The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-05-13

"Why have you come into my life?
Why do you begin TO play a part in
itT she whispered, as If in terror.
suppose You let me assist you up
the bank, Mademoiselle, before / an
swer your question. We can hardly
discuss that matter here" said Hilary.
She seemed to recover her self-pos-
session. "There is no need to answer
me-" she replied scornfully. Never
dust from her skirt and to give her
his hand. They scrambled up the side
of the gorge and stood %breathless upon
the read again. Far away Hilary
heard the crash of the logs, flung owe
the dam and shooting toward the boom.
Madeleine Rosny turned and faced
Hilary. well, monsieur?" she de-
manded.
1T is because / want us 70 be
friends" he said. And he took the
girls hand frankly in his.
She let ii lie there for o moment,
gazing at him in establishment and
puzzlement. Then, to Hilary's sur
prise, he saw the look of fear come
into her eyes again.
"It is too late,' she whispered.
"Surely not, mademoiselle. We have
misunderstood each other, perhaps,
but"
Il tell you it is too late. Oh, why
did you not come to me and say this
b~efore?" she cried, and suddenly broke
into understandable sobbing. II thought
you were grasping and wicked, and /
hated you. l wished you evil. Look
to your booml No, let me go,
sieur! Look to your boomT"
And, snatching her hand away, she
ran, still sobbing wildly, down the
road, leaving Hilary staring after her
in uncomfortable dismay.
He could not understand her mean
ing, though her last words still rang
in his ears. He watched her as she
fled through the trees like a hunted
deer. She vas out of his sight around
the bend Of the road almost in an In
slant, her shoulders heaying and her
hands outstretched in blind panic be-
fore her.
Hilary heard the shouts of the work.
men still more plainly, rising above the
awful smashing of the logs. Then,
while he still looked after Madeleine,
there came a sound louder than any
he mad heard, rivaling that of the ex-
plosion itself, as if Thor's hammer had
Changed upon a leaden anvil, as If the
earth were rent in twain like a stitched
garment.
There was no need to wonder what
had occurred. Hilary began running
down the road. His eyes were fixed
ahead where the log boom lay tent like
a straw pipe, and the great burden of
logs which the Rocky river had borne
SO long was %plunging down the cata-
ract.
He ran on, breathless, and the stu
pendous spectacle went on before his
eyes. A mighty barrier, piled up for
a few moments against the rocks that
spanned the cataract, gave promise Of
arresting the debacle. Behind it the
logs spun and twisted. All the freight
of the river, far back from the hills,
was sweeping onward, an Irresistible
army, forging past stone and boulder,
tossing, upheaving, mounting the dam,
whose cement wall was now SUBJ
merged, swept by the milk-white tor
rent to where had been the boom. The
clashing of the logs against that wood
en- wall was like ~battefing rams against
a city wall. Then swiftly, as Hilary
still ran. he saw the picture dissolve.
The wall Of logs went down into the
cataract. and a column Of spray rose
higher than the flume, fiared funnel
wise and caught the sunlight into pris-
matically banded hues like a rainbow,
and went down.
Over the cataract swept the logs, un-
impeded now. The river had burst its
chains and spewed Its burdens into the
Gulf. Fanlike, the lumber began to
spread and stain the gray st. Lawrence
surface with mottled brown.
Hilary reached the waste place be-
side the mill. The workmen stood
there, impotently watching the ruin of
their toll. 1t vas the wresk of every
thing. There could be no hope of build
ing up the boom In the face of that
torrent Of water until the river was
low enough for the closing Of the dam
gates to keep 1t pent back And long
before that time the entire lumber
load OF Rocky river would be in the
Gulf. Hilary looked on in einbittered
silence. He might as well give up now
and go home. Brousseau and Nature
had united to thwart him.
The workmen had been joined by
the mill hands. who had left their
work and hurried down to the boom
when the catastrophe occurred. They
seemed all to have lost their heads.
They were chattering excitedly; Hill
airy could not understand a word. but
Connell started and looked about him.
s'uhat is it," Hilary asked.
"Where's Jean Baptistef" sold Lafe.
II don't know. He set on the dyna.
mite. and that ended his job. Whyf"
Nothing" said Lafe, stin glancIng