OCR Text |
Show TALX 6 9 GOLD CAMP5 SANDERS THE VALIANT SANDERS! more than any one rise, felt the isolation of it With all it familiarity, there was a sense of great strangeness brooding ommously over the scene. The big null down in the hollow hol-low was there even as it was when he went away to the far east, but a year I before the same shaft-house reared its ungainly head above its footing of leveled lev-eled dump, the tramway stretched snakelike snake-like around the hills, and the blacksmith's black-smith's shop squatted out on the foreground fore-ground But everywhere there was silence. si-lence. A strike was on cruel, relentless-long relentless-long drawn and effective And Sanders' San-ders' heart was filled with a great pity and a great loneliness, for many of these men were his friends, and they were fighting the greatest man in the world, his hero, McCarthy the manager. man-ager. ft seemed preposterous that rhey should be at enmity with his ideal Why, McCarthy was every man s friend, if the man was only worth while. McCarthy Mc-Carthy had given him a stage in the older days, had nursed men who were sick, had looked after the welfare of ( tne wioowea. ann lmpoverisnea rumselt to asiist other? and, best of all, had married the Dream Lady. Sinders felt very moody, and over his freckled face there crept a glcom strangely at variance with the lines of i good humor that crinkled the corners of his eyes, and even swept up to the very roots of his red hair. From the manager's house in the rear there floated to him through the opened windows McCarthy s big, booming boom-ing voice, carrying a note of mingled stubbornness and sorrow "It's not our own old men that are at fault," the voice said, evidently ad-dre?sing ad-dre?sing the Dream Lady. It's these new men that have entered the district dis-trict men that have come from the foreign mines, and who are always rampant unionists They don't understand under-stand conditions, and have swept those who do off their feet and out of reason in their demands It wouldn't hurt so much if some of our old men, who used to be such good friends of mine, were not suffering." The speech ended in a long-drawn sigh, and the twittering of a bird in the tamaracks distracted Sanders' San-ders' attention ,fBut why are you so worried today?'' to-day?'' came the Dream Lady's voice, with an undertone ot insistence Sanders felt that McCarthy was trying try-ing to evade something, and waited impatiently im-patiently for the answer. It came after much hesitation. ' Well, I may as well tell you the truth, because you will know it all sooner or later. I received notice last tnght that the men, aggravated by our ability to keep the pumps going and the underground workjngs free from water, are going to re-sort to violence There are threats from the worst of them that they will dynamite the boiler-house " A sharp, low exclamation came from the Dream Lady within, and Sanders hurriedly jumped to his feet and ran into the house The mine manager eat with his hands tightly clenched, his gray-fringed head dropped forward, and his whole posture that of despondency His dark eyes blazed with resolution unspoken, and his set jaws told of another an-other side to the impending struggle Both Sanders and the Dream Lady read . f I -.--J nis purpose, ana unaciMwu. "Oh, Mack," pleaded the DTeam Lady, dropping to her knees by his side, "you aren't going to stay here and tight them, are you? The mine isn't worth your life. You are mine You belong to me. and to Sanders " , Sanders felt that he had been ap pealed to by the Dream Lady, but for once was without an answer. "I'm going to send you and Sanders away " said McCarthy, without looking up Sanders rose in open rebellion "You can send her if you want to," he said. "We don't want her to get hurt. Rut you can't send me I'm goin' to stick You always stuck by me. and I always stuck by you. And we ain't goin' to be Unstuck now." he concluded sharply McCarthy felt that he was receiving tbe last straw when such opposition came from within his own household. He pleaded with them, tried to show that they might be in danger, besought them to go, because he would worry over their safety and finally commanded. As a compromise, he allowed them two days' respite, telling them that he ' feared no attack until at least one more attempt at conciliation had failed Then, to avoid further discussion if what he conrdered a final solution, he put on his hat, aimlessly picked up a rubber coal, and strode out across the porch, and down the pathway to the itflt plant. Sanders patted the Dream Lady affectionately af-fectionately cn the shoulder, and put his arms around her neck, in the vain hope of comforting her She drew him to her until the shock of red hair uas pillowed on her breast, and then broke into qui ering sobs The boy, with wisdom far beyond his years, silently slipped through the door and out on the hillside, and left her to the efficacy of tears. He remembered re-membered with vividness the few times that he had indulged in such a