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Show If CliZr RIVER BRIDGE It I HI By ARTHUR K. AKERS I HBHMiMHBBaiHnnHBniHHHmHniHMiHinDr -- m iii imiii nim n- Izif r&a mm "Six P. M. C4 6 feet. Si ill rising." read the brief report that was handed ; to Shelburn by a dripping messenger from headquarters II was the night of the seventh day of almost unremit-tent unremit-tent rain, the night of the Storm on the Blue Ridge division Since noon ! the Crazy River had been justifying Its name, rising In leaps and bounds fed by raging tributaries in the hills. 3 There was gloom in the sky. gloom in the hearts of the bridge and roadway Bald, so the Chief Engineer was re Smalnlng at home, watching the situ atlon b wire, torn by varying anxi ties, jet outwardly calm, master of Ihlmself and his emotions Every few igjaainuteg there came to him echoes of 'Jthe right with the elements without ' .and of that with a greater enemy in the room above. Again the bell rang b ' ' Six-thirty. :j.Q 4. Still rising. Ma-Whoney," Ma-Whoney," was the message Scarcely 1 had the door cloned before the telc-l telc-l phone was al!lng him It was Mc-itdKelly Mc-itdKelly with v.-ord that in Pine Creek gorge six mllea of track that had been Under water all day had eon'1 out .along with a high wooden trestle. That raeani thai tbe Mineral division was cut in two for a week to come Jfiut 11 Shelburu's bridge held the main Une would be kept open ' At seven o clock came the news, ,'"36 feet Still rising Hae ordered 1 1.1 more men and lvide mrs of h'oiu-4from h'oiu-4from Pilot Junction" Along with It 4was a note from Bancroft saying that Jthe wires were still good as far as the bridge, but were gone beyond Pilot. ""Junction, north of there. Outside the "rain fell ceaselessly, dripping, splash-uftlng splash-uftlng driven against the v. indow-panes P'by furious gusts of wind The wt "j branches of a tree creaked aud beat "Ja against the house as though in agony Overhead were soft footfalls and an JJtoccaslonal little cry of pain that cut U the man like a knife Hourly the river rose and tbe fury of the w ind and rain increased. Every train possible was annulled and the sidings began to fill to overflow ing. At eleven o'clock Mahoney's report read, "43.6. Rising faster Am putting steam shovel to work at Monica getting get-ting out rock. Need more men. Looks bad." On its heels came another: "Durban reports dam just gone oui on headwaters. head-waters. Can you possibly come? .Ma-honey." The Durban dam gone! The chief groaned Sixty-one miles above the bridge it bad held back the waters of the North Fork. Now in two hours the crest of the greater flood would be upon the scene of the battle where already there was a scant se. en feet between the muddy foam-crested waves and the ties. Could he come0 For ten minutes he fought it out with himself. Hol-comb Hol-comb was already on the way. Down thero at the rier they needed him His bridge needed him. Yet dearer to him than all his beloved bridges were the Uttlo lad overhead and his mother He owed them more than he did the road Then for one illuminated in stant he saw with clearness the consequences con-sequences to thousands of others, the suffering bodily and mentally that would follow the breaking of the railroad's line He recognized the Immutable law of the rails, that come what may hey must be kept open, only to feel anew that he could not leave at such a time. "Don't go away, Dadd I'm afraid," were the child's words when he had left him a few moments before, and now his brain was filled with their piteous appeal. Here the big passenger engine that he had asked Bancroft for was waiting to tal e him to the bridge "Praise the Virgin the wind s behind be-hind us on this run," said the wiry little engineer. Oliver McCullough. as they sped out through the great yard that cowered dripping and almost deserted de-serted in the storm The headlight only sent Its ray half the usual dis- '1 ' i i ' M l ill ! I 111 -.-I ; I WVC - " I'm proud of you, my own big man men. Landslides threatened where they did not fall, washouts came without with-out warning Boyd, of the Maintenance Mainte-nance of a;, . had slept four hours in (eventyiwo. Shell, urn '"'biff Engineer, not at all At his great bridge oer Jthe Crazy, Mahoney, his young assist ant, had been working and watching fllfor two days j Three other bridges bad the river Jflwrested from the railroad With the kloss of tbe third Holcomb had brought from the west a tall bronzed man who had tunnelled the Rockies, spanned mountain streams in the Himalayas, and put a pair of rails through the desert pa6t the cataracts of he Nile. This was Shelburn. and he had held I the river bound and helpless between I the piers of the bridge he had thrown across It. Spring after spring It had 'gone stark raving crazy, tearing tooth and claw at abutment and pier. foam-Sing, foam-Sing, frenzied, swirling, a yellow demon -of a stream gone utterlv mad. But fnever in the memory of the oldest .crossing-flagman bad there been a week like the past one Never had the big bridge battled for its existence as it was doing now. And the reports from the upper reaches of the river ."foreboded ominous things W The chief himself should be there; jmly one thing could keep him away But overhead was that one thing "the tiny son whom God's finger was "'almoet touching. The crisis would -probably come this night the doctors Bark and forth he wrested for a little lit-tle space and then he mounted the stalls. Of railroad slock for two generations gen-erations was the woman who met him at their head. Bred in her was all the quiet heroism of the women whose men are tbe servants of the Traffic. She knew something of the havoc being be-ing wrought, and in bis grave eyes she read the answer to the question In her own. "Tell the despatched office every hour how he Is. ' he said, "and they will let me know. If tbe worst should come I can get back in an hour or two. Good-bye. little girl " And In a great rush of tenderness he bent over her. To the very fullest she understood For one passionate moment she clung to him, then she looked up into his fine strong face "I'm proud of you, my own big man." she said softly. "Now go. Laddie and I will come through beautifully." Then she helped him Into his great rubber coat and he was out In the night. Limbs torn from trees by the gale Impeded his progress, street-lamps were out. their wires down in the general gen-eral wreckage Climbing over obstacles, ob-stacles, bending his head against the driving rain. 6tumbling and groping in tbe darkness, he reached the station. tance Into the wind ridden deluge ahead and the soaking road-bed was none too good but It was a race be twecn Shelburn and the flood and tbe stake was great. Oliver took chances he never took before He prayed to the saints that Vinson. In the despatched des-patched chair, bad a wire with which to clear the way for him and strove intently to see further Into the luminous lumi-nous wall of gray that Bteadlly retreated re-treated before him For the rest he could only trust blindly to tbe "stand-lug "stand-lug luck of an Irishman." Ninety minutes the three men in the cab rode through the storm with death never far away, but the wires and the luck and the rails held, and as they rounded a curve the first signs of the struggle lav before them. For a long distance back from the bridge the tracks wore congested with stalled trains, while on the sidings of the little storage yard their engines had been pressed Into service to handle han-dle material cars Allantlcs, Paclilcs. moguls, consolidatcds, and a little four-wbecler four-wbecler from a local, worked impar tially at their lowly tasK. Carried along almost without effort by the gaie at his back, Shelburn walked rapidly past a freight train, then the local passenger, another freight, a train of frightened bawling cattle, and a long string of sober-hued Pullmans Just back of these, last was the private car of a great singer Artists, Art-ists, passengers, brutes, and freight awaited alike the mad will of the river that would not let thom across. As Shelburn hurried down the tracks he caught above the roar of the gale and the angry waters the wonderful voice of the singer in her car Something of the spirit of tbe night was in her soul as she sang. "Die Walktlre" on the river-bank In the storm where men and Nature fought In primeval rage for the iKissesslou of a bridge' The engineer's bead went up as though he heard a call to battle and, half believing, believ-ing, his eyrs swept the Inky clouds for sight of the Valkyries riding in thunder. In sheltered spots ahead fires gleamed where kettles of coffee for the workers were kept boiling Swirling smoko from the engines drove horizontally hori-zontally from their stack through the deluge. Men hurried to ami fro breathless, tense-faced, mud-spattered from bead to foot, their eyes red from loss of sleep and burning with the light of conflict Lanterns flashed wetly here and there. Shouts, the reaking of earn the puffing and whistling whis-tling of the locomotives, arose only to be snatched aloft by the wind and bo blended In the mad uimult all about. Beyond, lit by the lightning and the head-lights on the engines, were the vast dim lines of the bridge and the wild, tumbling, foaming, waters of the Crazy over ail the flying clouds and the writhing blur of wind and rain At the little telegraph shanty near the bank Shelburn paused long enough for the news from home and to leave Instructions as to finding him. The boy was still holding his own. As ho turned lo leave he came face to face with his assistant. Hatless was Mahoney. water pouring off his leather clothing, four days' growth of beard on his chin, living In a world that for forty-eight hours had consisted only of a bridge and an insane river. "Thank the Lord, you've come!" he shouted into his chief's ear through hands held trumpet-wise In the same fashion he outlined the situation