splintering when she hit the rock, Her bow shot high into the alr and settled at the stern, Aas she alid off, tilted, filled and sunk, Smaita and Porcupine Jim both jumped. Then the river made a bend which shut it all from Bruce's sight. It was half @ mile before he found a landing. He tied up and walked back, unoxcited, not hurrying, with @ curious quiet- ness inside. Smaltz and Jim were fighting when he got there. Smalts was sitting aa- tride the latter's chest. There were epithets and recriminations, accusa- tions, counter-chargos, oaths. The Nwede was crying and @ little stream of red was trickling toward his ear. Bruce eyed him calmly, contem- platively, thinking what a face he made, and how ludicrous he | with the sand matted in hia corn-silc hair and covering him like a tamale casing a corn-meal aa it stuck to bis wet clothes. He left them and walked up the river where the rock rose Il a monument to his hopes. With hie hands on his hips he watched the water rippling around it, slipping over the spot where the boat lay with some portion of every upon the works, while like @ bolt from the blue the knowledge came to him that since the old Edison type was obsolete the factories no longer made duplicates of the parts. CHAPTER X. “The Forlorn Hope. ‘T was August. “Old Turtle. back” was showing up af would reach low water mark with less than half a foot. Pole in hand, big John John- son of the crew tood on the rocking raft anchored below the Big Mal- lard and opposite the rook where the landmarks on either shore, measur- ing distances, calculating the conse- quences of each atroke, he placed the clumay barge where he would have it with all the accurate skill of a billiard player making a shot. Tho boat reached the edge of the current; then it oaught it full. With a Jump like a race horse at the signal was shooting down the toboggan slide of water toward the jutting granite ledge, The blanched bailer in the stern could have touched it with his hand as the boat whipped around the corner, clearing it by #o email @ margin that it seemed to him his heart stood atill. Bruce's muscles turned to steel as he gripped the sweep handle for the last mad rush. He looked the per- sonification of human daring, Tho wind bi: Joy of battle blazed in face was alight with a recklos: tation, But powerful, fearless a: was, it did not seem as though It were within the range of human skill or possibilities to place a boat in that toboggan fiide of water so that it would cut the current diagonally, miss the rock nearest shore and shoot across to miss the channel boulder and that yawning hole beneath. Hut he did, thor he skimmed the wide- mouthed well #0 close that the bailer stared into ite dark depthe with bulg- ing eyes. ‘The boat leaped in the apray below, but the worat was passed and Bruce and his hind aweepman exchanged the swift smile of satisfaction which men have for each other at such a time, “Keep her ateady—atraight away.” He had not dared yet to lift his eyes to look behind save for that one glance, “They're comin’ right together!" to the eddy above where the boat® he sharp cry from the hind were tied. sweepman made him turn. They had It was the only rapia where they rounded the led« reast and had stopped to “look out the trail gmaita’e boat insid crowding ahead,” but a pecullarity of the Pat | Mallard was that tho channel ¢! with the varying stages of the water and {t was too dangerous at any stage totrust to luck Tt was a stretch of water not easy to describe, Words seam colorless inadequate to convey the picture It presented or the sense of awe it in- spired. Looking at it from among the boulders on the shore 1t seemed the last degres of madness for human beings to pit thelr Liliiputian strength against that racing, thundering flood. Certain it was that the Big Mallard vas the supreme test of courage and tmanship The river, running like a mill-race, shot straight and smooth down grade until it reached a high, sharp, jut- ting ledge of granite, where it made a sharp turn. The main current made a close swirl and then fairly leaping took a sudden rush for a narrow pas- saweway between two great boulders, one of which rose close to shore and the other nearer the centre of the iver, The latter being covered thinly with a sheet of water which: shot over it to drop into a dark hole like # well, another rock curve back. sor more the 1 stretch of though {ta Iminated in thts ng fit of rage, and from it came inv sounds like children orying, n sereaming. Bruce's eves