luxury. Hi? life up to a year ago had been too hard. Down below him in the canyon can-yon stretched the road whereon he had driven a stage and fought his own way in man's fashion ; across the gulch was a decaying cabin, to which his father years before had been brought, mortally mort-ally injured; in that cabin his brother had died, and from its doors they had carried the body of his mother And now, after a year in the East under the care of his forter-mother, he had come back joously to the hills his hills to find nothing but trouble. It wasn't that he minded it in his own behalf, but because be-cause tile Dream Lady, as he called her, was in grief, and because the grim quiet mine manager, her husband, was in danger With the restlessness of Ins age he decided to take the trail along the top of the hill, and come down to the American mine He swung silently, with the free step of the born mountaineer, up the mountain's side, out along the ridge, and down across the crest. From the point where he paused on the top he looked back on the silent camp, with its row of untenanted cabins cab-ins and assay offices, empty bunkhouses and staring boarding shacks, idle mills and unanimated rows of ore-cars. A voice from below him arrested his attention at-tention It was an excited one raised almost to a shout. Sanders felt the necessity of further knowledge and the imperative need of stealth. He slipped off his shoes, took to the brush, and crept or wriggled toward to-ward the sound. His way led him over small, open spaces, or through tangles of undergrowth, until he came sheer out upon an abrupt ledge that towered up to a broken ending, where its hardness had defied nature's erosion, and left it standing stand-ing solitary", like a little cliff on the mountain face. With care, that no loose rock should be sent flying down as a warning to those below, he stretched himself on his stomach, and cautiously worked out to the edge. Below him, in various attitudes, were grouped a number of the striking miners, min-ers, resting in the warmth of the sun, and in earnest argument. Sanders noticed no-ticed with joy that nearly all were familiar, fa-miliar, and knew them for what McCarthy Mc-Carthy had once been wont to call "The Old Guard" "I'm sick of this," said the speaker, a former shift-boss "They always treated me right at the mine, and there was never any row until this bunch of Pcnnsylvanians came in here. And why did they come? Because their own unions had fortfeitcd their charters, and run them out for the trouble-makers they are." "Yes, but why did Mack put them onv' insisted another oicc, that had evidently been the speaker in a previous dneussion. "Because he needed miners, and had to take what he could get." sharply answered the former shift-boss ' Then why didn't vou kick the harder before we all went on strike, if you knew all this'" sneered the objector. "I did, but you were one of the soreheads sore-heads that wanted a fight, and I had to ?hut up." "Yes," said another. "You wanted a fight, and you got it. I guess." "Here, here!1 interrupted a gray-bearded gray-bearded man, seated at the side. "We all make mistakes, and some are right and some are wrong. The question is, did we old hands join thete fellows with the idea that if wc were shut out there would be powder used to kick to pieces the plant we helped make' Are we going to stand for it? As man to man, did the boss ever fight us but fair5 Ain't there fifty of us that wants to drop the whele fight, go to Mack as men, and say we done wrong; take our medicine and come back'" A rumbling of assent swept over the crowd "But we've got to act quick." continued con-tinued the elder man "There's a committee com-mittee of a hundred going up there today, to-day, and unless Mack gives in which we all know he won't do they will blow her up to-night." "Good God !" came from Sanders' dry throat Even now they might be there at the mine. A hundred against three. Even now they were perhaps on their way to try to terrorize the man slio was more than father to him In an agony of careful haste the boy wormed his way br.ck across the face of the bridge, out into the undergrowth and up the hillside, and broke into a wild run Heedless of the thorns that tore him, of the sharp stones that cut his fret, or the ruggedness of the mountainside, mountain-side, he fled fled back to give warning Reads of perspiration cut rivulets down his dust-grimed face, and his heart struck his ribs as though battering at his citadel. HTs breath came in gasps, and when he pmscd to scale a ledge, his knees fluttered strangely But no sob came to the grim little lips, no tears welled to the shrewd little eyes, and no thought of fear lurked in his hard-driven heart Breaking through a thicket at the top, he came in sight of the shaft and boiler-houses boiler-houses He groaned in agony of disappointment. disap-pointment. They had beat him up while he had listened to the talk of the peaceful peace-ful element back there under the rocks Down below in the yard, or level