Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1920-02-20


it?" she whispered, as If in terror.
Suppose you let me assist you up
the bank, Mademoiselle, before l 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
theless she permitted him to brush the
dust from her skirt and to give her
his hand. They scrambled up the side
of the gorge and stood breathless upon
the road again. Far away Hilary
heard the crash of the logs, flung over
the dam and shooting toward the boom.
Madeleine Rosny turned and faced
Hilary. "Well, monsieur" she de-
manded.
1T is because / want us to be
friends" he said. And he took the
girls hand frankly in his.
She let 1t lie there for 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.
at Is too late" she whispered.
"Surely not, mademoiselle. We have
misunderstood each other, perhaps,
but"
II tell you 1t is too late. Oh, why
did you not come to me and say this
before" she cried, and suddenly broke
into understandable sobbing. II thought
you were grasping and wicked, and /
hated you. wished you evil. Look
to your booml No, let me go, mon
sieur! Look to your boom"
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 was out of his sight around
the bend of the road almost in an in
slant, her shoulders heaving 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 had heard, rivallng that of the ex-
piOsion itself, as If Thor's hammer had
changed upon leaden anvil, as if the
earth were rent in twain like 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 rent like
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
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 battering rams against
city wall. Then swiftly, as Hilary
still ran, he saw the picture dissolve.
The wall of logs went down into the
cataract, and column of spray rose
higher than the fiume, fiared funnel
wise and caught the sunlight into pris-
matically banded hues like a rainbow,
and went down.
Over the cataract swept the logs, I'M
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 notified brown.
Hilary reached the waste place be-
side the mill. The workmen stood
there, impotently watching the ruin of
| their toll. 1t was the wreck of every-
thing. There could be no hope of build
Ing up the boom in the face of that
| VI WolCL 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 embittered
silence. He might as we'll 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 excitediy; Hill
airy could not understand a word, but
Connell started and looked about him.
"What is itF Hilary asked.
where's Jean BaptisteT said LATE.
Il don't know. He set Off the dyna-
mite, and that ended his job. Why?"
Nothing" said LATE, still glancing
about him.