The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-03-04
CHAPTER XVI.
Flood and Fire,

eIooo ana fjee.
Screaming to make himself heard
Above the roar Of the deluge, Barcus
hammered in Alan's ear:
THAT devil! He's fospdl the reser
voir-opened the sluicegates-turned
it into that shaft! We're done for!"
Alan had no argument with which to
gainsay him. Silently getting on his
feet, silently he CROPPED for Rose in the
darkness, momentarily becoming more
dense as the fall of water shut out
the light, and drew her away with him,
up the slight incline that led back to
the bulkhead. -.
The hour that followed lived ever
In his memory as an he If in hell. No
ray Of hope lightened it's impenetrabls
blackness. He could say nothing to
comfort the girl; bravely though she
strove to keep up her heart, time and
again she shook in his arms like mad
thing, when panic dread caught her
by the neck as terrier catches a rat.
To die there, in the darkness, like 50
many noxious animals trapped in q
well!~
The water mounted rapidly. With.
In five minutes it drove them back to
the elbow in the tunnel; within ten it
Tapped their ankles as they fingered
there, doubling which was the greater
peril, to advance or to stand fast and
let the flooding tide snuff out the fires
Of life. To return to the 'neighbor-
hood of the bulkhead was to court the
death indicated by the fuse and the
keg of blasting powder
Of a sudden the thought crossed
Alan's mind that Marrophat had ar
ranged the latter solely to keep them
away from the bulkhead. Now that he
thought Of 1t, he felt certain that the
powder room had been deliberately
disclosed to him by Jimmy.
Probably, then, the key and fuse
we're but stage properties--or pos
sibly ~.
Whether or no. was death in ono
form preferable to the other? a.
He was decidedly of the opinion
hat it were better to be extinguished
once aud for all time, in the space of
I second, annihilated by an explosion,
Than to .dio thnA i n9Arino,v ........
UG this consiGvz ution, he drew lcse
with him back to the bulkhead.
When they had been some fifteen
minutes beside the bulkhead, the wa
ter mounted the head of a slight rise
perhaps ten feet behind them, and
poured down in ever deeper volume
to back up against the barrier
It, was waist deep, however, before
they retreated to the head of that
rise. 81
Halt an hour later it was waist
deep there, on the highest spot In the
tunnel.
In fifteen minutes more it had
reached their chins. And they stood
with head against the roof of the tun.
mel.
Holding Rose close to him, Alan
kissed her lips, that were as cold az
death.
Then, fumbling under water, he
found the hand Of the man at his side.
The water Tapped his lips like
:
In the tunnel that branched OF from
the main shaft, beyond the bulkhead.
some thirty minutes before this juno
ture, q candle had guttered in its stick,
eft carelessly thrust into the wall by
Marrophat's lieutenant, and guttering.
had dropped a flaming wick into a lit
tie heap Of bone.dry debris. This last
famed, licked hungrily at the timber
ing that upheld the falls of the tunnel.
The timbering caught fire without de-
lay. In a space Of time incredibly
brief the flames we're spreading right
and left, the tunnel was vault Of
blistering fury.
AS Alan said his last mute farewell
to Rose and Barcus, the fire spread
out In the bottom Of the shaft and in
vaded the powder room.
Alan had guessed Alright Ut Mario
phat's design; the key of blasting pow