The Benson signal., 1917-06-30

opening as it crashed in foaning ter
rible, red cataract through the outlet,
striking down great trees, roaring.
boiling wildly to the bottom Of the
gorge far below?
No, he saw nothing. Broken, beaten
down by huge bowlder that had been
| thrown upward by the explosion and
had struck him on the breast, and
lying battered under a rain of smaller
stones and earth, he was as one dead.
eBy heavens!" cried Winters in great
excitement on the crest Of the hill,
| "he's done, it. He's saved the dam;
that's a man!'
"Don't you know him?" screamed.
Helen nlingworth in his ear.
f'NO."
'Meade!"
/ Winters caught her by the arm.
4 "He's dead" she cried high and
shrill, "but he saved the dam and the
bridge and the town. He's made atone
ment."
"Yes, yes; don't faint" cried Win
ters.
| 'Fa1nt! I'm going to him."
"How?"
'"The nearest way" screamed the
woman, letting herself down over the
cliff wall to the broken rocks, by which
only the hardy could reach the lower
level.
What of the dam below in the val
ley?
"Hold it, men, hold it; for Gods
sake, hold it," shouted Vandeventer,
rising from his crouching position
against the palisade to resume it
instantly he had spoken. "Keep it
up. If it goes down, let's go down with
it. Hang on-hang on! Wen hold it.
We aren't beat yet"
Broken words, oaths, protestations,
curses, cheers, expletives in strange
languages from the polyglot mob of
men burst forth. Even towards had
been turned into heroes because they
had fought by the side Of men. Here
and there a man not weaker phys
ically, perhaps, but less resolute, less
spiritually consecrated. less divinely
Obsessed, dropped out Of the rank that
pitted itself in furious, futile, but SUBJ
lime fury against the wavering wall.
Some Of them fell backward and lay
still. Some had tainted and some OF
them were half dead. A few here and
there sank down on the trampled, mud
dy embankment and buried their heads
In their hands, sobbing Historically.
But most still blind, mad, sublime,
held on. And the palisade did not fall
It did not bend back any further.
The throb that told Of the tremen.
dOuS pressure Of the waves, the culver
that experience could feel the prelude
to failure, began to die away, to STOP
What did it mean? The thunder grew
still, the rain diminished, it ceased, the
clouds broke. Some great hand, as of
God, swiftly tore the black vault of
the heavens apart. Faint light began
to glow over the sodden land. Through
the rift they saw dimly one great peak
Of mighty range. What had happenedi
''Here," said Vandeventer.
How white he looked, how haggard
| oCACdho VI gray III Ills UldCh udlI Ludt
had not been there before, but his eyes
were blazing. He was still the indom.
liable chief of the Spartan band. The
nearest men gave him a hand. He
clambered up to his former vantage
point on top of the highest log of the
stockade and stared down. The rise
of the water had stopped! He could
ho1i %r,1a
rain had ceased again, but by every
natural law the drainage from the hills
would continue for some time in full
volume. Yes, by all rights the dam
was doomed. The water still trickled
through the palisades in many small
streams. That had been a gallant eff.
fort they had made, even if vain one.
For ten minutes he stood silent, ex-
hausted. Then he saw. The water
was not rising. No, it was falling;
only trifle, but enough. Presently it
had stopped f1ltering through the re-
vetment. He looked back. Not a drop
ran on the other side Of the palisade.
Vandeventer knew that the water must
be discharging somewhere. The lake
must have broken through somewhere.
He only needed that hint to recall the
hogback, and then Meade. He saw 1t
all now.
"We've won, the dams saved" he
cried greatly to the men who stood
back of the palisade staring at him.
Roberts has blown up the hogback.
The waters falling. See for your
selves"
Every man sprang up the palisade.
Someone laughed and then someone
raised a cheer and those mud-covered,
sodden, worn-Out men, who had been
about to die, saluted in heroic acclaim
him who had led them to victory and"'
by implication him who had made that
triumph possible.
(TO BE CONTINUEA