The Irish standard., 1916-03-25

two, it rang terribly In her ears as
she went down.
The water had felled Margarita and
the Man. Gerry saw them flung down
the crest of the wave. They became
suddenly twirling, sodden mass, in
animate save for the fling of loose
limb into clearer view against the blue
sky or the uncoiling of long black hair
on the seething water.
Gerry reached the torrent. Marga.
rita and the Man had already been
whirled far towards the great river.
He plunged into tie flood. The water
was thick with earth sticks, uprooted
plants and debris of every sort. Con-
ficting, swirling currents tugged at
heavy stones, rolled them along and
sometimes even tossed one to the sur
face.
Gcrry's struggling body was hurled
hither and thither. 4 stray current
shot him to the surface. but before he
could take breath other currents
sucked him down aud dragged him
along the rough surface of the crum-
bling soil. He felt as though he were
being torn limb from limb.
Then suddenly he was cast into an
eddy that in comparison with the mael-
strom was almost peaceful. For an
instant he felt like one who awakes
from terrible dream, but with the
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 1t
seemed on the verge of bursting. But
to his mind pierced a 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 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 an.
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
Tor the last minute Of his allotted be.
Ing. The life instinct was oil that still
lived in Gerry. 1t urged him to a last
enort. He dragged his body upon the
tree where the branches forked from
the main trunk. Utterly exhausted, he
sank into their embrace. They held
MIN 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 how so much now as rise. The val
icy became moving sea. On its flow
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
Dlindly 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
a toy house on a lonely islet.
A great, open, white umbrella lined
with green sailed gayly along. II
caught in the branches Of Gerry's tree
Uprooted cotton bushes floated by, ant
cane, snapped off, sometimes torn uI
In whole hills, banked up against tn.
tree and formed vast, unstable
island. toward which swan the delud
ed stock.
From the mouth Of the cleft in tn,
river gorge issued a laundering cata
ract. 1t had burst through the walll
Of the ditch and even unseated a 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 ant
deeper. The turbid food devoured tn,
silt Of the valley, accumulated since
man was, and carried it, seething, on
towards the river. The valley would
be left naked, stripped Of the sourc,
Of life.
Gerry's tree had crawled away from
the main current. In q vast eddy /
approached the mound wherein squat
ted the old plantation house. Don,
Maria stood Mt the edge of the waters
Her two hands we're clenched and helt
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 Of
his coming. the day he had opened hi
ditch. She swept her arms over tn,
terrible scene and called down thu
curse Of all the ruin and death on hi.
head. But Gerry was beyond hearing
In all the world there was none to heal
the old woman. She stood alone; abou
her the silent waters, above her tn,
h10zfnry him oLv