The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-03-10

There were many trout In THE stream,
| and VIII knew the pools by heart.
When Sol Cardin was planning to
make fsh-pond abve the settlement
the summer before It was viii who
had advised him to dam the gorge. The
| result had been that instead of the ten
acre pond on which the landowner had
calculated, he formed a lake two miles
long and half mile wide. The gorge
was where the brook, in the course OF
ages, had worn down through forty
feet of rock; here the dam of log crib
bing was laid to the height Of thirty
feet, with a ballast of broken stone.
VIII was one of those who helped to
build 1t, and up to the night before he
had helped to get out stone for the
foundation of house Cardin was to
build beside the lake.
The fire reached the fiat at the foot
of the ridge and came toward the brook
in jumps. The men worked faster
than ever with their ten-quart pals
Old Ike Frazier glanced up the stream
and saw Will leaning on his hoe-handle
doing nothing
"Hi there!" yelled the man. Get to
work"
you tell the men they want to be
looking Quit" VIII called back. Some
thing'll happen pretty quick!" With
that he dropped his hoe and went
climbing up the side-hill toward his
home at the top. Mrs Borson was just
piling the lost of her bedding on the
wagon when she saw VIII coming to-
ward her He unhitched the horse
from the wagon, and had the harness
scattered on the ground before his
mother could control herself enough
to cry:
''Those things'll be burned here!
What are you taking the horse for
we've"
Then she sank to the ground and
cried, while Wills younger brothers
and sisters Joined in.
VIII did not stop to say anything,
but leaped to the back Of the horse,
and away he went up the road, to the
amazement of those who were taking
their goods from the houses. But he
was soon in the woods above the settle
ment and out of sight of every one,
He was headed for the dam. He had
thought to open the little sluice at the
bottom Of It, which would add to the
volume of the water in the stream
raise 1t foot, perhaps.
He raapbp6 tba Jan and y,rvipu at
the gate opened the way. A stream of
water two feet square shot from the
bottom Of the dam and went sloshing
down among the rocks.
THAT water'll help lot" he
thought. Then he heard the roar of the
fire down the brook and saw a huge
dull, brick-colored flash as big hem
lock went UP in flame. The amount
Of water gushing from the gate of the
dam seemed suddenly small and USE
less. 1t would not fill the brook bed.
VIII sprang to his feet.
In little shanty hundred yards
away were the quarrying tools used in
getting out the stone for the Cardn
house. To this Will ran with all his
speed.
With an old ak that was behind the
shanty he broke down the door. In
side he picked up full twelvepound
box of dynamite, and bored a hole the
size of his finger into one side. Then
to the dam.
He climbed down the ladder to the
bottom of the dam, and fixing the fuse
20 the cap, ran it into the hole he had
bored till it was well among the saw
dust and sticks of dynamite. He cut
the fuse to two minutes length, and
carried the box back among the big key
logs that held the dam. He was soon
ready. He jammed the box under wat
er among the beams where it would
stick. A match started the fuse going,
and then Will climbed the ladder and
ran for safety.
In few moments the explosion
came. Will heard the beams in the
gorge tumbling as the dam gave way,
and the water behind was freed Away
1t went, washing and pounding down
the narrow ravine, toward the low bot
tom on which the fire was burning.
The fire-fighters heard the explosion,
and paused, wondering, to listen. The
next instant the roar. of the water came
to their ears, and the tremble caused by
logs and boulders rolling with the flood
was felt Then every man understood
what was done, for they had been log
drivers all their lives, and knew the
signs of loosed sluice-gate or of
broken jam
They climbed the steep bank toward
the buildings. to be above the flood-line.
yelling warnings that were half cheers.
In few moments the water was be-
low the mouth Of the gorge, and then
it rushed over the low west bank of
the brook and spread out on the wide
fiat where the fire was raging. For a
minute clouds of steam and loud hiss
ing marked the progress of the wave,
and then the brush-heaps from edge to
edge of the valley bottom were covered
and the fire drowned.
The fires left in the trees above the
high water mark and the flames back