Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1917 — Page 2

WEB of STEEL

by CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

"AUTHOR »/ "THE CHALICE Of COURAGE” "THE LSLAND Of Rt<£HLMTK>n;' ETC, — XHD —~ CYRUS TOWNSEND DRADY JR

BERTRAM MEADE FACES ANOTHER GREAT CRISIS AND APPARENTLY DESERTS HIS SUPERIOR AT THE CRITICAL PERIOD

-’ Following the collapse of an International bridge which his father, a noted engineer, had planned, and the old tnan s sudden death from disgrace and shock, Bertram Meade takes the blame for the disaster which cost many, lives and disappears from his home in New York, —He goes so -the- sotHhw-eM, gets a job-under name of Roberts on an irrigation dam project and makes good. Meanwhile. Helen Illingworth, Meade's sweetheart, and Rodney, an old friend, are quietly working to clear the young man’s name and learn his whereabouts. They are particularly anxious to get hold of a letter written by the elder Meade to assume responsibility for the accident. This paper is secretly held by Shurtliff, who had. been the old man’s devoted private secretary for many years. This installment opens with the threat of disaster to the dam through flood Ing by cloudburst.

CHAPTER XlV.—Continued. The lantern was® standing on the roadway on top of the dam. A man was kneeling beyond it. his figure seen dimly in the faint light of the lantern. He was staring intently dotfn the front of the dam at the water. The lantern was near the edge and it faintly Illuminated the black, rain-lashed surface below. Vandeventer realized with a shock of horror* how much more rapid the rise had been. A quick estimate convinced him that the level of was now within eight or nine feet of the dam —and It was still raining! The face of the kneeling man was hidden by a sou’wester ‘and he had on a heavy black rubber raincoat. Vandeventer reached over and touched him on the shoulder. “What are you doing here?” he asked. The kneeling man sprang up with an exclamation. It was Meade. The relief in Vandeventer’s mind was great at the i - “I just came out to look -at the water. I couldn’t sleep with all that pounding on the iron roof of the quarters, so I dressed and came out.” Vandeventer opened the slide of his own lan'f ern and threw tlie light on the" reservoir. “It’s risen eight or ten feet since we saw it, and with this rain—” “It’s not coming down so hard as it was when I first came out here,” said Meade. “I think you can see it. slackening yourself.” listening a moment, “I believe it is. If it stops now,” he continued thoughtfully, “we ought to be safe.” “Yes, I think so,” answered Meade. In the night alone, together in that crisis in their fortunes, the two men were interchanging thoughts and ideas on terms of perfect equality. It did not occur to Vandeventer to question why, and that they were doing so aroused no surprise in the mind of Meade. "Of course.” continued Meade, “even if jt does stop, raining to get a lot of runoff from the watershed for some time.” “Yes." said the resident engineer, “that of course, but if the rain stops ever y Where we can scarcely have flrise of more than five or six feet, and that would still be a little below the spillway.” “It’s stopping here now.” pointed out Meade, and, indeed, the force of the downpour was greatly diminished. The two stood watching the dam and the black lake beyond it in silence for a few moments until the rain practically ceased. The air was misty and heavy with moisture, but the rain was certainly over for the time at any rate. “Thank goodness,” said the resident engineer in greatrelief .__“Now if it’s shopped everywhere we’ll be all right.” “Yes," said Meade, “and Um inclined to think it has stopped everywhere. Whoever thought it Would rain in January here? There hasn’t a drop, to speak of, fallen in January for twenty years, or since there have been any records; Why in heaven-s name it had to come now I don't see.” . “Look here, Roberts.” said Vandeventer suddenly, “you know you're a Meade shook hishaad. “You can’t fool me,” said the older man. “I’ve watched you. YOU know inofe aboutthe game than anybody here except myself. You don’t choose to confide in me, although I like you, and I am in a position to help you.” “I appreciate what you say, Mr. Vandeventer,” returned the other ; “there is no one to whom I should rather tell the whole story than to you, but I can’t—not yet.” “Well, keep your own counsel, but if you ever want a friend, count on me; meanwhile, as a mgn of experience and ability, what would you do?” "Gf>t out the a temporary dam on the top of the roadway here, to turn the flow over to the east bank and make the spillway do more work.” \ . “But the rain has stopped.” “And in all probability will stay •topped—still you never can tell. A. few more hours of rain like that we’ve had and Hie whole thing would go. If-

