The Furnaceman.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXIV, Issue 1222, 3 December 1897, Page 7

The Furnaceman.

(By A. ML Clelland.)

CHAPTER 111..

— Continued.

He stopped and stood by her as stiff as a statue. He could not get over the stile unless she moved, and his dogged nature refused to allow him to turn back. So he gazed with stony face over the heath and away from Liz, while his heart beat like a steam-ham-mer. 'I saw yer comin', Geordie,' and at the sound of her voice, changed, alas ! from the time he heard it last, the strong furnaceman trembled, * and stayed, for I wanted to speak to yer.' Poor Liz. If she had sinned she had truly sorrowed. Dark lines of grief were beneath her eyes, and on her brow and cheeks were other markings not of grief's making. Her eyes had lost that starry brightness Geordie knew so well. Her sprightly figure was bowed with the weight of her breaking heart. ' I wronged yer, Geordie ; wronged yer sore,' Liz pleaded ; ' an' 1 want to ask yer forgiveness. But Geordie's lips uttered no sound. He held himself as stiffly and as doggedly as before. ' Father an' mother have cast me off, Geordie,' the sad voice continued, 'an' 1 don't blame them. But I should like to have forgiveness from you.' No answer, unless the clenched hands laid on top of the stone wall with knotted reins on their backs were an answer. The stony face still looked away across the heath, though the heart beneath it was beating more •wildly than ever. •* I know I shan't live through it, Geordie, an' it 'ud comfort me as I lie dyin' to think I'd had just one kind word from you.' Go on, Liz. Try once again. The big heart is almost melted now. One more effort and the hands upon the wall will unclench, the strong arms fold round you and take you and your shame into their embrace. Forgiveness is yours with one more effort. But that effort was not made. L'z did not plead a fourth time. She turned and gazed at the figure of the man standing by her, and saw in it nothing bufc unrelenting justice, untempered with the slightest drop of mercy. What could she know of the tremendous battle that was going on beneath Geordie's waistcoat 1 So, with a heavy, heavy sigh, she lifted her weary limbs over the stile and dragged them to what was called her home. A week later word was brought to tho furnaceman one moruing that Liz was very ill, and on the evening of the nexl day he heard that she was dead ; died in child birth he was told, though most people said from illtreatment mainly. Afc first Geordie would not believe the news. He was fhocked, too, that ifc should come so soon after his meeting with Liz. He had reproached himself bitterly for his hard-hearted pride and obstinacy in not speaking to her that night ; and now came tidings of her death. Finding that tbe tidings were true and that she was indeed dead, all his j old desire to take vengeance on Tim j returned. He was freed from his promise now • free to show all the world that he was no coward. Free to punish Tim for every wrong, every insult, every unkindness, every act of cruelty ht had inflicted upon the woman he ought to have loved and protected. To-morrow he wonld go and have ifc out with him ; and this time nothing would save him, nothing intervene, and with a heart fall of thoughts of vengeance he went to rest. He set off immediately after breakfast for the stone house on the other side of Castor Heath. He did not invite anyone to accompany him this time, bufc started alone, his brows contracted and lips pressed firmly together determined that the punishment Tim was to receive would be full and complete. He would not smash him or break any bones, bufc would certainly not stop much short cf that. During the night the wind had risen higher and higher, until by nine o'clock an awful hurricane lemembered for many a long day on the coasts of Britain, and regarded as more than a nine days' wonder even at such an inland place afc Blacktown. The howling wind tearing across the heath, blowing now in this direction and now in that, seemed a fitting companion to the solitary being walking along towards the north-west extremity of the storm-swept area. Geordie found a keen enjoyment in resisting its force. Now it would blow directly in front of him, and he had to lean forward and bend his knees if he wished to keep his feet at all ; tben a great blast would strike him in the back, and he would run before it, for thus he would reach the stone cottage sooner. Or else, at other ti.oes, all around him would be a comparative calm, while over his head he could hear the wind roaring as though wild bulls were fighting in the sky ; a moment later it seemed as if the bulls had fallen in one mass on his head, as the terrific wind descended vertically and almost crushed him lo the earth.

