Evening star., 1925-01-22
tcont.nued from Yesterdays starr

Suddenly the fall of the water-it
could not be calded rain-thinned and
a, terrible spectacle came before our
eyes. The water thinned, gathering
to dense core, and wreathed into
'whirling spiral, which spun up and
up until 1t widened into an inverted
cone of leaden cloud. behind which
the lightning played in livid sheets
and splashes. And the dense column
of water moved over the cup north of
our plateau, solemnly, majeStiCally,
roaring the tune of its march as it
went, with undertones of the crashing
thunder. Its trail was wide path
of smashed and riven trees and fiat
tened shrub Over the cup of land
the column moved, leaving sheet OF
desolate water, until 1t passed TO the
spur of hills of which the plateau
was the point, and was lost to our
sight. Its voice now was muted to
distant murmur. fretted by jagged
mutterings of far-off thunder The
drab Ereenish mauve of the sky light
ened to generous amber.
OF our relief that we had found
haven before such an awful visitation
let a second silent handshake between
the master and me bear witness. Yet
our worse danger was still to come,
and we were TO find that we had con-
graduated each other too soon.
The river of the northward cup was
lost in wide sheet of water, and 1t
was apparent that the outlet gorge
was too small for quick drainage.
We saw that the water of our en-
trance basin was rising steadily and
quickly, which meant that the level
of the waterway within the cavern
would be rising also. This we found
TO be the case, but toward nightfall
the rise seemed to have found its
maximum. We were cheated into a
false sense of security.
The note OF our cavern waterfall
gave US first warning Of the danger.
In the years of our sojourn under the
Plateau of the Scar the voice of the
fall had ever been a friendly whisper
10 US. We lived with its solacing
murmur always in our ears, and 1
think we missed it when absent from
the cave. But in the middle of the
night after the hurricane we became
acutely conscious that its note was
chan nging-growing louder, gaining
suggestion Of menace.
The noise swelled into threaten
Ing roar, and as l got up from my bed
60 dress the whole cavern was filled
with a hoot and rumble which vi
brated enough to shake the teeth
from ones head like pips from a.
squeezed orange. 1t was plain now
why the Indians avoided the Plateau
of the Scar. The noise was terrifying.
b Already most of the men were
astir for the uproar made sleep i'm
possible, and when I got out of the
dormitory into the main cavern and
pushed home the main switch the
arc lit up a sight that spelled imme-
diate danger. The column of water
from the fall was coming down its
passage at such force and volume
that II was describing an arc above
its normal ledge, shooting clean past
the turbine barrier right to the CEN
ter of the cavern lake.
The level OF the water in the cavern
was creeping up at an alarming
speed, and already the machine shop
was flooded, the oil cave awash, and
most of our working floors were un-
der water. I mustered all hands, and
we tumbled into launches and barges,
or indeed into anything that would
hoat
Our first concern was to throw open
the big gates OF the cave entrances, lest
they should impede the egress Of the
water, but this gave little relief.
To save our ships from being
crushed against the roofs of their
caves was our next thought. We
found the first ship so deeply awash
that she was straining at her moor
ing stays. We slackened these, so
that she rose until her top was al
most scraping the ceiling, but the
water mounted so quickly that we
found this eXpedient useless. 1
would have taken her clean out of
the cavern, but the height of the en-
trance was perhaps the lowest point
of all in the great chamber. and with
tho high level Of the risen water
that way of escape was barred. All
we could do-and a despairing meas
Ure II seemed-was to unmoor her
and meaneuver her to that point
IN the cave system where the ceiling
was highest 1 shall not dwell on
the strenuousness of our labors. but
IL may be imagined. We were all
soaked to the skin, and 1 was almost
afraid to take tally of the men in