Show THE HEART r ob wa A STORY OF THE GREAT N NORTH H WEST 5 ay 00 IV C ra ZOE 0 A X vz 6 les OY neap ana conmey CHAPTER 13 tho the spirit of the eat east t company 11 II under captain donaldson they trotted swiftly up with tho the quickstep of liard hard trained infantry and stood in column of 0 fours foura while tho the sought tho the head of affairs dally daily promptly sent tor for tho the young forest bangor and in loss less than it takes in tho the telling those two keen witted wilted westerners tile tho woodsman and tho the soldier wore were ready to grapple with tho the enemy light marching kits worn dumped upon the ground mid and tile the hard muscled men took to tho 1110 hills and the timber under quick decisive orders or derfl two hours later wagons arrived with commissary supplies and tho the smoky blackened valley took on a military air k it was ivan a titan struggle and it was indicative of the force that lias has conquered nature the human atoms toll ing in semidarkness beneath tho the threatening forest choked by the i smoke flayed clayed by tho the almost ablo able heat menaced by the flames that at any moment lit might swoop sweep here or there among the rocks and declivities of tile the uneven hills and cut off escape that was tho the great danger they guarded tho the possibility of getting hemmed in guards were detailed to watch the vanguards van guards of tile the foe to note nota the speed of the names the ito ile of tho the timber tho the lines that were likely to go 90 fastest following the different growths but in the mysterious dusk and tho the silence of vast mingled sounds they wore impotent and each man mail had to take care of himself tile tho mighty boom of falling failing patri arclie of tile tho forest hoary with a thou 0 sand years of ago age crashing through obstructing branches shook tho the earth each moment with each such stu nondous fall wealth and world economy and prudence trembled at the sacrilege it wits was a carnival of waste a of tile the gifts of god and among all those wh who 0 ought fought it witti with heart and hand and brain there was none who know its worldwide import f so 60 well who lamented it so keenly keegl t lie as the lean brown forest rangers whose special too it was wan and to think a dozen mi lea of gov eminent trails would have prevented etl cried tho the leader with an oath out in tho the valleys beyond the heavy smoke had bad obscured tile the setting getting sun entirely over the crent of tho the coast range it had spread up to the heavens drifted afar on oil the changing wind and all tho the distant valley of the wll wit lametto know knew that the forest flroa were burning in tho the bills the papers throughout shout bout the state told of it that day and it awakened no more interest than would havo have attended tho the of a heavier runa run of salmon than was usual in the columbia I 1 they wore were too common those fires that sported with tile the national wealth k each year too much a part of everyday life and they did not know that uila this was to bo be a marker of time in the coast country i time was when chev were unknown these monsters of destruction a long past time it was when those first forest rangers the silent red men alen of the hills had burner out tile the underbrush i ea each h year so no that a p pony ony might go anywhere unhindered the silent rangers had gone with f the years passed to the hunting grounds and the reservations via civilization and now tho the great timber had shed its ita dry follain allak n und and its pitch the little growths had sprung sprang up season after seon season the vines had crept between and a man might not pone the fast fastnesses nesses without built i trails so destiny took up tho the land and played with it that hot dry august all through tile the early hours of the 1 long night they labored dirty blackened tattered scarecrows scare crows of men running here and there digging like mad i in the wide trench that was to stop the surface flames sawing unceasingly at the towering trees while the guards brought twenty manuto tidings j of the approaching fire high against tho the dun smoke light ened sky tho the dark canopy of the 17 belt whispered and moaned as it if in i fear and from time to time sundry sandry a haggard grim lipped specter of a man lifted his bloodshot eyes toward it it it was still his own his future of tho the Dilling killingworth worth despite tho the tangle of i threats tho the unrecorded deed and tho the unfinished trail of tho the yellow pines at the south and it pulled at his heart pathetically there was still a stretch ol of almost impenetrable timber near the summit of the big ridge which must bo be cut turlogh before the ho games flames reached it or all would be lost shall we make it john asked tho the owner desperately of dally daily who ran by in the smoke with wot wet rags rage to tie a 1 over the mouths of the men ought to if the wind stays where it Is it was two and that hour in tho the sleeping world outside when a all 11 the elements ern ants are at an all ebb then khoii oil all glud suddenly lenly destiny laughed and De stinys laugh was a whooping whoops ng wind that rose as the el elemental ebb tide turned hell broke loose O BC upon tile tho land and heaven was not fire encompassed