Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1916-06-03

From head TO toe he was battered
ana 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 a thought sharper
than pain-the thought of Margarita
and the Man. With clenched teeth be
struck out for the current.
Far. far away rose a 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 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 guIps Of IN,
turgid flood. Then an uprooted ire,
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 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 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. Numbered
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 a lonely islet.
A great open. white umbrella lined
with green sailed gayly along. 1t
| caught in the branches of Gerry's tree
| Uprooted cotton bushes fioated by, and
cane, snapped off, sometimes torn up
In whole hills. banked up against the
| tree and formed vast, unstable
island, toward which swan the delud-
| ed stock
From the mouth Of the cleft in the
| river gorge issued a laundering cata-
ract. 1t had burst through the walls
! 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
| deeper. The turbid food devon ID the
| silt of the valley. accumulated since
man was. and carried ii, seething. out
towards the river The valley would
be left naked, stripped of the source
of life.
Gerry's tree had crawed away from
| the main current In a vast eddy II
| approached the mound whereOn squat
ted the old plantation house. Dona
Maria stood at the edge of the waters
| Her two hands were clenched and held
above her gray head. Thin wisps OF
hair hung about her face. Her face
was distorted. She was cursng Gerry.
cursing the day Of his birth. the day Of
his coming. the day be had opened his
| ditch. She swept her arms over the
| terrible scene and called down the
| curse OF all the ruin and death on his
| head. But Gerry was beyond hearing
In all the world there was none to hear
the old woman She stood alone; about
her the silent waters above her the
blazing blue sky.
The tree shot out Of the eddy The
| current, the main current from the
| cleft caught il squarely and swept Il
away It suddenly shook its long trau
Of riGraff, and turning and turning.
| more and more swiftly. swan out on
to the churning bosom OF the great
river.
The valley had disappeared. squat
ting on the very level Of the far-hung
waters, the old house stil stood. The
bright sun struck CLINT Of light from
its white walls and gave rich col0rs to
It's moss grown tiles The roof was
crowded with fowl aud a strange med
ley Of heavy flying birds glad Of
perch on which to rest Dona Maria
went into the house She closed the
great board shutters The house looked
as If 1t had closed its eyes in a last
remuneration
Gerry's tree hoated down the river.
II swung slowly along near the north
shore. Just below II were houses
They were perched on the cliff Below
them were more houses and under
these the tiled roofs Of stlll other
bouses just topped the flood The
houses were what was left Of Plran-
has
From the shore canoes in search
of loot began to shoot out on the