CIVIL ENCIfIEER. CCFYRK.rfr BY ranutc H. RCVtLL COMPANY

the water were as high as the top there’d only be two feet of head in the uncompleted spillway, and that wouldn’t be enough to discharge it at the rate it’s been coming in.” “‘Of course,” said Vandeventer thoughtfully. “And if the dam goes,” he added, “there are ten miles of back water up there and millions of cubic yards impounded, which would sweep down the valley. There wouldn’t be a thing left of the camp, the town, the new railroad bridge, or anything else.” “Coming on top of the International, the loss of this big and expensive viaduct would about finish the Martlet company,” said Meade thoughtlessly. Vandeventer looked at An idea suddenly came to him. Meade had turned away his head as he realized his slip, so he did not observe the light in Vandeventer's eyes. However, the resident engineer was a good sort. “You are right,” he said quickly. “I hate to call out the men, but we’ve got a little chance, now the rain has stopped, and we can work to advantage in spite of all ed his foot up and disclosed It caked and clogged with masses. “I'll take charge in the center here, and Stafford on the left, and I’m going to give you charge bf the east end of the dam, over by the spillway. If only those driHs had been here six w eeks ago.” “We might set the men to work on that rock now, ’’ said Meade. “It would be useless. There’s too much of it. No, if we're going to save the dam, we’ve got to build it up and try to keep ahead of the waters if they rise an_y_more.—The higher we can build it the greater will be the head on the spillway, and the more will be discharged. I’ll turn the men out at once.” “But what are you going to do?” “I’m going to palisade the top of the dam. There's plenty of timber already cut down, and we will cut a lot of young pines and build a palisade wall of timber across the top three or four feet back from the edge. Well banked on the downstream side, it may hold.” —“lt might beworth while to line that palisade with galvanized iron sheets from the houses.” said Meade. “A good idea,” said Vandeventer, "and we’ll pile what underbrush and small stuff we have in front of the palisade and heap- what rocks we cam find on top of that, and we’ll bank it up on the other sidShvith earth. It’s a poor dependence, but it will hold for a while anyway, and every moment of time may be precious.” “How about sandbags, sir?” “We’ve got a few hundred cement bags, but not enough. I wish we had a few thousand; however, we will fill what we have, and if the water rises and begins to trickle over the top and through the palisade, we’ll jam those down “at the“danger points. Can you suggest anything more?” “Nothing.” “Good. We’ll turn out the men. They’ve had six hours’ sleep anyway.”

CHAPTER XV. v The Battle. It waß flow three o’clock In the morning. In about half an hour the men, naturally grumbling and protesting at being deprived of any of their sleep, were -out and at work. Lanterns were lighted everywhere. The rain had fortunately not resumed, and the air was soon filled with noise and confusioii. Men wtth axes were busy on the hillside cutting the young pines. Horses were hitched to the dump wag : ons. the steam shovel began tearing away the hillside. Some of the men were detailed to knock down some of the galvanized iron houses and the battering of the hammers on the metal added to the din. Under Vandeventer’s personal direction a row of stakes was driven into the top of the dam about three feet from the front ofeit. Big sheets of overlapping galvanized iron were nailed roughly to the fronts of the firmly bedded stakes and the small branches and brushwood were thrown down before It. Bowlders and big stones were carried out on |he dam in the wagons and thrown down on the brushwood; sjjare timbers, broken wagon beds, old wheels, joists of dismembered houses were driven into the

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

earth to serve as braces behind the juilisade; a bank of earth was piled up behind it, on which every man who could be spared from other tasks, even the chiefs themselves, labored with breathless energy. The water was still rising, although the rain had stopped; the natural drainage would cause that, but the rise was slower. At dawn Vandeventer personally carefully measured the dbpth of the water and gauged it again. It was a scant six and a half feet below the top of the dam. If the top it was .gravely questionable whether the palisade would hold It at all. yet there was no other -way of increasing the depth of ,lhe spillway enough to discharge the flood volume. Working as hard as they could, they had barely succeeded in raising the earth bank back of it a* foot high. They kept at it unremittingly, although it did pot seem to be of much use. Vandeventer, Stafford and Meade gathered together and scanned the sky, seeking to discern the signs of the time, the purpose of the heavens. It was clearer in the east. The clouds to the northwestward were in violent action apparently. Lightning flashed through them and over ffie great rarfge itself ; low, muttered peals of thunder came down from the peaks lost to sight in the blackness overhead. They observed all this carefully and Vandeventer turned away, shaking his head. “I don’t know,” he began—-the three of them were over -on the east side the better to see up the valley "it looks pretty bad, doesn’t it?” “It does,” answered Meade, while Stafford nodded his head. “And. by the way, Stafford, have you notified the town and the bridge people of the danger and bid them prepare for it?” “I tried to telephone them a while ago, but the connection has been broken ; the storm has played havoc with the line probably,” answered the assistant engineer.

