The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-08-17

thousand thunderclapS, the wind
tore down the mountains, through the
narrow canyons, into the valleys,
shrieking In the pines, and fell upon
them and hurled them down and
brushed them back. And after the
wind. the rain. A drop or two struck
Vandeventer's cheek; another, anoth-
er, and then the flood. He lifted his
head and stared and shook his fist at
the sky and turned to the human ter
mites he commanded.
Garry on, carry on, boys" he cried.
shrieking to be heard above the thun-
der peals, "we'll beat 1t yet"
A cheer rose about him and was
| caught up and ran along the top Of
the great dam. The half-maniacal yell
was such a cry as men might give
vent to in the heat of battle, the ex-
element Of wild charge, and then they
fell to it again. The more ignorant,
unaware Of the feebleness Of the pail
SADIE, the more knowing Indifferent to
1T, seeing only the job, alike realized
only their duty to fight on, to answer
the appeal to their manhood, to refuse
to admit defeat even when life trem-
bled In the balance.
Yes, to use the ancient smile again,
the fountains of the great deep were
broken open. What had befallen them
before was nothing to this. The hard
rain of the night seemed trifiing COM
pared to this avalanche Of water. This
was q cloudburst indeed. And to
make 1t worse, to make their task
harder, to render their efforts useless,
the high wind roaring down the valley
piled the water up and drove 1t in
thunderous assaulting waves against
the great mound of earth on which the
men struggled and labored frantically.
Vandeventer, shovel In hand-he did
not dare to throw it down, lest his &C
ton be ACKNOWLEDGMENT from gang
to gang, from man to man, talking to
them. appealing to them, pointing out
weaknesses here and there, inspiring
them, holding them up as man might
hold a stricken line against the on
slaught Of victorious and overwhelm-
ing force. And against wind and rain
in that thick darkness, blinded by the
flashing lightning, stunned by the peal
Ing thunder, with zeal superhuman
they tOiled on and on and on.
Back and forth went the chief, show
ing himself a leader Of leaders, and
wherever he stopped the fury and des-
peratiOn of the effort to stem the tide
increased. When he came plodding
along the muddy roadway to the part
committed to Meade he did not find
the engineer.
where's ROberts?" he yelled above
the noise Of the storm.
HE and two men have gone, SIR"
Sooner" cried Vandeventer, cut to
the heart at what he thought was a
deSertiOn. "Well," he shouted, realiz-
ing there was nothing he could do then
and that he had neither breath nor
time to waste, there's more need for
the rest of us to take their places"
He drew man or two from the
other gangs to reinforce this danger
point and himself directed their work.
Now it takes time for water to rise
five feet, even in a cloudburst or
succession of them. The rain constant
ly seemed to increase as the wind
drove it on. Vandeventer knew that
the dam was doomed, that the sluice
and the half-finished spillway COM
bined could discharge only small part
Of the flow, but he knew that he would
have two hours at least to work be-
fore the water could pass the crest,
undermine, and batter down the pail
side and begin to trickle- over. Just
as soon as 1t did roll over the top,
unless they could stop it, the whole
thing was gone. For those two hours
the supermen labored unremittingly In
the downpour with persistent and he
roic courage that Should have been re-
corded in song and story but which
was not. 1t was remembered after
while by none save few. To the
many 1t was only "all in the days
work |"
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. 1t
carried off great volume of water,
but hopelessly little in comparison with
the flood. Foot by foot in the torren-
tial downpour the water rose. At half
after eight it reached the level of the
spillway and commenced to rush
through in ever-increasing volume, but
the flow into the reservoir was far
greater than the spillway's capacity.
Still the sight Of the rushing water
encouraged the men. Every one of
them felt that If the palisade held the
discharge would be increased enough
to stop the rise, but at present the eff
feet was small. By nine o'clock 1t was