The Yale expositor., 1916-07-06

ITOLn IeITlUic utNaos ~~t WIN Ns~
sigh that trembled 10 his lips came
realization.
From head to toe he was battered
and bruised. His cotton clothes were
in tatters. His chest heaved in great.
spasmodic gasps. Breath whistled
through his wracked lungs. His eyes
protruded. His head ached till II
seemed on the verge OF bursting. But
to his mind pierced thought sharper
than pain-the thought of Margartta
and the Man. With clenched teeth he
struck out for the current.
Far. far away rose a dusty line OF
mist. II marked the head OF the flood
the meeting OF water with the accumu-
lated dust OF rainless months. Gerry
recognized the meaning of that line.
Somewhere there in the turmoil OF the
first rush OF the mad flood were Mar
garita and the Man-what was left OF
them. The distance dismayed him, but
he swan on. Then he felt the fast ap-
preaching end of endurance. A sob
choked him.
IL was only minutes till his arms re-
fused TO answer 10 his win. They
moved so weakly that more than once
his gasping mouth sank below the wa
ter. He swallowed great gulps of the
turgid food. Then an uprOoted tree
brushed by him. He clutched its
branches
When all else in the world has
passed from a mans brain there re-
mains the life instinct-the will 10 fight
! for the last minute of his allotted be-
ing. The life instinct was all that still
lived in Gerry. 1t urged him TO IA last
effort. He dragged his body upon the
! tree where the branches forked from
| the main trunk Utterly exhausted, he
sank into their embrace. They held
him as though in a cradle.
! The rush OF the waters began TO
slacken. they stretched out over the
valley and crept up its sides. They did
not flow so much now as rise. The val
ley became a moving sea. On Its how-
ing surface beasts, fowls and reptiles
struggled. mad-eyed, for life. Here
and there a bloated carcass, brought
down from far up the river, blundered
blindly through the living and brought
screams OF terror from the swimming
horses. and gasping lows from the
struggling cattle.
From the middle OF the sea rose the
old plantation house still high and dry
on its mound 1t seemed very tiny
toy house on lonely islet.
/ A ~ Hnn6
with green sailed gayly along. II
caught in the branches of Gerry's tree
Uprooted cotton bushes 1oated by, and
cane, snapped off. sometimes torn up
in whole hills, banked up against the
tree and formed a vast. unstable
island, toward which swan the delud
ed stock.
From the mouth OF the cleft in the
river gorge issued q laundering cata
ract. 1t had burst through the walls
of the ditch and even unseated sec
ton OF the rocky crag against which
the sluice-gate had been buttressed
The ditch was gone. 1t could never
be again, for the water was tearing
the channel OF the cleft deeper anC
deeper. The turbid food devoured the
silt OF the valley accumulated since
man was, and carried 1t, seethlng, ou
towards the river. The valley woul(
be left naked. stripped Of the sourc'
OF life.
Gerry's tree had crawled away from
the main current. In a vast eddy /
approached the mound whereon squat
ted the old plantation house. Don;
Maria stood at the edge OF the waters
Her two hands were clenched and hell
above her gray head. Thin wisps o
hair hung about her face. Her fac
was distorted. She was cursing Gerry
cursing the day of his birth, the day o
his coming. the day he had opened hi
ditch. She swept her arms over tn
terrible scene and called down tn
curse of all the ruin and death on hi
head. But Gerry was beyond hearing
In all the world there was none to hea
the old woman. She stood alone; abou
her the silent waters, above her tn
blazing blue sky.
The tree shot out OF the eddy. tn
current. the main current from tn
cleft, caught 1t squarely and swept
away. 1t suddenly shook its long trai
of riffraff, and turning and turning
more and more swiftly. swan out o.
to the churning bosom of the grea
river.
The valley had disappeared. Squat
ting on the very level Of the far-fiun
waters, the old house still stood. TIL
D bright sun struck CLINT OF light fror
its ushite walls and gave rich colors {
its moss-grown tiles. The roof wa
: crowded with fowl and strange med
ley of heavy flying birds, glad of
perch on which TO rest. Dona Mari
: went into the house. She closed tn
n great board shutters. The house locke
as IL 1t had closed its eyes in las
renunciation.
Gerry's tree fioated down the rive
n IT swung slowly along near the mort
e shore. Just below II were houses
+ They were perched on the cliff. Belo'
e them were more houses and unde
a | A. AtfoI .0nfa ~ otfIl atbe