The flood from the broken dam had not yet reached them, but the rails were now only three feet above t lie water. On this side the river was eating at the bank as though trying to leave the bridge stranded over the old channel while it flowed through a new one Brush mattresses were being sunk under the weight of tons of earth and rock along the threatened railway embankment em-bankment that was the approach to the bridge. On a slight elevation two hundred yards back the linemen were busy with a shed for the telegraph Instruments. In-struments. The present location would be unsafe when the flood came Already Al-ready engines from side-tracked trains farther up the line had been cut loose and sent down to the rher to bring back as far as Monica the stalled trains at the bridge. On the other side Of the stream Number Fifty four, the New Orleans Mail was due but it was not expected that she would try lo cross with the river in its present state and in the face of Mahoney s order or-der that no train be allowed on the bridge until the danger lessened The despatchers would doubtless hold her at Pilot Junction Shelburn nodded in token of understanding and took command com-mand while Mahcne -ought out an engine en-gine to take him back to Damascus Junction, where he could have copies of the bridge specifications ready to forward to the builders should the great structure go out. Borne down faintly on the wind came the sound of the blasting at Monica to loosen the rock for the steam-shovel As the chief watched the sinking of another mattress the operator handed him a damp, wilted bit of paper. He held his lantern up to It to read. "Not so well Fever rising Will wire again iu fifteen minutes." He thrust It Into his pocket and the man stood on lip-toe to shout yet more ill news. "Pilot Junction says Fifty-four ran by the board there in the storm. She'll be on the bridge any minute now." Shelburn Issued orders as fast as ho could make himself hoard Cue man ran to hold up the dozen cars of stone that were about to be pushed out on the southbound track to help weight the structure against the rush of the Durban flood, another to get tbe way cleared for the passage of the Mall when she should be over The waves were on a level with the bridge ties and in torment the big engineer prayed that she would cross before a wall of water should sweep the rails. Now that the northbound track was being blocked by a freight whose rear lights could be seen slowly advancing over it, there was no opportunity to Bend an engine across in safety to stop Fifty-four on the farther side. Then the red lights halted and from the other shore thero suddenly flashed the blinding glare of a headlipht through which the rain fell like a thousand darting spears of sliver light. Slowly, steadily, tbe long train drew across the bridge, her bell tolling dismally. Shel burn caught sight of two figures on the right-hand side of her engine's cab as she passed, and afterward he knew that one of them was dead, the body of old "Pap" Sterling who had died nu bis engine. Like one of the lords of old whose bodies were set at the head of the feast. Pap was making his last run home through the night and the tempest With quickening speed the ears whipped pasi and were lost to sight In the darkness and driving rain The Mall was over and the flood was yet to come. The tail lights on the bridge receded rapidly now. The engineer on the frelghi. whom, in spite of orders'. Stubby" Sullivan had hyp notized Into backing over on It to help hold It. down while Fifty-four was crossing, was hurrying back to safer ground. The workers on the tracks scattered again before the approach of the cars of stone that shot through the light of the fires and out on to the bridge, and the scarce-interrupted fight was In progress once more. On the storm-swept bank Shelburn, with anxiety for his little lad gnawing unceasingly at his soul, set his face like a mask to hide hi"? suffering and Watched the battle, directing the repulse re-pulse of the enemy. More carB of broken stone were pushed out on the embankment where muddy, half drowned men fought the raging stream desperately with earth and rock and hugo mattresses of brush A hurrying, anxious figure struggled through the press, seeking the Chief It was the operator, with news that the wires were gone to the south. 