tho world its increased roar changed to tho the thunder ot of tho the spheres it appalled the hearts ot of men stayed their hands in right fright all throughout the darkness of rolling smoke wherein they worked between tho the raging torrent and tho the east dolt delt that mighty voice commanded cessation instantaneously without orders as ono one man mail where there was no commit nl ni catlon cation save between those a few feet apart they dipped dio dro ped the ar spades their tattered blankets their axes thoy they straightened from their labor leaving tho the cross cuts in tho the trunks hero clero and there above the solemn thunder hoarse voices began to call it was the time to quit and thoy they realized it instinctively aull out out thoy they cried to each other in the dusk get get act aull walter sundry sandry working near the apex of tile the pushing line saw men beginning to run past him back along the trench and the cutting lie ho lifted des berato eyes to the ridge whose dim crest he be could see BOO between tho the holes boles so near had they won to victory only a few moro more big vines pines a dozen saplings a scant few yards of trench and it would bo be done the long lane of safety stretched across the neck of the east belal estopi stop he cried with a great voice that came from the very depths of his lungs with borrowed power stand by me ment for gods sake stand byl by I 1 ile he saw dim shapes falter halt turn toward him and start on again he be raised his stentorian cry and flying figures halted a moment stopped against their will by its compelling power im johnny eastern all right but im going to stay I 1 stay with mo me out of tho the dense obscurity came col fins a huge figure and stood beside him without a word in the tension sion ot the time sundry sandry reached out a land and gripped the giants shoulder A dozen men and weve wont won ia he cried lie he saw the halting shapes turn gather another and mother another retrace their steps and sprint spring back into the darkness every man of them was western born and the taunt had gone homo home ile he leaped himself for the handle of a saw sticking out from the bole of a foot sugar pine and the whining song of the crosscuts cross cuts rose again under the dwarfing dwar fing roar fourteen men had bad heard beard and answered that call and they were alone in tho the purgatory puig atory of beat and smoke all the rest were running for their lives down the cleared fall toward the valley beyond the dip from time lime to time sundry sandry glanced upward at tho the increasing light llant the sugar pine fell with ich a rending roar and with harris who he saw tor for the first time had been pulling with him ito ho ran to the next ile ho saw u us 1 ho he ran that one of the men working like a fury to fell the pap saplings lings was bl murphy urphy who had greet ed his pompous with such grinning irony in the old days lie ho had bad a moments vague wonder at al this odd stripe of humanity that could hold field such prejudice light fight with ramp hamp dens meu men in savage enmity to join their ranks later with happy Irre spon at the call ot of gold and was still willing to turn back b ack to fight with him on deaths deatha brinia brink because he be had baa returned their taunt taunton of east and west one by one in silence in a tension that drew the skin tight on their faces they saw the alsot 1 monarchs mo narcus fall tile the kindling saplings laid on earth tile the trench much narrower and shallower creep upward to lo the ridge against time against heat ficat that scorched their bare arms und and tortured their starting eyeballs against a sti att ring fling atmosphere that drove them nealar nearar ad nearer to the earth fur for breath they drew the last blade sent the last big pine crashing toward the north the ridge was clear la ia tho the increasing glow now cried sundry sandry with the trl tri ot of a general on a victorious field now for the ridge and overt overl but even as he dropped his bis saw and ran calling his men colllns collins big voice came through the rolling smoke with tho the calm of finality aint no over its a ninety foot arp on to hard rock beyond tuat ridge sandry stopped in his tracks head bead cleared as it if with a whiff of r air by that call the men had closed in with the instinct of their kind to bo be together tog othor in danger as it if so BO the danger were lessened bened but the easterner iia undaunted then well tako take to 10 the east delt ho he cried even though it U IB a crown ore iro and coming fast I 1 think our trench will hold bold it with all confidence ho he turned to the south instinctively tho the men had bad drawn in behind him the neck of the east belt was a wavering wall of bamo bame lie ile whirled and glanced back along tho the fall and the trench long streamers of lamo flame were licking across it the halt half looked for hail had happened tile the little bunch of fighters were hemmed in ringed around by ire death faced them on oil every side then no na tho the owner sent a seir searching chIng look to every quarter ho he sprang forward I here ferel he be cried herot into itt every man of 0 you in I 1 bayl say I 1 at af the crest ot of the iho sheer ridge an old abandoned tunnel gaped in tho the gloom a dim hayen of refuge