The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-01-11

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ed that I had been swept away with
the Setter house. There was no time
for explanations, and 1 made none.
Angus told me where to find his
team and blackboard, and, asking me
to look after the women at the
schoolhouse, hurried away to organ
fze rescue party. found the team,
did what there was to be done, and
when the excitement had little SUBJ
sided took Winifred in the blackboard
and set out to find shelter for her
and for myself. We found accommo-
dation at the Byres ranch, whose
house was farthest removed from the
scene of devastation, and there con-
tented ourselves as best we might
while the details of the disaster
trickled in by Titles. It was soon dis
covered that only Setter and his
daughter and the engineer were miss
ing, but it was not until the evening
of the following day that Angus
came to make his report. l saw him
coming and went few rods down
the road to meet him.
"Two, sure, and possible third"
he said, anticipating my query.
"They're all accounted for except
three, and two Of the three were
found on the bar below the engi-
neer's camp this afternoon"
"Wykamp?" 1 asked.
eyes; Wykamp and Nan Setter.
They must have been overtaken to-
gether somewhere"
"They were," said; and I told
him the story of the tragedy in tho
canyon SO far as it touched these
two.
''You say he tried to save her7
There was a bit of the man in him,
after all, wasn't there?"
Angus had shown no disposition
to go up to the farmhouse, where
Winifred was sitting on the porch,
and we had drawn aside to sit ON
the embankment of the dry Byres
ditch.
''He did save her." reioined; "shs
would have gone down in the first
rush of the wave over the top of tho
dam if he hadn't reached her just in
the nick of time and carried her be-
yond the sweep of it,"
''And after that, they stopped to
look at it, you say. That was the en-
gineer in him; betting on his own
game to the very last"
"They were safe enough, so far a.
the cloudburst was concerned"
amended; and then: "Have you
found Selter?"
''No; and that's bit curious. His
wife says he went hunting on the
north mountain early in the morn
ing"
You'll never find him-alive."
what! How do you know?"
Answer me one question, and
then I'll tell you. Does anyone sus-
pect that it was more than a cloud
burst?"
why, of course not. 1t was .
cloudburst. Kilgore and the Barnes
boys have been up the canyon beyond
the dam, and the track of it can be
traced for two miles,"
',True; but if that were all the dam
would be standing at this moment,
Angus. 1t did stand the cloudburst,
rapidly when it went out"
'rhe mischief, you say! How do
you know all this, JACKIE"
GAS have told you, 1 was within
so yards of the dam when it went
out. And Jacob Setter was trying to
cross It'll"
Good Lord! But what wrecked
it?"
"Selter, think. There was an ex-
Plosion as if a 12-inch shell had
struck just above the masonry. He
mad fired his internal machine from
the mouth of the outlet tunnel, and
was scrambling up to be out of
harms way when he saw Nan and
Wykamp below the dam. When tho
shell exploded he was trying to
reach them-for. Mans sake, 1 sup
pose"
Macpherson smoked his pipe quito
to extinction before he spoke again.
Then he said: Jack. Tn a little
tangled on the ethics of this thing.
Could it do any possible harm to any
body if we keep this thing to our
selvcs?"
II don't see that it can. Jake has
paid the penalty. He's well out of
reach of any court of ours"
"That's what I was thinking. And
If we publish it. it'll likely make 1t
harder for poor, miserable, desti-
tute widow woman"
"I'm with you." I agreed. Sand
now for your plans. don't think
the Glenlivat people will trouble you
for year or two, and the suit
against you will fall to the ground
without Wykamp's evidence. Will
you go quietly back to your cow
punching and make hay while the
sun shines?"
His smile was inscrutable. "If it's
all the same to you, think I'll 20
on with the dirt-washing on my
placer claim"
"But you can't; your bars gone"
The mysterious smile held its own
cts pretty spiteful wind that
blows nobody good, Jack. AS you
say, the bars gone, but there is an.
other one formed just below. I went
up there and washed out few pan.
fuls to-day, and this is what found"
He showed me handful of dull,
yellow nuggets from the size OF 6
mustard seed to that of a pea.
"Then you've struck it rich at last!