The Pulaskian., 1920-02-06


 Why do you begin to play a part in it?" she whispered, as if in terror. Suppose you let me assist you up
 the bank, Mademoiselle before I an-
 swer your question. We can hardly
 discuss that matter here" said Hilary. She seemed to recover her self-pos- 1 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.
 Tt is because want us to be friends" he said. And he took the girls hand frankly in his.
 She let it lie there for moment, gazing at him in astonishment and
 puzzlement Then, to Hilarys 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"
 ''f tell you it Is too late. Oh, why did you not come to me and say this before?" she cried, and suddenly broke into unrestrainable sobbing. .I thought you were grasping and wicked, and hated you. I wished you evil. Look to your boom No, let me go, mon- sieur! Look to your boom p 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 fled through the trees like hunted
 deer. She was out of his sight around the bend of the road almost in an in- stant, 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, l there came a sound louder than any he had heard, rivaling 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 l ahead where the log boom lay rent 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 l spanned the cataract, gave promise of arresting the debacle. Behind 1t the l 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 sub
 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 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 Hume, flared 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 it's chains and spewed it's 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. It was the wreck 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 it 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 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 ary could not understand a word, but Connell started and looked about him.
 "What is it?" Hilary asked. Where's Jean Baptiste?" said Lafe. q don't know. He set off the dyna- mito ond that enf1pd his ioh Why 7o