Now fighting his way onward — with the rough haired terrier, looking like an animated ball of ragged worsted, trotting at his heels — now running before the storm, or again pausing to take breath during a temporary lull, he struggled on and in time reached Tim's house, only to find it closed, locked and empty. ' He's soon put her out of his sight,' Geordie muttered, as he turned away and set off in the direction of the works where Tim was employed, hoping to find him there ; l soon good rid of her,' and he reckoned that as another count in his indictment against Tim. To do the latter jjstice, however, he had not been in any unseemly haste over the burial of HJz. Her death had occurred three days before Geordie had even heard that she was ill, so that Tim could not be accused of undue haste, though, no doubt, he had had no great desire to delay matters. Geordie, however, did not know this, and Tim's apparent callousness added fresh fuel to the fire of hig anger.

CHAPTER IV.

The man whom Geordie was seeking so earnestly and eagerly was employed at an iron-smelting works distant about a mile and a half from the stone cottage. The various buildings and furnaces were situated near the head of a small dell on one side of the heath, its open end being in the direct path of the storm. The works belonged to a company tha*-, by all accounts, had much trouble to make both ends meet. It was also repotted to possess very poor plant, not being able to lay out the necessary money to keep it in efficient, repair. As Geordie came to the rim of the small depression in the Heath — for really it was hardly worthy o.f the name of dell — and looked down upon the iron works, he at once noticed something waa wrong. What ifc was he could not at firat make out, except that a number of men were running and staggering about in the wind below, and seemed, even at that distance, to be in a state of great excitement. -* Why,' hs exclaimed, as the truth flashed upon him, ' where's the first blast V The works had four blast-furnaces erected in line, and connected at the top by a broad main tramway, with lesser ones branching to each furnace. But when Geordie came in view of thrm thefirst appeared to have vanished entirely. He hurried down and soon reached the works, making at oucd for the crowd assembled within the gates, but keeping at a respective distance from the remaining furnaces, and saw at once what had occurred. The cheesepairing policy of the company that owned the works had resulted in a dire calamity. Owing to want of proper attention and repair, the first furnace, weakened by long continued action, had burst, scattering the molten metal in all directions, though, fortunately, without loss of life, as the men had not yet resumed work after breakfast. Such an accident waa bad enough it itself, but was rendered doubly so by tbe storm. For, just as the burst occurred, and the furnace was tottering to its fall, a terrific rush of wind tore along the dell and seemed to exert its full impact right upon the falling brickwork, hurling it against the second furra'e, ar.d bringing down half of that as well. All this Geordie hid shouted into his ears by the men about him, and was told, further, that the first blast, in falling, had carried away not only its own tramway, but that of the second blast as well ; and, as this fell to the ground, it dragged with it the tramway of the third blast. In fact, he was told, it was a wonder the whole works had not come down with a run. ' Any fellow hurt V Geordie bellowed all thoughts oi Tim gone for a time. 1 Ay, there's one poor chap up there now,' his neighhour replied, using his hands as a trumpet. ' Don't you see him? And th*n Geordie saw what he might have noticed before. High above their heads, suspended as it were in mid-air, hung or clung the form of a man, holding ou to the side of the second furnace, and appearing ready at any moment to drop upon the mass of fiery metal beneath. 1 Who is he \ shouted Geordie. * Tim Snacker. Do you know him V For Geordio's brows had contracted. ' Ay, I've heered on him,' he replied shortly. There was the man he had come in search of, bound in a very short while to meet a death horrible to think of, but not a bit worse than he deserved, thought Geordie. He was told that Tin— who was the general smith and fitter of the works — had been busy afc one of the charging doors of the second furnace while the men were at their breakfast, and had been knocked over when the wreck of the first furnace carried away the tramway of the second. He had, however, managed to cling to the end of a broken beam and so save himself for the present. ' But he can't hang there long,' thought Geordie, not without a slight feeling of pity for his enemy. Nothing could be done to save poor Tim, one of whose arms seemed to be broken, as ifc hung motionless and straight down over the side of the

beam. Ha was half-lying, half-sitting, on his little refuge, and had received a great cut on the side of his head, from which blood was flowing freely, the red drops falling with a hiss upon the hot metal below. Nothing could be done, for to get access from the third or fourth blast was impossible, and no kite would fly in such a wind, and Tim would drop from very weakness long before a ladder could be fixed against the side of No, 2 blast. ' No, there's nought can be done, Tim, my lad. Thou'rt bound for hell now,' and it almost seemed just to Geordie. * Nought to be'- He paused, for his quick eye had discerned a possible way of relief. (To bt continued.)