place, between the shaft-houses and the shops, was what looked like an army of men The place was black with them. With his bark against the sha it-house, it-house, stood the manager, his creat, stocky form planted squarely on widespread wide-spread feet, his unarmed har.rls hanging loosely by his sides, and h:s whole attitude at-titude that of unwavering determination He was cvidentK addressing the men, because at something he said, Sanders Scurrilous epithets were being shouted by the strikers McCarthy took no heed, but stood as calmly as before. A harsh, insulting voice from the rear of the crowd shouted something in which the name of the manager's wife was coupled The leash on the big man's temper was breaking He had stood all he would stand There was a time to end all things, and even kindness no longer played a part in this game. "Stop!" he shouted, his face crimson crim-son with the rush of emotion, and his hitherto unclenched band thrown into the air with a gesture eloquent of command. com-mand. . The older habit of obedience and the lurking respect tor the man in his position po-sition compelled them to listen. His voice was deadly quiet nnw, and pitched in a tone of tensity that betokened be-tokened the strain under which he was laborine;. Those of the mob who would have jeered were hushed by their feT-lows feT-lows The manager waited until the silence was so complete that the chug-chug chug-chug of the pumping machinery came through the boardings ' This is no longer a strike," he said quietly, "it's a lockout." This mine has never opposed a union It has never tried to import non-union labor. It never had trouble with its own men until you fellows came here from the East In all the 'months it has been tied up, it has tried to recover peace. Its old men are honest and want to work as honest men. But you you dirty crowd of coal-heavers!" His con- took it automatically, and stood in a i crouching attitude, waiting for the attack. Glover appeared at the opcnjng "Get back," the manager commanded. "Stick to the pump? It's me they want. The pumps the pumps for God's sake keep them going. Stick to the pumps!'' Suddenly, and as if by agreement, a shower of stones and broken pieces of ore came hurtling through the air. They rang spitefully against the wooden wood-en stdes of the shaft-house and tram, and rolled from the slanting roofs with rumbling notes. McCarthy was down and out A rock had struck him full on the forehead, fore-head, its jagged corners laying open his scalp and felling him. Sanders, disobedient at last, could stand no more He broke through the opening, his lithe form bounding into the open and halting in front of the fallen man He stood over him, trying try-ing with his little body to protect the great bulk beneath In desperation he shrieked to the strikers to stop, to wait, to do anything but throw more A few more scattering rocks fell near hira, but none struck the mark. The mob, robbed for an intant of its prey, hesitated to stone to death a mere boy There was something so fearless and yet so appealing in his 3ttitudc that it cried pause. Sanders, in the fury of rage, the blood of fighting Irish ancestors coursing cours-ing hotly in his veins, harangued them saw the crowd break into hoarse shouts and wild gesticulation .McCarthy stood unmoved and apparently was talking to them again. Sanders waited to sec or hear no more. He ran unobserved down to the long tramway and entered it through a place where a board was loose at the bottom With glowing eyes he raced through the scmi-rlarkncss toward the shaft-house As he dashed through the shatt-housc he saw Glover, the loyal, standing calmly calm-ly by the side of the dark opening with a rifle in his hand. He scarcely saw John, the grim old engineer, who was carefully, but with haste, loading a long-barreled long-barreled and blackened Colt's. Here wrrc those who would make any attack a hi m nl; i me Outside. thcv noise of shouting and of wild voices came to him stronger. The excitement seemed to be growing with frightful rapidity. He would have plunged through an opening near Mack, if the latter had not observed him and said hastily and with emphasis: "Sanders "San-ders get back in there quick." He hesitated hesi-tated to obey, and the big man said quietly. "You have never refused to obey me yet Get back, I tell you. and stay there This is no place for you." WAITING FOR THE ATTACK. troj, so long held, was going. The thought of that last insult rankled and burned His face became livid with passion. His dark eyes blazed, and when he resumed both lists were clenched and shaking at them "You are a pack that was practically scabbed in your own co'itry, couldn't get work of any kind W re, and I knew it I disliked your brand from the start, and you never were more than half-miners. You didn't know ore from muck. And, worst of all, you arc a pack of cowards Now now you are locked out !" All previous outbursts were outdone by the frenzy that followed his speech. The crowd, which had stood still r writhed beneath the