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Show THE "BUCKAROO" By Albert W,. Tolman. THE steel skeleton of the thirty-story "skyscraper" "sky-scraper" was two-thirds up. On the twentieth floor stood a big derrick, worked by a donkey engine en-gine one story below and used to hoist the long, heavy girders Into place. The limestone walls were finished up to the sixteenth floor. The men had already been at work two hours on a hot morning in August. Chris iSargent, "heater boy" of the riveting crew on the seventeenth seven-teenth floor, plucked a red hot rivet from the forge with his tongs. "Say, Jim," he said to Llewellyn, tho sub-foreman, or "straw boss," "what do you maice or Dan's new buckaroo?" Dan Thompson was "gun man;" he ran the riveting machine that was clanging away on a column at the front of the building. His "buckaroo," "buck-aroo," iMillard Kent, was the man who held up the rivets to be driven in. He had joined the crew that morning. Sargent skillfully tossed the heated rivet fifty feet to Tom Kennedy, the "sticker boy," who stood with Thompson and Kent on the stage that swung three feet below the floor. Kennedy caught it in his bucket, picked it out with his tongs and thrust it into the hole. The buckaroo held his dolly bar firm against the head of it, and Thompson Thomp-son drove the other end up with his riveting machine. ma-chine. Llewellyn watched the new man critically. "Smarter than a steel trap," he admitted. "Mighty unlucky that Brown hurt his hand last Saturday! I'm afraid by the time it gets well this fellow'll have his feet planted so solid that he can't be shaken off. Brown's run into some pretty hard luck this year. With his boy in the hospital, he's simply got to have this job back again. I'll go over and see what I can find out." He walked over to the swing staging. "Hired for long?" he asked Kent. Kent had sombre black eyes and a strong jaw. He looked at the boss for a moment and then shook his head. Another rivet clinked into Kennedy's 'bucket and again the "gun" clattered. Llewellyn scowled at the buckaroo. When silence came, he spoke again. "I asked you if you were hired for long?" A second time Kent shook his head. Whirling angrily on his heel, the foreman walked back to the forge. "Won't talk!" he growled o Sargent. "Guess he's ashamed to. Looks to iuj like a clear case of trying to steal a sick man's job. Brown's too good a fellow to be crowded out like this, and 1 won't see it done, if I can help it. Unless I'm mistaken, that fellow will soon find these diggings too hot to hold him." The news passed quickly and quietly over the open floor that the newcomer was trying to steal Brown's job. Soon life began to grow decidedly interesting for the buckaroo. Thompson, the gun man, who had not found a word of fault with the buckaroo before, now kept up a continual growl. Sargent, standing by his forge, could easily drop a rivet into a. man's hat seventy-five feet away. He had not made a single wild pitch that morning, but now the buckaroo seemed suddenly to have become a magnet. The red hot rivets began to fly straight toward him. Kent dodged the missiles gloomily; if he noticed no-ticed anything out of the way, he gave no sign. The straw boss made no criticism on the waste of rivets. It was well that Kent should be taught a lesson. Before they got through with him-he would know better than to try again to steal a sick man's job. , A big box girder, known technically as a 24-80, made up of two parallel I beams, twenty-four inches deep and fifty feet long, held together by plates bolted over their tops and bottoms, was ready to be hoisted to the twentieth story. This immense girder, of course, weighed tons. It had been painted with red lead the day before and was rather slippery. The workmen passed a strong chain directly round its middle, but they did not stop to insert any planks to keep the links from slipping. It is not always safe to hoist "iron to iron," but in tills case no wood was at hand and there was need of haste. Two half hitches with a small rope or "tag line" were taken about a yard from the left end of the girder. "All ready!" came the cry. The signalman, standing on the front of the twentieth floor not far from the derrick, pressed an electric button on an adojining column and gave the engineer one bell. The chain grated taut. Slowly the girder rose. Up went the girder, held parallel wiUi the front of the building by the man with the tag line. It passed story after story, until it was opposite the fifteenth; then its left end swung slightly in. From the sill of a window that opened on the sixteenth floor, Llewellyn leaned out to push the beam away, so that it would not scratch the soft limestone. But he leaned too soon and too far. Just as his hands were about to touch the steel it swerved away. For an instant the stiaw boss tottered on the sill, 'writhing, twisting, striving with all the strength and agility of his trained muscles to regain re-gain his balance. But all in vain! His body swayed outward, and with a cry of horror he plunged into space. There was only one chance for him. As he pitched forward he flung his left arm over the moving girder and hooked his finger ends under the farther flange of. the top plate. His cheek struck against the hot, painted side of the beam. His fingers were slipping, slipping. He swung his right arm up, and in a moment had hold with both hands. He raised his body until the edge of the girder pressed against his armpits. There he hung, gripping the flange, with his