“Well, what did you do then?” asked Vandeventer a little impatiently. “I sent a man down on horseback In a hurry to warn them that if it rains again the dam might go, and if it did it would’go with a rush; that the water was now only six feet below the level, and that they had better get up on the hills. Of course, last night’s rain must have made the road almost impassable, but he ought fix 'get there By nine o’clock. I told him to tell the Martlet people to take whatever steps they could devise to hold their viaduct and their machinery,” answered Stafford, as he turned and walked toward his own part of the dam. “Good,” exclaimed Vandeventer. ."There’s nothing left for us to do but keep on.” The resident engineer looked white and haggard. Although it was cold and raw in the wet air, he wiped the sweaF from his forehead. “The men are doing sir,”

“Yes,” said Vandeventer, “many of them have their wives and children back in the town. Some of the Italians have bought land on the prairie and are going to settle here. They’re fighting for everything they’ve got on earth. What do you think of the chances of this palisade of ours?” Mea<|e shook -his head. “It’s all we can do, sir, but if the water rises more than seven or eight feet— 4 “Say it,” said Vandeventer. "Thd dam would go like a house of cards.’*! “Exactly. And look at that cloudbank over there in the northwest. It’s spreading.” “What wind there is,” said Meade, moistening his finger^jmd up to feel the djrdction, "is blowing flTe~opposrte~way down here, but you can't tell what is happening up there. Well. all.we can do is to fight on.” . And fight they di<L— lfwas almost at first sight like the hand of man'against the hand of God. There was no more room for engineering expedient. It was chop and hew, break and pound,

A Man Was Kneeling Beyond It.

dig ami drive, carry and pile. Throwing off his coat, Vandeventer seized a spade and began to work like any other laborer, and the rest of the: higher men followed his example. - At six o’cldckjhebjaekness hanging in the northwest began to turn their way. It was coming down the mountain. It was headed for the valley. Vandeventer saw it, every teamster, every common laborer saw It. It was coming. Unless heaven itself interfered there would be more rain. They had worked desperately before, but .now they applied themselves to their itasks with a kind of wild fury. 4-

sort of insanity took possession of them. They would not be beaten. They cried, at first shrilly and then hoarsely and raucously, encouraging words, and phrases from one to another; in words vivid, profane, desperate. They stood there and they heaved and dug and piled and hammered and hurled and drove fiercely. It was a battle madnessAhat came into them. They saw red like the berserker of old. Yes, it was not unlike a battle in other ways, for. with the rnsh of thenorthwest storm came roaring mighty thunder and vivid and terrifying lightning. It was as if great darts of light literally were hurled by some gigantic hand be-

-And Shook His Fist at the Sky.

hind the black screen of sweeping Cloud down upon the granite mountains. They saw splinters of fire where the thunderbolts struck. The pealing of thunder was appalling. Their frail palisade backing was not half completed. It must be raining somewhere, for the water was stilL slowly rising. It was five and a half feet now from the crest. It was hopeless if another rain fell, and the rain was coming. Then* was an added chill in the still air of the valley as the storm drove down upon them. A few of the fainter hearts flung down pick and shovel and ax and stood craven. Oaths, curses, blows even, from those of the braver sort shamed them lnto work again. These brave hearts and true might be swept away with the dam if it gave wayj but they, would not give up, and no man working with them should flee his task or shirk his duty. By the living God, whose sport and plaything they seemed to be; they swore it; and so weak and strong, bold and timid labored on—desperate, resolved, godlike in their courage and persistence. The clouds were moving swiftly now.- To the east it had been clear, but now it was also black, and then with a roar greater even than a thousand-thunderclaps, thewind tore down the mountains, through the narrow canyons, into the valleys, shrieking in the pines, and fell upon them and hurled them down and brushed them back. And after the wind, the rain. A drop or two struck Vandeventer’s cheek; another, another, and then the flood. He lifted his head and stared and shook his fist at the« sky and turned to the human termites he commanded.