denunciations he had hurled, burst into curses, jeers, or threats The raucous voice from the rear made itself herd above the din in loud shoutings for a rope. "Hang him!" it cried. "Hang him!" As waves tossed by a typhoon, the mob surged and billowed to and fro. The manager seemed to grow more compact, and a deadly light shone in his eyes. A board bchtnd him burst outward, and the gaunt, gray face of the engineer was thrust through, and after it came a hand which tendered McCarthy the- weapon The manager even as they commanded him to step aside or run away. "You low-dow n pups," he shouted ; "there isn't a one of you that would dare tackle him alone. No, nor any two of ou You were afraid. You knew he would lick you. Yuu had to come in a bunch in order to keep your nerve up. There's half of you that never were treated as white as he did, and there's one or two of you out there that owe more than that to him That's right, Bill Burton," he shouted to one who was stepping from his view "I'd sneak, too, if I were you When your wife was dying, before you took to booze, he made you a pre.-cnt of money enough to tide you over And you, too, Leopold," he jeered another, "you ought to throw rocks because when there wasn't a hole in the Blue Mountains Moun-tains would have you, he gave you work." Behind his sturdy little form, as he talked, McCarthy had risen to a sitting sit-ting position and consciousness was returning. re-turning. He weaved to and fro with dizziness, but was wiping the blood from his eyes. It was all coming rapidly rap-idly back. He must get Sanders away from there They would hurt him He started to rise to his feet. The crowd, hushed for the minute by the tempest of Sander's speech, was again violent. They wanted to wait no longer. They were blood-hungry and tired of delay. There was but one man in the mob brutal enough to strike down a boy. Swift as a bullet and as sure of aim came a stone, striking Sanders a glancing glanc-ing Wow on the head. Like an animal stricken to death, his legs crumpled beneath be-neath him, his arms stretched widely out, his head flew backward, and he fell inert on the body of the man he had tried so valiantly to protect. The crowd, halted by the apparent tragedy, was awed. Those who had boys of their own, or who remembered little Sanders as the stage-driver, were shocked to heart and ashamed. The mnb-fever was passing, and in its stead stood shame shame that Sanders, San-ders, one of their own people, after all, was lying there, white and limp and lifeless McCarthy, sobbing with great dry shakings, had gained his knees and was stooping CAcr the boy. The sense of a great bereavement swept over him, and the wave of tenderness that had made him forget the mob was unbearable With white face, stained and streaked with blood from his wound, he turned slowly toward the crowd as would a wounded lion, and in bis eye9 there smoldered a glow of unfathomable misery. He looked out on them, as if realizing realiz-ing for the first time the full force of i,., r.t t,, rs..--A ,.i,; crowd somewhere was the man who had struck down Sanders. Even as they watched him. they saw his expression expres-sion change to one of such malevolent hatred, such demoniacal hungering for revenge, that they shuddered. They saw his jaws come together convulsively, convul-sively, and saw him gather the limp little form into his arms and rise to his feet. Sanders' head dropped back, as did his arms, across the manager's hold, and his legs swung lifelessly. McCarthy, bearing his burden lightly, was transformed. With one bound he sw cpt out into the crowd, with the lurid light of murder shooting from beneath his shaggy, down-drawn brow, his hair disheveled, the blood dripping drip-ping unheeded from his wound, a picture pic-ture of berserker rage. He had but one wish, mad and overpowering, and that was to kill They parted before him as he went, giving alwass a free way And tp and fro through the mob he surged wildly, fiercely, deadly, demanding to be shown the man who had thrown the last rock From the rear came the voice of the engineer, who did not understand Sanders' San-ders' fall or the situation "Are you going to leae the shaft-house, McCarthy?" Mc-Carthy?" There was no instant's hesitation in his reply "To hell with the shaft-house and the mine' I'm going to find the man that did this, and kill him! By God, I'll kill hjm!" he roared, as he went his way. As he charged through the awed and terror-stricken mob and out past the concealing corner of the blacksmith shop in his futile search of hate, he came into view of his home on the hillside. The agonized scream of a woman rent the air and attracted his attention. atten-tion. His wife had seen him at last, and had seen in his arms the little figure. Suddenly, and in view of all those who looked up from below, she tottered and fell her length on the veranda McCarthy paused in his march, then turned and gazed at those around him J ,Utm,mm Thr furious blaze gtLZC'J Ull5ta.nm(,j. - died out of his eyes and sanity returned, leaving