Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-12-16

paddle had given away. In a few mo-
ments the whole gate would go, and
then He dared not think. Turning,
he chose the shortest path toward the
village and the mills, ard ran rapidly
down it. Brooks heard his footsteps
and shouted to him to stop; but he
made no reply. The sound of the water
was increasing. The lower dam was
filing; its weak gates would soon give
way; but even yet the boy might reach
the town before the water. and, with
muttered curse, Brooks started in his
pursuit
1t was nearly mile to the first mill.
If Jim could but reach that, he knew
where the great bell hung that called
the workmen in the morning. That
would warn the people.
On, on through the night, holding the
bleeding and shattered arm close with
the other hand and trying to forget its
pain, with clenched teeth and white face,
the child ran; while behind him he
heard the heavy tread of the would-be-
murderer and his muttered threats, and
over it all the fast rising voice of the
angry waters. On, on through the wood
and across the muddy hillside, while
the steps of the pursuer came closer and
closer, and yet higher rose the roar of
the deluge behind. Down onto the val
ley road. Now he was almost to the
mill. 1t loomed big and black before
him-if he could only reach the bell
when there came great crash, echoing
and re-echoing from the hillsides around
and the air seemed suddenly filled with
a terrible rumble and roar. The lower
dam had given away!
Jim heard Black Brooks stop, utter a
cry of horror, and speed away toward
the upland. Then, with dozen steps
more, he laid his hand upon the rope of
the great bell, and its frightened brazen
voice went pealing forth to the ears of
the startled villagers. And now, for
the first time, he looked back. A mighty
wall of white. seething water, glistening
and cleaning in the starlight. madly
|
tumbling and tossing. was bearing
straight down the valley bottom toward
him. Nearer and nearer, its hoarse roar
filing his ears, its spray binding his
eyes, its fury overpowering all things
before it. But the boy never finched,
and the old bell Hung out iso worning
notes in the very teeth of the on coming
monster. until there was confusion of
sounds in his little ears. and dimness
of sight in his young eyes, until caught
as by a mighty hand, he wass tossed
against the wall of the tottering mill,
the rope torn from his hand, and his
terrible duty ended. Then, with a
triumphant shout, the wild tide surged
on.
1t was the morning after the food.
Far down the now desolate valley a
group of men and women were gathered
about hastily made bed upon the
bleak hillside, while below the debris
of the ruined mills covered all the bot
tom land, and overhead the branches Of
the broken and water-marked trees. Up
and down the narrow valley one could
trace the ragged pathway which the
furious water had torn for itself the
night before, through meadow, mills,
and town, until it found the great river,
miles below. Far away toward the
mountains was the place where the
mighty dams had been; now only a
muddy pit, with few broken bits of
masonry where yesterday stood solid
walls.
The plot of Black Brooks had sue
ceeded. The mills were gone and their
owners ruined. The mans revenge had
been complete, but a. terrible cost to
himself; for, unable to escape from the
wrath of the giant whom he had loosed,
his crushed and lifeless body had been
found among the broken timbers half a
mile below the town.
Thanks to the warning of the great
bell, the workmen and villagers had all
of them escaped with their lives, and
even in the midst of their poverty, this
sad March morning, they thanked God
for the child whose bravery had saved
, them.
For they knew the story. With fal.
tering lips and feeble words, poor little
: Jim had told it all, and now, with tired
eyes closed, his white face at rest, anc
one hand close in that of his father, lay
beneath the dripping trees, out upon the
bare hillside, dying.
Caught by the great wave, tossec
as a foam.fake hither and thither In tn,
waters mad plunge and rush, the littl,
body had been beaten and bruised ant
crushed until it could no longer keel
/
the spirit within it; and at daydawr
the searchers found him, lying senseles
| upon the hillside, breathing out the few
) moments that were left.
1t would soon be over now. At ont
side of the boy knelt his father, his fac