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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1885)
149 relief, when cruelly distinct and clear, from an opposite direction, a reply came. For the first and last time in his lifo tho boy rcalizod what tho oxpi&iuu "uotuly dying with fright" meant He could not move hand or foot; he seemed to hear his merciless foes creeping steadily from every direction toward the hut; he gaspod convulsively for the breath that would not come. Evory detail of the horrible tortures practiced by the Indians upon their unfortunote captives summarized lougbly by Luke as "a three hours' wriggle over a slow fire" came back with terrible vividness to his memory. If he oould only have strength to kill himself I Where was the knife? He contrived to move his right hand feebly almut, en- deavoring to lay hold of it At last the back of his hand struck against something hard and smooth. The knife? No; the handle of bin revolver. His fingers mochanically closed round it and with the touch of the familiar wea pon returned the Bense of lifo and power numbed for the time by the terror caused by tho proximity of a deadly yet unseen enemy. With a defiant, dosperate cry he looped from his bod, and rushing outside fired his pistol right and loft Every shot seemed to add to his excitement He emptiod the pistol, reloaded it and fired in every direction. By this time the reaction, after the paralyzing fright, was so . strong that he might well have been taken by any one for a madman. He stamped, foamed at the mouth, and shrieked defiance at the Indians, who, discovering again that the garrison was dangerously on the wafah, were probably creeping away as silently as they bod come. But to Jack's overwrought fancy they were still crouch ing around, just waiting until lie was off his guard to steal in, scalp and torture him to deatli. However, getting no answer to his challenge, and his fevered blood beginning to cool a little, Jack at hist re turned to his cabin. But he never closed his eyes again that night Hour after hour he sat watching, with clenched teeth and distended eyes, starting at every sound, and half expecting, against his cooler judgment that the Indians would come after all Morning at last appeared, and, to his great surprise, he found himself alive and unscalped. But thougli after a good breakfast and a stretching five-mile race after the sheep his courage returned he did not fool, this time, that the ngly experience of the preceding nine hours was a dream. What was most surprising, how ever, was that he had lost all foar of the Indians' coming again. When he thought of the darkness and silnnce, the weird, ghostly signals drawing nearer and nearer, instead of the shiver of apprehension experienced before, there came a hard, callous fooling that seemed to say, " Let them do their worst I don't care." As day after day went by, and every night when he lay down to sleep, he was never sure of waking alive the next morning, youthful enthusiasm and the pleasure in life, for it own soke, died away. He was never molested by Indians, it waa true, nor did he ever act them, but time after time he had to lace the idea Uiat alone and helploes he was surrounded by treacherous foe. Let him once oversleep himself, and there would be nothing for it but suicide, or torture and a lingering death. Ailor a few mouth ot ottiup lif he relumed again to the ranch, and rough as it was, it seemed almost heav enly after camp. Jack Halliday was, in fact never alono or any length of time in camp again, and the chances of life took him back to New England in two years from Mint time. But though he is now settled at home, with small chauoo of evor trying Western lifo again, the im pression stamped on his character by tho experiences I have here described is too deep ever to lie quite offaood. Annum U. Pateiihon. SAW MILL WASTE. IF the report that have for some time boon current of terra ootta lumber are true, it seems almost a mystery that it is not manufactured on a more extensive scale. We are told that sawdust mixed with common day, preHsod and baked, gives tho desired product which admits of nearly all the uses to which truo lumlior may be put liesides being fireproof. Would sawdust now too often looked upon as a nuisance, not form an important item in the market if it oould bo utilizod in this way? Or is lumW so plentiful yot that wo can ignore the utili zation of the waste incident to its manufacture? When statistics tell us that the Northwestern lumlior rogion alone produced during the past year the tremendous quan tity of about 2.C3 l,:MX),0()0 feet of lumlior, l.OM.OOO.OOO shingles and alxmt 0110,100,000 lath, we may well pauso and ask how long will tho supply bo ablo to meet tho ooiiHtnutly increasing demand. Tho utilization of tho waste products has always lieon one of the most imMirtant sources of income to any industry, and the near future may demonstrate conclusively thnt lumbering will no longer bo an exception to this rulo; that attention must be paid to the enormous waste in its production, anil that some means will have to bo devised to either prevent or utilize it Gas making from sawdust await further devel opment terra ootta lumlior may serve in this connection a two-fold purpose, and many other inventions will bo made as soon as the necessity for such a thing ia felt throughout the country. Peril) lumber is too cheap at present in iU original oost but it will not lie like that forever; as tho most available portions of wood are out down, the more inaccessible part will necessitate larger expense to bring them to market nd the question of "waste" will assume prominence in proportion to till increased cost and sawdust may yot prove ono of the most important item of profit to the lumber industry, in a similar way as the "go liquor" of go works, which the manufacturer did not know how to dispose of thirty year ago, now pays them larger profit than any of their other product. Lumlxv WorUL m TilK eucalyptus, or Australian blue-gum tree, ia now grown in every civilized country almost where fronts do not occur, but being by Nature adapted to art a an evap orating machine, it wijl not destroy malaria or keep off monquitoo if planted in dry and not iu a marshy oiL