back to the building and his heels swinging one hundred and sixty feet above the city street. His shout of alarm was echoed by his mates. The signalman on the top floor, looking down and seeing his predicament, instantly gave the engineer engi-neer a bell to stop hoisting. The girder hung in mid air, and the end to which Llewellyn was desperately des-perately clinging swung now several feet from the "skyscraper." The steelworker was in fearful peril. His smeared fingertips were too slippery to retain a firm hold. And now, to add to the danger of his predicament, the left end of the beam, overweighted over-weighted by his hundred and fifty pounds, began (Continued on Page 12.) H THE "BUCKAROO" B ' (Continued from page 7.) B to tilt downward. In a very short time tho beam H ' would tilt to such an angle that his lingers would B be made to keep their hold on tho slippery nange. B iA grinding sound drew his oyes to the chain B' round tho middle of the. girder. Tho straining B ) links moved jerkily. It was only a slight shift; B but Llewellyn's practiced eye saw at once what B would presently happen. The paint was so "green" B that it acted as a lubricant between tho chain and B the beam; the links above the top plate were slid- B ing back. "When the girder had tilted to a suf- Bi vflcient angle, it would slip through the chain and Bl drop to the ground. B Closo to Llewellyn's right arm lay the two half B hitches of the tag line. For a second he enter- B tained tho wild idea of trying to slide down it to B safety, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Long B before ho could hope to reach the ground, even Bl if the half hitches did not pull out, his weight on Bj the swaying rope would tilt the beam so far that flj it would come thundering down upon his head. B There was no escape in that way. B Down, down, down, steadily, remorselessly, Bi sank tho left end of the great red stick of steel, iand as steadily the right end rose. Llewellyn's brain seemed paralyzed. His body had hung at right angles with the girder; now every second ! the angle lessened. Already his fingers were slipping; a little more and he would lose his hold altogether. He glanced over his shoulder along the front Bj of tho building. Fifty feet away, opposite the ris- B ing right end of the beam, the riveting crew stood B motionless on their swing staging. Thompson and B Kennedy were staring at him, white faced; but B Kent's eyes were fastened on the rising girder Bj end, which was now almost level with the stage. B Suddenly he dropped his, dolly bar and stiffened, B as if he were bracing himself for a tremendous ef- Bj "Hold hard-" he cried to Llewellyn. Then, with B both arms extended, he leaped straight out into flj the air toward the beam. Bj Instantly the straw boss understood. If the B equilibrium of tho girder could be restored, he had B a chance. Kent was risking his own life, in tho B hope that his weight, if added to the other end of B the steel, would bring It back to horizontal be- B fore Llewellyn fell. B The buckaroo had timed his leap just right. B Tho foreman, looking up the slanting red surface, B saw his rescuer's arms dart over the top plate B and saw his fingers grip the flange. Could his B weight overcome tho momentum of those tons of B metal and force them back? H Seconds of suspense went by long, terrible H seconds to Llewellyn. Down sank the beam, still H down, almost to the point where he could hold on B no longer. He pressed his fingers into tho paint. B To his right the chain links ground and slipped; B! noises from tho street below rose to his ears. B' From the upper end of the girder Kent's face B looked down at him, anxious but calm. Suddenly Bj a smile curved the lips. The beam had stopped B! rising; it even began to sink slowly. A shout of Bt triumph burst from Thompson and Kennedy. The H' buckaroo had won. H Even before it had resumed a horizontal posi- Hi tion Kent glanced up at the signalman. H "Lower away!" ho cried. B, The engine started and the fall began to run B through the sheaves. Down went the girder, B steadied by the tag line, until the men's toes Bj touched the ground. B Llewellyn stepped up to the buckaroo and Bjj stretched out a calloused hand. Hj "You've saved my life." H Kent grasped the band. BBjJ "Forget it," he replied. HI Suddenly a. puzzled look overspread his face, and he passed his hand over his jaw. "That's funny!" he exclaimed." "I've been awake since midnight with the toothache, and now it's all gone. Not a twinge felt! Must have frightened it out of me. Sure cure, but don't know as I'd recommend it to everyone." He continued apologetically: "You fellows must have thought I was pretty grumpy this morning; but I'm almost as deaf as a haddock from ten years' hand riveting on boilers, and that, together with the kind of pain I've suffered suf-fered the last twelve hours, doesn't make a man any too sociable. Guess I won't forget this job in a hurry, even If, it's only a short one. I'm hero for just a few days, holding the place open for Brown till he gets Avell. He's my brother-in-law. Llewellyn stared 'a few seconds at the buckaroo bucka-roo without speaking. Kent's words had cleared up a number of things; also, they had made the foreman heartily ashamed of the way he and the others had treated the stranger. But he was glad that there was still time to make it up to Kent. "Come on, old man!" said he, clapping him on the shoulder and turning toward the elevator. "Let's get back to the sixteenth." From The Youth's Companion. |