The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25
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tant rumble of thunder. The air was
warm and drony; it made me sleepy. /
ceased to watch Rance and fell into
blown study. Suddenly heard him give
yell-such yell as never heard out OF
the mouth of man.
Ny first thought was that he had
chopped his foot off, and the next that
flashed through my brain was that Curry's
wife would take care of him till it got well.
But l looked up in the thousandth part OF
the time 1t takes to tell it, and saw him
running toward the abin like mailman;
he was shouting something to Curry. l
saw Curry look up the canyon and then
make wild break for the cabin, too; the
dog went capering and barking close at
his heels. l looked up that way, but you
see that jutting point of rock there shuts
off the view from here, and | could not
see anything. l knew something was up
though. / heard a queer noise, too, all OF
sudden, which l didn't pay much atten-
ton to in the confusion of wondering what
was the matter; and started to go down
and see what in the world they were in
such hurry to get to the house for.
knew it wasn't the baby-I could see it
playing on the floor. I knew it wasn't
Curry's wife, cause l could hear her sing
ing.
Every single little detail of that scene is
photographed on my brain as wildly as
though it happened yesterday, and will
stay there till my dying day. Kance's hat
flew off as he ran, the sun shone full in
his face and I could see from here that it
was white as death. l don't know how
he ever got down the way he did with
out breaking his neck; you see how steep
it is. He got to the cabin as quickly as
Curry got there from the corral-which
wasn't half as far away as he was. Curry s
wife came out to empty pan of water
and they all three met in the yard.
Rance said to Curry-I heard him just
as plain as hear my voice now: Take
her, Curry; I'll bring the baby"
l could see the little thing playing in the
square of sunshine just inside of the door.
He ran to and caught it up in his arms,
and as he whirled to come out 1t laughed
and snatched twig from the limb that
dangled over the door. Then-it struck
them. "What struck them?" you say.
Why, the cloudburst of the Yokol that
I've been telling you about.
corral, horses, wagons, cabin. dog. baby,
Curry, Curry's wife, Kance-all gone, and
I stood here alone, with hell of rushing
water at my feet. don't know why l
didn't Jump in and drown myself; don't
know why l did not do anything, or why
| did.
A few hours afterward it was past. The
sun still shone. l wandered aimlessly
down there over the soggy earth; down
there where you see the canyon widens,
and what do you think ran across first
Let me have another pull at the fiask-yes,
the first thing l ran across down there was
little white chubby hand sticking up
through the hard packed clay and sand !;
and it was holding tight the little twig
with a leaf on the end of it, which it
grabbed from the limb that had dangled
over the door.
/ cried when l saw that hand-just sat
down by it and cried. 1t was foolish,
reckon. but man will act foolish when he's
alone with a thing like that. Besides, |
knew It Rance was under there, too; /
knew, come life or death, he'd never let
go of her baby and sure enough he
hadn't.
Now Rance saw that water coming; he