The Dermott news., 1917-08-30

1 the rest of us to take their places" 1 He drew a man or two from the other gangs to re-enforce this danger point and himself directed their work
 Now 1t takes time for water to rise 1 five feet, even in a cloudburst or q 1 succession of them. The rain constant 1 ly seemed to increase as the wind drove it on. Vandeventer knew that 1 the dam was doomed, that the sluice and the half-finished spillway com bined could discharge only q small part of the flow, but he knew that he would l have two hours at least to work be- | fore the water could pass the crest, undermine, and batter down the pali- side and begin to trickle over. Just as soon as 1t did roll over the top unless they could stop 1t, the whole thing was gone. For those two hours the supermen lahored unremittingly in the downpour with persistent and he roic courage that should have been re- corded in song and story but which was not It was remembered after Il while by none save few. To the many 1t was only "all in the days work t"
 The underSluice in the side of the dam which would later serve as head gate for the canal had been intended to pass the smaller floods which might occur during the construction and had been open since the rain began. It carried of g great volume of water, but hepelesSly little in comparison with l the food Foot by foot in the torren- tiat dowupour the water rose. At half after eight It reached the level of the spiltway and commenced to rush through in ever-incrcasing volume, but the flow into the reservoir was far greater than the spiIlway's capacity.
 Sttn the sight of the rushing water encouraged the men. Every one of them felt that if the palisade held the To stop the rise, but at present the ef- feet was small. By nine o'clock It was within foot of the top. They began to measure its rise by inches Although the dam had been carefully kept level as It was built the trample of horses and men. the present digging and pali- sading and reyetting had caused little depreSsionS. Now the water rose to the level Here and there il began to triekle over
 The rain coming down from the mountain tops was as cold as ice. yet the men were in fever of excitement. They had got their second wind. They were too enthused. too desperate to feel their weariness. They had not worked before as they did then. It was the last possible nervous outburst with most of them. They could keep t up little longer-till they dropped dead As the mad thoroughbred falls i'll his stride on the track. pushed be- yond his power of endurance. as even the common carthorse can he made to go until he drops, so these men, white, haggard. nervous, drawn-faeed, sweat mingling with the rain on their sodden bodies. would go till they broke. They had not quite reached that point yet.
 There were some five hundred heavy cement bags which had been filled with sand and piled up on the roadway at convenient points. As a forlorn hope, as q last try. Nandeventer called all the diggers and ditchers. and hewers and drivers and hade them tackle the sandbags The timber wall that rose to four or five feet was now packed to height of three with au unequal wall of earth.
 The waves were beginning to roll against the rampant, although their force as vet was broken by the brush wood. Nandeventer jumped up on the paliSade near the center. There were some large logs there where he could stand. and whence he could get as clear view of the whole top of the dam as was possible through the driv- ing rain.
 There" shouted the engineer point ing to red trickle-it seemed to him like blood. taking its hideous hue from the red clay of the banks-where the water had found low spot and was washing across the top and triekling through the new wall and down on the other side. Even as he pointed, the triekle became stream and the stream bade fair to be a flood. Men ran and dropped sandbags over in front of the palisade, right where the leak had occurred. Other men heaped up the earth behind the wall, seeking Ia smother it and stop 1t. The water checked there, they were forced to do the same thing at another place. Desperately they dropped their sand bags. sturdlly they piled their shovels in the mud; scrambling and yelling, they ran from leak to leak. They lift ed the heavy bags of sand as if they had been loaves of bread and damned them down. They swung pick and shovel like toys, although the rain made all the earth sticky mud and the work all the harder. The water was clear over the top of the dam now, and streaming through the revetment