The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-08-31

a deluge in my path to stop me.
Come"
1t was an entirely practicable climb,
but rather hard one on the wet,
crumbling rocks. 1t did not take the
three young people long to surmount
the difficulties, however, and after q
few minutes they stood on top Of the
mesa.
Near at hand was the hut of which
the conductor had spoken. 1t stood
upon little rise above the general
level, and from 1t one could see far in
every direction. Between the hills and
over the lower crest of Baldwin's
knob they could even see dimly the
far-off plains, little sickly yellow
light still lingering there before the
advance Of the storm.
The hut was made Of stone and logs.
They had not any more than reached
1t before the storm began. Claps of
thunder, flashes Of lightning under
which the army on the dam were fight
ing, were heard and seen with tenfold
clearness by the little group on the
huge upland.
1t was sight to awe the very soul
of humanity. Miles and miles down
the mountain side and among the hills
the whirling battalions of clouds rolled
and tumbled and tossed and clashed
like aerial armies. The lightning,
while it was not in sheets, was prac-
tically continuous, flash succeeding
flash in uncountable and binding sue
cession. Again they noticed the strange
coruscating, bursting effect as bolt
after bolt apparently struck some gram
lite ledge and was then thrown back in
splinters Of fire. The heavy, awful roll
of the thunder was continuous and ter
rifle.
They stood staring through door and
windows in silence, Meade and their
quest forgot in the appalling tenn
pest by all except the woman. 1t was
she who recalled them.
'Let us hasten on" she said, and she
had almost to scream to make herself
heard in the wild tumult. 'Tt's mag
nificent, wonderful, but"
AS matter of fact, all the mani
festations of nature at it's grandest
would not have sufficed to turn her
head away from her lovers face If she
could have seen him.
"YOu can't go now" said Winters
decisively, "the rains bad enough as
1t is, and that cloud will burst in a
minute. Old Noah's flood won't be a
circumstance to it."
"Pm protected from the rain," she
answered.
Winters shook his head.
The weight of it would almost
beat you down, Miss nlingworth."
II haven't had any experience with
it, but 1 think Winters is right" said
Rodney.
"I'll go on alone, then" said the girl
passionately, stepping out of the house,
eff you gentlemen don't care to come
The next moment, with a culmlnat-
ing scream like the shrek Of all the
lost souls of creation heard above the
furious decorating roar of the thunder,
the wind added it's quota to the dem
onstration Of natural force, and now
the rain fairly dropped upon them in
apparently solid sheets. OF course
clouds do not burst. Such a thing is
scientifically and meteorologically i'm
possible, but anyone who has ever ex-
perienced the suddenness and fury and
weight of a western deluge in a nor
mally dry land will understand the
term. The wind swept over the pla-
teau, where it had free course like a
hurricane; the rain came down in
masses apparently. Until their eyes
became accustomed to it, the falling
water blotted out the landscape.
The woman was hurled against the
side Of the house by the sudden and
violent assault of the hurricane. The
two men half dragged, half carried her
around to the lee side of the cabin.
The roof of the hut had given way
here and there, and within it was soon
flooded. Where they stood, however,
by chance happened to be the solidest
part of the overhang of the roof, and
they were in some degree protected.
that is, from the direct violence Of the
downpour. They were, of course,
drenched in few minutes in spite of
their raincoats. With one man on Ell
ther side of her to give her as much
protection as possible, the woman
leaned against the stone wall and
stared through the rain down the val
ley, seeking to see the dam, perhaps
mile and half away. OF course the
maximum Of the downpour could not
last any more than the maximum of the
gale, but the deluge was succeeded by
heavy, driving rain still swept on by
q strong wind.
Below the mesa the lake was
whipped into foam by the beat Of the
rain and rolled into waves by the as
sault of the wind. All three of them
knew what this deluge portended. The
downpour would raise the level of the
lake so that it would overflow the
dam, which would be swept away, the
valley would be inundated by a flood,
like a tidal wave, the incompleted via
duct would be ruined, the town would
be overwhelmed, the loss of life and
property would be appalling.
"The spillway ought to take it."
shouted Winters, knowing what was
in the minds Of the other two by what
was in his own.
'Tt's not finished" roared Rodney.
Winters threw up his hands.
evil the dam hold it?" cried the
woman, understanding.
until the water rises above it. Just
as soon as it begins to wash over, it
will go, and the quicker for these
waves" answered Rodney at the top