“Carry on, carry on, boys,” he cried, shrieking to be heard above the thunder peals, “we’ll beat it yet.” ' about him and was caught up and ran along the top of the great dam. The half-maniacal yell was such a cry as men might give; vent to in the heat of battle, the exeitenient dFwncr charge, and then they fell to If again. The more ignorant, unaware of the feebleness of the palisade, the more knowing indifferent to it, seeing only the job, alike realized only to fight on, to answer the appeal to their manhood, to refuse to admit defeat even when life trembled in the balance. <4 Yes, to use the ancient simile again, the fountains of the great deep were broken open, What had befallen them before was nothing to this. The hard ra i n of the night seemed trifling compared to this avalanche of water. This was a cloudburst indeed. And to make it worse, to- make their task harder, to render their efforts useless, i the high wind roaring down the valley piled the water up and drove it in thunderous assaulting waves against the great mound of earth on which tluv men struggled and.lubbred frantically. Wandeventer, shovel in hand —he did not dare to throw It down, lest his action be misconstrued —went from gang to gang, from man to man, talking to them, appealing to them, pointing out weaknesses here and there, inspiring them, holding thein up as a man might hold a stricken line against the on-: slaugbt of a victorious and overwhelming force. And against wind<and rain in that thick darkness, blinded by the fl ashing 11 gh tqi ng, sturmed by life pea 1ing thunder, * with zeal superhuman they toiled on and on and on. " Back and forth went the chief, showing himself a leader of leaders, and wherever lie stopped the fury and desperation of the effort to stem the tide increased. When he came plodding along the muddy roadway so the part committed to Meade he did not find the engineer. “Where’s Roberts?” he yelled above the noise of the storm. “He and two m*n have gone, sir.” “Gone?” cried Vandeventer, cut to the heart at what he thought was a desertion. “Well,” he shouted, realizing there was nothing he could do-then and that he bad neither breath nor

time to waste, “there’s more need for the rest of us to take their places." He drew a man or two from the other gangs to re-enforce this danger point and himself directed their work. Now it takes time for water to rise, five feet, even in a cloudburst or a succession of them. The rain constantly seemed to increase as the wind drove It on. Vandeventer knew that the dam was doomed, that the sluice finished spillway coin ~ billed could discharge only a small part of the flow, but he knew that he would have two hours at least to work before the water could pass the crest, undermine, and batter down the pallside and begin to trickle over. Just as soon as It did roll over the top, unless they could stop it, the whole thing was gone. For those two hours the supermen labored unremittingly in downpour with a persistent and heroic courage that should have been recorded in song and story but- which was not. It was remembered after a while by none save a few. To the many it was only “all in the day’s work !” ■ ■ ■ —■ The unaersiuice in the side of the dam which would later serve as headgate for the canal had been intended to pass the smaller floods which might occur during the construction and had been open since the rain began. It carried off a great volume of water, but hopelessly little in comparison with the flood. Foot by foot in the torrential downpour the water rose. At half after eight it reached the level of the spillway and commenced to rush through in ever-increasing volume, but the flow into the reservoir was far greater than the spillway’s capacity. Still the sight of the rushing water encouraged the men. Every one of them felt that if the palisade held the discharge would be increased enough to stop the rise, but at present the effect was small. By nine o’clock it was within a foot of the top. They began to measure its rise by inches. Although the dam had been carefully kept level as it was built, the .trample of horses and men, the present digging and palisading and revetting had caused little depressions. New the water rose to the level. Here and there it began to trickle over! The rain coming down from tho mountain tops was as cold as ice, yet the men Were in a fever of excitement. They had got their second wind. They were too enthused, too desperate, to feel their weariness. They had not worked before as they did then. It was the last possible nervous outburst with most of them. They could keep it up a little longer—till they dropped dead. As the mad thoroughbred f alia in his stride on the track, pushed beyond his power of endurance, as even the common carthorse can be made to go until he drops, so these men, white, haggard, nervous, drawn-faced, sweat mingling with the rain on their sodden bodies, would go till they broke. They had not quite reached that point yet. There were some five hundred heavy cement bags which had been filled with sand and piled up on the roadway at convenient points; —Asw forlorn hope, as a last try, Vandeventer called all the diggers and ditchers, and hewers and drivers, and bade them tackle the sandbags. The timber wall that rose to four or five feet was now packed to a height of three with an unequal wall of .earth.