its mouth was overhung by vines its recess mysterious in the blackness sandry sprang to its edge and turned lack back for tile the men to pass they stood a small silent bunch gazing in wordless word lesa consternation at the red canopy now how in boll did it get across the fall fallt said collins coiling hoarsely but one by ono one they stooped and entered the small black hole in the earth it ran backward into the ridge scarce the height of a tall man its floor uneven with the heaps of earth fallen from the root since somo some long forgotten prospector bad carved it out here tor for a moment they breathed more easily standing close together a sweating panting waiting mass of 0 humanity sandry bandry stood at the mouth th the last a t to enter lie looked out in bushed amaze at the unchained madness of the burning world the great fire had reached its zenith it came booming and roaring to tho the fall and tho the trench its sound was able the heat grow until the lesh flesh on jandrys San drys arms and face fac erose rose in blisters A shoot sheet of flamo flame shot sheer across tile tha tunnels mouth smoke rolled into it and here and thoro thero a i gasping breath ended in a moan there was no air to breathe like trapped animals thu ilo wun bai a jumped herp and there tooling feeling for an opening a cr crawl into away from the agony of heat and and then they lost control of themselves my god cried murphy shrilly 1 I cant stand let me out an ill die an got get ut overt lie he camo came groping to the entrance facing the increasing beat ills ilia face face was w as a mad mans his bis mouth open his bis fingers crooked like talons out but at the mouth that was as the tha gate of hell bell he be met the easterner a straight figure against the light beyond no said sundry sandry sternly go back and lie ho down what he shrieked what you damned johnnel you tenderfoot ill andee and he flung himself forward A smooth black muzzle came forth and pushed its brazen menace into his face ill shoot the first man that attempts to pass me said sundry sandry hoarsely raving and cursing lie ho backed away more than one ot of the four fourteen tuen begged to be allowed to piss and ove one of the lumberjacks lumber jacks from sacramento muttered deliriously of calling his bluff but the awful moments drugged dragged by and sundry sandry stood at the entrance the flames passed hill all measurement 0 of f light and heat beat lie ile sight of tho the figures at his feet ifo ho felt himself g going out in the darkness he muttered little when ho he came to himself again men were ere crawling across him lie ile could breathe breath ii better and tho the light bad lessened ile he sat up ill wincing at the moving of his bis scorched skin over the muscles underneath crawled out with the rest and one by one they rose to their feet the great timber of the east belt farther down stood serried berried a and nd green the effort had bad not been in vain the holocaust was chocked checked the belt was sate safe back toward the north stretched hed a forest of tall black spikes picked out here and there by heavy spots spot s of fire I 1 ro IL 1 9 0 7 colllns collins big voice come came through the rolling smoke where fallen alien logs dry and pitch laden burned steadily the tha green canopy was gone every vine and bit of brush every sapling and torn fern only a thin edge still crackled and snapped with streamers gt reamers ot of flame along tho trench mr air sandry said bald harris the taa saw caw filer it if yo ure an all easterner I 1 hope to god the brood breed fills up tle coun count tryl ryll ife he extended a hand which sandry grasped an me said murphy his grimy features distorted la in an expression express fon of mingled gratitude and contrition 1 4 I take it all back every damn word I 1 ever said against you an its ita a long list forget it said sundry bandry tie ho was no longer johnny eastern he had won well his bis right to live and light among atheni 13 Is it over collins coiling tie lio allied sten steadying dying his fits volve over look ysidor yoi yo dor idor feci th wind its ch chan angin gln again th tires back crawled toward the siletz basin three miles ill bet while weve ben savin this end weve only begun to tight light CHAPTER th the shot in the hills at camp they met a party headed by tho the foreman just starting out in ID search of them their absence had bad been discovered only when dally daily coming in from the north where his work had been laid out had asked for san dry at t sight of him the three women standing together at tho the foot log gave evidence each in her way of those emotions emo tlona which the suspicion of hla his fato fate had stirred on mas bias faco face was an unbounded pride that he be had come through a man of parts abundantly able to caro care for himself among fl fi hardier crew ont on miss Ord ways there lay a vast relief while played with tho the collar of her blue shirt with trembling fingers and moistened her dry lips sundry sandry turned and looked up at the darkened east cast with a profound joy lie swept ills his eyes north to where the red heaven flared and stagg staggered bred to his office three hours ma he croaked in a voice ot of warning only three hours a loop for all ot of us if you give us longer ill never forgive |