Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-09-08
CHAPTER XVII.
The Crawling Stone Rise.

The Crawling Stone Rise.
So sudden was the onset of the river
that the trained riders of the big
ranch were taken completely aback,
and hundreds of head Of Dunning cat
tie were swept away before they could
be removed to points of safety. Fresh
alarms came with every hour of the
day and night, and the telephones up
and down the valley rang necessarily
with appeals from neighbor to neigh
Dor. Lance Dunning, calling out the
reserves of his vocabulary, swore ire
mendously and directed the operations
against the river. These seemed, In
deed, to consist mainly of hard riding
and hard language on the part of
everybody Murray Sinclair, although
he had sold his ranch on the Crawling
Stone and was concentrating his hold
ings on the Frenchman, was every
where in evidence. He was the first
at a point of danger and the last to
ride away from the slipping acres
where the muddy food undercut; but
no defiance seemed to disturb the
Crawling Stone, which kept alarming
ly at work.
Above the alfalfa lands on the long
bench north of the house the river, in
er, had left a depression known as
Mud lake. 1t had become separated
from the main channel of the Crawling
Stone by high, narrow barrier in the
form Of a bench deposited by the re-
ceding waters of some earlier food,
and added to by sandstorms sweeping
among the willows that overspread 1t.
Without an effective head or definite
system of work the efforts Of the men
at the Stone ranch were of no more
consequence than If they had spent
their time In waving blankets at the
river. Twenty men riding in together
to tell Lance Dunning that the river
was washing out the tree claims above
Mud lake made No perceptible differ
ence in the event. Dicksie, though an
inexperienced girl, saw with helpless
clearness the futility Of 1t all.
Terror seized Dicksie. She tele-
phoned in her distress for Marion,
begging her to como up before they
should all be swept away; and Marion,
turning the shop over to Katie DAN
cling, got into the ranch-wagon that
Dicksie had sent and started for the
Crawling Stone.
At noon Marion arrived. The ranch
house was deserted, and the men were
all at the river. Puss stuck her head
out of the kitchen window, and Dick
sic ran out and threw herself into
Marion's arms. Late news from the
front had been the worst; the cutting
above Mud lake had weakened the last
barrier that held off the river, and
every available man was fighting the
current at that point.
Marion heard it all while eating a
luncheon. Dicksie, beset with anxiety,
could not stay in the house. The man
that had driven Marion over, saddled
horses in the afternoon and the two
women rode up above Mud lake, now
become through rainfall and seepage
from the river long, shallow lagoon.
For an hour they watched the shovel
ing and carrying of sand-bags, and
rode toward the river TO the very edge
of the disappearing willows, where
the bank was melting away before the
undercut of the resistless current.
They rode away with a common feel
ing-a conviction that the fight was a
losing one, and that another day would
see the ruin complete.
"Dicksie," exclaimed Marion-they
were riding to the house as she spoke
I'LL tell you what we can dol" She
hesitated a moment. Il will tell you
what we can do! Are you plucky?"
Dicksie looked at Marion pathet-
ically.
eff you are p1ucky enough to do it,
we can keep the river OF yet. I have
an idea. will go, but you must come
along"
Marion, what do you mean? Don't
you think 1 would go anywhere to
save the ranch? 1 should like to know
where you dare go in this country
that I dare not!"
''Then ride with me over to the rail
road camp by the new bridge. We will
ask Mr.. McCloud to bring some of his
men over. He can stop the river; he
knows how"
Dicksie caught her breath. ooh,
Marion! that would do no good, even
l could do it. Why, the railroad has
been all swept away in the lower val
ley"
How do you know?"
$50 every one says"
"Who is every one?"
Cousin Lance, Mr.. Sinclair-all the
men. I heard that week ago."