The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-28
PRINCES WELL.
s1Mabel, | love you. I"

had scarcely left my lips when the girl
riding at my side gave her mount a
touch with her crop and was off like a
fash.
At the bend of the road she turned her
head and smiled. eff you kill your first
deer, look for me tonight in Princes
Well" foated back, silvery laugh
echoed through the pine trees, and she
was gone.
I would have followed. but the sound
of the distant baying of hounds caught
my ear. It was the first hunt of the
season, andI knew Mabel would soon
Join the hounds. I listened again. The
whole pack was in full bay; they had
Jumped deer, and their excited yelps
were growing rapidly fainter. A horse
man passed me and sped through the
woods. / followed. We passed the
negro quarters, "a broad cotton field was
left in the rsar land the great rice fields
spread out fromsthe forest to the river.
Away off on the bank, so far daSant that
I could hsrely hear them, the hounds
were stretched fprhaH mile. Ahead
of them an antlered monarch SKINNED
along. Taking one of the narrow canal
bapks, spurFsd my horse on, but I was
too far behind.
The deer anaHtsthe hounds disappeared
behind the trees, There was no sound
to guide me, and in vain I followed in
the direction had last seen them. I'm
familiar with the roads, halted on the
banks of the broad Santee. The yellow
water flowed by in eddying currents.
Wherever turned saw but the ruin of
better days. As far as the eye could
reach not field was under cultivation.
Not house or home arose from the mo-
notonous level to break he-dreariness of
the scene.
I turned my horse toward Edgefeld,
determining to follow the river bank I'M
til I came within sight of my hosts
mansion on the other side of the river. |
could easily call the ferryman and get
over before the others returned from the
chase. But had miscalculated the dis
lance I had travelled, and after several
hours of picking my way along the di-
lapidated bank that had once formed a
wall between the river and the rice field,
but which was now broken in hundred
places, began to realize that it would
DO nightfall before I arrived at Edge
field. Still struggled on, and it seemed
to me that at every break in the bank
the water in the gulch was deeper. At
first it barely covered my horses hoofs,
but soon it came to his belly, and once it
almost carried him off his feet, so swift
was the current.
AS we mounted high bank I realized
for the first time how swiftly the water
flowed below. It seemed, too, as if the
banks were crumbling away in places.
rode on for few moments. l could
see that the current was constantly
growing more rapid. I thought of the
rains up the country Of which Colonel
Hazard had spoken, and Of the freshet
the planters expected within a day or
two. Could it have missed their calcu-
lations and come upon them unawares?
I glanced ahead at the faraway chin
news of Hazard Hall, and then at the long
stretch Of narrow bank ahead, with its
numerous breaks, through which the
water now flowed in torrents.
I spurred my horse toward place
ahead, where the bank spread out hun
dred feet or more, and from which point
l knew narrow foot bank led to the
mainland. We had almost reached the
little hummock, with its tumble down
log cabin, when I heard a rumbling
II Few tho a
wave nearly three feet in height rose
above the even surface of the river and
rushed toward me, gathering on its crest
logs and driftwood, which it tossed
wildly about. The yellow foam glis-
tened in the sunlight, and it was some
time before I turned my fascinated,
frightened gaze from the oncoming
flood. WhenI did it was to see that an
immense breach had opened in the bank
between myself and the clearing.
With a sinking heart l hurried my
tired horse on. could hear the roaring
nearer and nearer to me until it was
just behind. Before me, though less to
be dreaded, was the broad breach. Ny
frightened horse plunged down the steep
bank just as the rush Of waters swept in
behind me. He struggled bravely on
until, lifted from his feet, we were both
borne forward on the wave. A few feet
to the right was the river. while on the
left was the soft mud of the rice field
as dangerous as quicksand. We crossed
the breach. My horse felt his hoofs be-
meath him, and as he tried to stagger to
his feet l seized the tall canes that
sheathed the bank. The horse sank
back. There was distressed whinny,
and the unfortunate animal was swept
from between my legs and out into the
current.
Safe among the stout canes soon
scrambled to the top of the bank. Wet,
fatigued and hungry looked around in
vain for the foot bank leading across the
rice field to the mainland. 1t had worn
away. A hundred feet ahead there was
another break in the river bank. was
-, -. ;clapS TTulesS some boat passed