'Message coming for you when they failed," he added "I only got two words of it, Laddie is,' before they were losi " Better no word at all than those two which meant the scales had turned, but gave no hint of whether they stood for life or death. Everything faded from the big engineer's vision except a woman who was needing him as she bent over a child in whom their very heart strings were bound up. Allah, be merciful to me a coward'" he groaned. "I can't stand this I've got to go back to them and know." Heaven and earth careened and rocked and were split asunder by a bolt of lightning ihat made all things lighter than day Balls of blue fire skipped over the wind-lashed waters and from point to point of the steelwork steel-work of the bridge For one little moment the wind died and a great faroff murmur was heard that carried a monstrous nameless menace In impound im-pound Then came the thunder peal on peal, booming, echoing, rumbling, was carried far out over the river by the gale. Immediately men appeared fighting their way back into tbe teeth of the storm to regain the shore. A sound like the soughing of the wind through a thousand, thousand pines, not loud yet seeming to dominate all others, grew and grew. Another lightning light-ning flash revealed the peril. Just above the bridge, stretching from bank to bank, a great ware bore down on it. The Durban flood had come Clean and bare it swept the bridge The heavily loaded cars were whirled and tumbled about and smashed against, the girders. The water poured over the embankment, tore resistlessly at tbe earthwork and flooded the rails far back from the bridge. Fires were put out and the men driven to the higher ground The previous flood-stage flood-stage had been as a spring freshet to this one Four times its usual width and flowing three feet above the tracks on the bridge, the Crazy made its final assault upon the thing it hated Grim and awful was the struggle now in which the human allies of the bridge could only watch and wait It must make Its fight alone and the worn-out men slept wherever they dropped down on the rain soaked ground, sprawling grotesquely like the dead on a battle-field Against the fast-graying sky In the east Shelburn loomed large as he walled for an engine en-gine to be sent clown to bear him home The downpour had ceased and the wind was dyiug away. New fires blazed and smoked feebly because of v. ei fuel The Chief found his mus ties rigid and his jaw aching with his sympathetic tension at the strain he knew the bridge was enduring It was as though he beheld the agony of weariness of some vast dumb animate Thing. Relentlessly the swollen river hurled itself against the structure. Never a second's rest did It get as the swirling waters strove to overwhelm and rend beneath the yellow river. A tremen- B dous wave spread out over It and. as R& though In mockery, its edge lapped the ,BB boots of the man whom the water had Bj beaten. His head and shoulders bowed Egi beneath the bitterness of the blow. In Ev addition to his benumbing weariness iPf! there settled upon him like a leaden cloud the conviction that down under &L the flood lay part of his best work and fp of a still more priceless thing, his w reputation. Only an engineer can know in the fullest the heartslckness Eg of such a loss Instinctively the others raji drew back from him as though it wero Ifc Indecent to look boldly upon tho B? strong man's helplessness and defeat En The Crazy swept on through the t& great gap in the rails. The sun burst Kf! through the clouds and the crests of IffS the river hlll6 were touched with Wa glory, but Shelburn did not see. His H face was gray beneath the grime as H ho swung up Into the cab of McCul- mm lough's engine and the little engineer. k peering into it, knew how he would Kp look when he was old. Oliver said nothing there waa absolutely nothing jO to say and he reached for throttle re? and sand-rod Twice the Bteam had shot hissing out through the cylinder fi cocks when tho mud-covered, unkempt jSjj figure of the operator bore down on 8yV the engine, leaping the prostrate formB w'r of the weary sleepers as he ran "Mee- fV sage for Mr Shelburn'" he called as he grasped tho hand-hold on the H tender "Yes, I know," said the Chief dully as he took it. "The boy's dead He f. couldn't hae lived through the night. I knew that when I came." jfc. The telegrapher gave him a curious. f searching glance as he dropped of. "Better read it," he suggested. When Shelburn looked up from the paper be discovered that it was the U most beautiful day since the world i began For the first time he noticed that Oliver and his fireman were the Beyond, hi hy the lightning and the head!i(zhts on the engines, i were the vast dim lines of the bridge shaking the solid ground beneath it But In i hat moment's comparative calm Shelburn caught the significance of the run filed roaring "Whistle tho men off the bridge!" ne 10 the engineer of a passing locomotive, and. ns other engines joined in. a wild chorus of warning limb from limb this man-made creat-uro creat-uro that ventured lo oppose them Down beneath tbe surface there was a mighty trembling of truss and beam Like an artlller fusillade came the snapping of bolts and rod The iu-pet iu-pet st mcture parted from the piers, poised for a moment, and slid slowly handsomest men he had ever beheld and that tho big engiue's thunderous exhaust were singing exultantly. "Laddie "Lad-die !b safe. Lad-die 13 safe!" "God What a hideous nightmare it all was." he said to himself as they Bed homeward through the glorious freshness of that summer's morning |