hintng brilitant- vy with the excitement of the deaper ne ne jen he put inte the er, but not uid exceed the fin . ow whieh ! ed y 80 wh caught it it should oateh tt right Watching the Saunders hard. Saunders and his helper ‘ere working with super- human etrength to throw the hoat into the outer channel fn the fraction of time before tt started on the final shoot, Could they do 1t? Could they? Hruce felt his lunge—his heart—some- thing Inside him hurt with his sharp intake of breath as he watched that desperate battle whose loss moant not only gunk machinery but very likely death. Bruce's hands were still full get- ting his own boat to safety. Ho dared not look too long behind “They're goin’ to make It! Thay're almost through! They're safe!" Then shrilly--"They're gone! they've lost a sweep." Bruce turned quickly at his helper’ cry of consternation, turned to seo the hind-sweep wildly threshing the alr while the boat spun around and around in the boiling water, disap pearing, reappearing, sinking a little lower with each plunge. ‘Then, at the risk of having every rib crushed tn they aaw the baler throw his body across the sweep and hold tt down before {t quite leaped from ita pin The hind sweepman was scrambling wildly to reach and hold the handle as it beat the alr. Ho got it held it for a second—then {t was wrenched out of his hand, He tried again and again hefore he held ft, but finally Bruce sald huskily “They'll make |t they'll make tt mure If Saunders can hold her a Mttle longer off the rocks" His own boat had reached quleter water. Simultaneoust it seemed hoth he and his « thought of Smalez, They took ticir evan from the boat in trouble and the hind eweepman’s jaw dropped. He said boat had sunk, and emiled tie eolema mile at Bruce. “Don't know but what we ought to name her and break a bottle of | ketchup over the bow of this bere craft a'fore we la’nch h “The Forlorn Hope, The Last Chance, or something eppropriate like that,” Bruce suggested, although there was too much truth in the jest for him to emile, This attempt to recover the sunken boat was literally that, If ft was gone, he was done His work, all that he had been through, was wasted effort; the whole an expensive fiasco, proving that the majority are somotimes right. The suspense which Bruce hed beon under for more than two month would soon be ended one way or the other, Day and night it seemed to him he had thought of little else than the fate of the sunken boat. Hi brain was tred with consechar ae Me to what had happen or the water had reached Its flood, Tad the force if it sho her into deeper water? Had the sand which the water carried at that period filled and covered her? Had the current wrenched her to pieces and imbedded the machinery deep in the sediment and mud? ii pes Questioning his own nt doubtful as to whether he was matt or wrong, he had gone on with the work as though the machinery was to be recovered, yet all the time he was filed with sickening doubts, it it seemed as though his inborn tenacity of purpose, his would not let him to finish the flume and trestle 40 feet high with every green log and tim- ber snaked in and put in place by hand; to finish the pressure box and penstock and the 200 fest of pipe-line riveted on the broiling hillside when the metal was almost too hot to touch with the bare hand, The foundation of the power house was ready for the machinery, and the Pelton r= wheel had been tnetalled. It had taken tine and money and emmy sweat, Was it all in vain? Asking himself the question for which ten minutes at most would find the answer Bruce sprang upon the Ulting raft and nodded— “Shove off.” As Hruce balanced himeelf on tha raft while the Swede poled slowly ward the rock that now arose from the water the size of @ small houg he was thankful that the face can 6 made at times to serve as #0 good mask, Not for the world would he have had John Johnson guess how afraid he was, how actually scared to death whon the raft bumped against the huge brown rock and he knew that he must look over the side, Holding the raft at Johnson kept his eyes on Bruce's face aa he peered into the river and searched the bottom, Not a muscle of Bruce's face moved nor an eyelid flickered in the tense silence, Then he patd quietly: “John, she'a gone." look of sympathy softened the homely face straightened up. he reiterated—"gon nnson might guess a little but could never guess the whole of the pair which seemed to crush Bruce ming weight as he the sun shining stood looking at upon