The waves were beginning to roll against the rampart, although their force as yet was broken by the brushwood. Vandeventer jumped up on the palisade near the center. There were some large logs there where he could stand x .jaja<l-~-wheßee-—he —eould get as "Chefrr a view of the whole top of the dam as was possible through the driving rain. —inhere,” shouted the engineer, pointing to a red trickle —it seemed to him HKe blood, taking its Iflileous hue from the red clay of the banks —where the water had found a low spot and was washing across the top and trickling through the new wall and down on the other side. Even as he pointed, the trickle became a stream and the stream bade fair to be a flood. Men ran and dropped sandbags over in front of the palisade, right where the leak had occurred. Other men heaped up the earth behind the wall, seeking to smother it and stop it. The water cheeked there, they were forced to do the same thing at another place. Desperately they dropped their sandbags, sturdily they plied their shovels in the mud; scrambling and yelling, they ran from leak to leak. They lifted the heavy bags of sand as if they had been loaves of bread arid jammed them dowu. They swung pick and

shovel like toys, although the rain iflade all the earth sticky mud and the work till the harder. The water was clear over the top of the dam now, and streaming through the revetment’ of brush and surging against the palisade. Where it did not let the water through, the line of stifkes was beginning to bend backward. The' men who had expended their sandbags and'could get no more, in one final effort ran to the palisade, dug their heels madly in the wet, slimy earth and put their shoulders against the bending stakes as if to hold them up by main strength. Thin streams were flowing here and there, now unheeded. Checked and held in one spot, the water broke through at another. The spillway could not control the .rise. “She’s gone, *he’s gone!” gasped Vandeventer under his breath. He had fought a good fight. He could do flo more. There were no more bags of sand. Save for the men 'straining at the wall here and there and everywhere, there was left nothing but to stand and wait, having done all. As one man saw another the whole hundred and fifty caught the contagion

r ' and threw themselves aga'nst the palisade,’ wet and chilled from the rajn, but yet madly, recklessly, Americans and foreigners alike. They would hold it by main strength for another minute, they sw’ore. oblivious to the fact that just as soon as it went it would go with, a rush. The stockade would be swept away first, and they would go with it. What of that? The men. back of it matched their ”WFny”afffir’agHnst'rain”ana : wind, the powers of man againstthe powers of God, but not mockingly. It is perhaps doubtful if they realized what they did. It was instinct, habit, blind desperation, now. If the flimsy wall failed under the terrifle water pressure, they would be hurled beneath it, swept down the slope of the dam, buried in the debris as it was swept away; caught up if they by any chance survived so far, and hurled, broken and battered, down the valley in the terrible flood that would ensue. What did they know about that v or knowing, what did they care, as they strained at the wavering timber wall? And still they held as the rain poured down on them, soaking through their soggy clothes, the colder on their exhausted bodies for the keen wind that blew across them. Well, they had done everything they could. Vandeventer jumped down and pressed himself against the nearest timber with the men and waited, silent. He had never sustained such a pressure in all his life. Like Atlas, he felt as if he were holding up a world. And the mocking thing about it all was his feeling, nay his realization, that he was not really holding anything, that if the palisades failed, his pressure, his resistance and that of all the other men amounted to nothing. Yet he held on, and they, too—demigods.

CHAPTER XVI. The Ancient Art of Fascination. And much of the last wild hurricane of work took place under the observation of a woman! From the top of the big mesa there was a clear view of the new reservoir, from the dam on one side far back into the hills on the other. In spite of the. tremendous downpour and the fierce gale Helen Illingworth stoodexposed to both attacks, and, indeed, indifferent to them—albeit protected by slicker and boots and sou’wester—fascinated by the titanic struggle between nature and man of which she was a witness. The general investigation by Rodney and Miss Illingworth had produced

Helen lllingworth Stood Exposed to Both Attaoks.

no results. A careful study of Rodney’s notes upon the subject had only served the more thoroughly to convince them that Meade was blameless. *But the most assiduous effort with the heartiest will in the world and the promptings of devotion and affection could not make a case out of these suggestions and their inferences that would hold water. They could not establish their contention beyond peradventure in the face of Meade’s direct admission and Shurtliff’s corroboration. They could not establish It in the public mind by any evidence at all if Meade and Shurtliff remained silent. If either one or the other of the two conspirators could be brought to tell the truth, Meade could be restored, at least sufficiently so for the purpose of Illingworth sooner or later must make to her father. It was that to which she gave the most thought, it was for that she planned and longed. Two people cannot resolve, even by mutual consent to dismiss from their daily thought and conversation any subject whatsoever without introducing in place of it a certain constraint. It is as futile to attempt to dismiss anything absolutely from the human mind as is the oft-suggested cure for rheumatism —doing certain things without thinking of the disease sought to be cured! *

The next installment brings the climax of the story. The most important developments in the lives of Meade and his friends are described.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

Old Stuff.

"A scientist can take one 15 none and' reconstruct a dinosaur.” “That’s nothing. Our landlady can take one bone and reConstruct a dinner.”—Louisville Courier-Journal.