Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-06-23

lIOu a ltIIlDlc ultdlll, Dul WIFI llle
sigh that trembled to 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 it
seemed on the verge of bursting. But
to his mind pierced thought sharper
than pain-the thought of Margarita
and the Man. With clenched teeth he
struck out for the current.
Far, far away rose dusty line Of
mist 1t 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 food 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.
1t was only minutes till his arms re-
fused to answer to his will. They
moved so weakly that more than once
his gasping mouth sank below the wa
ter. He swallowed great gulps of the
turgid flood. 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 to fight
for the last minute Of his allotted be.
ing. The life instinct was all that still
lived in Gerry. 1t urged him to 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 tC
slacken. They stretched out over the
valley and crept up it's sides. They did
not flow so much now as rise. The val
ley became a moving sea. On its flow
ing surface beasts, fowls and reptiles
struggled, mad-eyed, for life. Here
and there bloated carcass, brought
down from far up the river, blunderet
blindly through the living and brought
screams Of terror from the swimming
horses, and gasping lows frGm 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
a toy house on lonely islet.
A great, open, white umbrella line(
with green sailed gayly along. I
caught in the branches of Gerry's tree
Uprooted cotton bushes foated by, anC
cane, snapped off, sometimes torn W
in whole hills, banked up against thu
tree and formed a vast, unstable
island, toward which swan the delud
ed stock.
From the mouth of the cleft in thu
river gorge issued a laundering cata
ract. 1T had burst through the WALL
of the ditch and even unseated a sec
ton of the rocky crag against whlcl
the sluice-gate had been buttressed
The ditch was gone. 1t could neve
be again, for the water was tearin!
the channel of the cleft deeper ant
deeper. The turbid flood devoured tn
silt Of the valley, accumulated sine
man was, and carried it, seethng, ou
towards the river. The valley woult
be left naked, stripped of the sourc
of life.
Gerry's tree had crawled away fron
the main current. In vast eddy
approached the mound whereon squat
ted the old plantation house. Dom
Maria stood at the edge Of the waters
Her two hands were clenched and he'll
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. Th
current, the main current from tn
cleft, caught it squarely and swept 1
: away. 1t suddenly shook it's long trai
Of riffraff, and turning and turning
more and more swiftly, swan out Of
to the churning bosom of the grea
river.
The valley had disappeared. Squat
ting on the very level of the far-fun
waters, the old house still stood. TIL
bright sun struck a CLINT of light fron
its white walls and gave rich colors t
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. bona MARI
went into the house. She closed tn
great board shutters. The house locke,
az If it had closed its eyes In a las
remuneration.