the pack of the twisting green snake of a river that he had thought never had ody's money but he could heat; Johnson risked and lost any hia own, he woman he le n ind success, ly and so com- h, the mortification of it! the Finally Johnson said gently Guess we might as well go back.” Bruce winced. It reminded him what going back meant. To dise the diggin‘e and the river the as an amateur detective in working out is only fair to warn you charge the crew and tele; yh his failure to Helen Dunba: Harrat Gry out and the cracks widen in the flume, the rust take the machinery and the water-wheel go to ruin that’s what going back meant—taking Up his lonely, pointless life where he had left it off, growing morbid, eo+ centric, like the other failures eulking in tho hills, “There were parts of two dynamos, one 50 horse-power motor, @ ry £ field, beside the fl 6 boat.” Bruce looked al at Johnson but he was talking to Pane self. “I wonder, I wonder ’—a gleam Of hope lit up his face—"“John, go up to Fritz Yandell’s and borrow i padi haisiian ices in a hurry. In an hour or so he wae back, till puszied; compasses be Peo al were for people who were It’s only a chance, John, ancther forlorn hope, but there’s magnetic iron in those dynamos and the fright show tt if we can get above Johneon's friendly shone t- stantly with interest. the apot of the wreck, he poled down the river, keeping in line the rock. Ten, twenty, thirty—fift; feet below the rock they poled the needle did not waver from north. “She'd @o to pieces bafore she travelled this far.” The glimmer hope tn eves Ged, “Elther the needle won't locate her or she's into the channel, If = tho case we'll never get her out.” Then Johnaon poled back and ig-2aaccc Hi hung eteadfastly to ‘They were all of fifty feet from where the boat had sunk and some forty feet from shore when Bruce orted sharply: “Hold her steady! Wait!” Tho needle wavered—aci| he apok: we've got her!” “I eee her!” Johnson executed a kind tl raft, ber stern. Bruce nodded, then they looked at each other joyfully, and Bruce re- membered ‘that they had Wigglea hyst tke two boys, water'll @ foot yet,” Bruce eald exci! » “Can you dive?” “First cousin to @ muskrat,” the le “Well build @ ratt ike a hoDow a bring chain blocks, “Wit we cant 'y with a grappling-hook we'll go after, John, “were wotaa to get fi lece! “Bet yer tife wet get her!” 18 cried responsively, “if I has ¢o drunk to do it end stand to my ‘week.’ in water for @ CHAPTER Xi. Toy! JRUCE) paused in the ditthee eome teak of packing eiz t3f eights to took at the machtn~ ery which lay like @ pile of funk on the river bank. Each time he passed he looked af t¢ and always he felt ¢the same hot tm< pesveniee, ond: baalag eenee of: Cerri The days, the weeks, months were golng by and nothing moved. Twice the whole crew eave Jene ninge had dragged @ heavy barge fife teen miles up the river, advancing only a pull at a time against the @trong current, windiessing over the rapids with big John Johnson tke mad to keep the boat oft rocks; sleeping at night in wet cloth. ing, waking stiff and jaded as stage horses to go at it again. Six daye they had been getting up, and a little over an hour coming down, while two trips had been necessary owing to the low stage of the water, which now made the running of a deeply loaded boat impossible, It had been @ severe test of endurance and loy- alty in which none had fallen shore dno one among them had worked with more tireless energy than Smaltz, or his erstwhile friend but Present enemy, Porcupine Jim, There Was amazingly little camage done to the submerged machinery, and when the Jast bit of iron was un- loaded on the bank, the years which had come upon Kruce in the weeks of strain and tension seemed to poll away, Unless some fresh calamity happened, by September, surely, they would be “throwing dirt.’* Bruce had a favorite bush, thiek, and a safe distance from the work, behind whieh wont to res tir imes as the sight of Jen- nin ng while the crew under him stood tdle became too much for Bruce's nerves He looked around to seo the carpen- ter charging ugh the brush brandishing a saw as if it was @ sabre “f want my ‘time!’ he shouted when he saw Bruce, “Him or me has got to quit. T won't work with that feller 1 won't take orders from the likes im: Ll never saw a oman from Oregon vit that was worth the powder to blow him up! Half-baked, no-account fakirs, the whole lot of fem~allus a birin’ for somethin’ they cain't do Middio West renegades” (Tq Be Continued.) ~~