stamped on his face a look of bitter, uncompromising sorrow and accusation accu-sation Steadily, and with no backward look at either the mob he had fought or the plant he had protected, he strode up the hillside. As they stood silent and abashed, as though rooted to the spot, they saw him disappear into the darkness dark-ness of the doorway saw him return, and. still without looking in their direction, di-rection, gather tenderly in bus arms the unconscious form of his wife. Then, as if to shut them out from sanctity, the door closed, white and unblinking in the sunlight; and they, shame-stricken, without word of mouth or thought of further violence, and as if directed by one impulse, went slowly down the road. When night came the moon gleamed whitedly down through the tamaracks and pines and made of the silent, ungainly un-gainly buildings castles of rare design. There was a knock at the cabin on the hill, the door was thrown widely" open, and the giant form of the manager man-ager was outlined within it, as though framed in silhouette. Without speech or salutation he confronted the score of men below. From where they stood they could see, in the light shining within the room, a cot on which lay a little ban- daged figure, around which there mcrved soliatiously a woman and a bearded man whom they recognized as the camp surgeon. They stood nervously twisting their hats in their hands, as if bereft of speech There was something of loneliness lone-liness and accusation in that silent, immovable im-movable bulk in the doorway, planted there as though indifferent to fear or favor. The gray-haired spokesman, after th quietude had seemed prolonged into ages, wetted his parched lips and said: "We've come, sir, to find out how Sanders San-ders is?" The man in the doorway answered softly: "The doctor says he will live, thank God!" And it was a prayer he gave, of untold thankfulness, which found an echo in the hearts of the men before him. He said no more, j evidently believing that speech was useless use-less and the world contained nothing further to talk about The men shifted from one foot to the other in speechless embarrassment, and then, as having relieved their minds, turned to go The sombre figure still stood motionless in the doorway. "Oh, by the way," said the gray-haired gray-haired spokesman, as if remembering something which had escaped his mem-cry, mem-cry, "we, as a committee from all the miners, come to tell you that the strike was unanimously declared off to-night" And so they left him, standing colossal colos-sal and silent, in the doorway of his home Copyright. 1912. Cevtvry Syndicate, A FEW DELIBERATE CIRCULA-TIONS. CIRCULA-TIONS. "Honestly, darling, you are the only girl I ever loved." ! "Oh, Algernon, you are the first ' man that ever kissed me!" "Darling, when we are married you hall never soil your dainty hands." j i "Your honor, I haven't taken a , drink for more than a month, not a drink." "My dear Mrs, Frumps, what a be- coming hat. Surely I think so. You 9 never looked better." I laai "Are you fond of Kipling, Mrs. Bride?" "The ideal I am fond of no one except my own Charlie " No, Mr. Kollector, Mr. Sloepay is not here. He ha gone to Palm Beach for the remainder of the winter. "I shay, ol' man, you sheem beside yourself, wh's trouble'" "Nothing at all, Mr. McTanke, you are merely seeing see-ing double " "And if I am elected, fellow citizens, citi-zens, I pledge myself to work only for your interests, regardless of the temptations from corporations and i political party rings." 'This make of automobile, sir, cannot can-not possible break down. It is abso- J lutely the best car ever manufactured J and never gives out in any part" I I "So good of you to call, Mr. Bore. I Really, I hate to have you go now, it is only 1 o clock. Please call soon, your calls give me so much pleasure." "Honestly, old man, Id like to help you out, but I haven't enough com about me to buy a lunch If I had it I'd be more than glad to let you have it." "You poor tramp, I am sure you were not always like this." "Not always al-ways like this? I should say not. madam There was a time when I wouldn't feed my dog such pic ay this!" "Miss Tootsie MacKicke, the world-famous world-famous danseuse, is heartbroken over the theft of her $12,000 diamond uara and her $65,000 diamond necklace. The police have no clue to the robbers." rob-bers." "Who arc all those distinguished looking waiters, landlord?" They are college freshmen " "And who is that head waiter'" Oh, he's a college graduate." "Ah. I see, taking a post graduate course " "Dear me, that horrid clerk gave me threes and I always wear twos and a half. These shoes are so loose they hurt me. I could wear a two, but I wouldn't, because they might pinch and I never allow a shoe to pinch my I "If I were you, I'd be singing instead in-stead of looking like one of Tom Powers' 'glooms.' " "Why would you?" "Why, didn't you get your pay raied?" "Yes, I did. but mighty little j good that wMl do me My wife found out about it the first week." H I I |