The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-18
The Rains
Came
CONTINUED from Page 81


others. understood the meaning Of
the sound and cried out, Flood,
Flood Take 10 the roofs and all
about him the cry was picked up
and carried along until the voices
in the square OF the UntOuchables
joined the sound Of terror that rose
from the upper city
Selling two of the children. with
Mrs. Jobnekar carrying the small
est, they ran back again into the
little pink house with the Noting
ha mlace curtains, up one flight of
steps and then another until they
came 10 the room. Neighbors
pushed up the stairs at their heels
all screa aiming and shouting with
terror. Behind them the panic
stricken mob poured out on 10 the
flat roof until there was no more
room and children disappeared
trampled in the agony of fear.
AS the flood struck the house. it
swayed. creaked and groaned, and
almost at once the far end col
lapsed with all its weight of terri
fled humanity. Then the rest gave
way slowly, like stricken animal
sinking 10 its knees, and Mr.. and
Mrs. Jobnekar and the frightened,
crying children. slowly sank with
II beneath the torrent. As the
water closed over his head he
pressed the children closer to him
as if to comfort and reassure them,
and thought. Il must not die yet,
when there is so much to be done
When the flood had swept on
across the flat plains toward
Mount ALBANIA, not one house re-
manned in all the Untouchable
quarter.
For 90 years since the day the
dam was finished as one of the
wonders Of India the fault had re-
manned hidden. For % years the
Mahara jah in his pride, the Dewan
in his Witness. Raschid the Police
Minister. Mr.. Jobnekar, the coun-
cilors of state and the humble of
Ranchipur had believed in the
great dam with a faith that was
like their faith in the ring of hills
and the unchanging desert beyond;
for in the hearts of all of them
save perhaps the old Dewan, who
was as old as time, there was a
kind of mystical childlike faith in
the miracles which could be work.
ed by the great engineers from the
West things which no Indian
could conceive Or execute.
Had they not built the huge
barrages of the North and the
great bridges over the Ganges
and the Brahmaputra ? And who
among them could be trusted
more than the smooth and plausi-
Bile Aristide de Groot. who had,
he said. built dams and bridges and
factories in Switzerland and Aus
tria, in Italy and Sweden, in Bra
zil and China
After nine thousand people had
lost their lives in the great flood
there were those in Ranchipur who
Aristide de Groot and
even recalled suspicious, partly
which they had long
ago that he was not as he had
said, a Swiss, nor anything else
very definite but simply a man
without country, an adventurer.
One or two clever people like
the Dewan and the old Maharanee
Aristide de Groot, %
years afterward, only AS pair
of eyes, cold eyes like those of
the deadly kraft, which must have
regarded all men as exactly alike
simply because they were poten-
tial victims of Aristide de Groot.
But his viper's tongue had been
smooth enough to persuade not
only the lowly and the good and
the simple like the Maharaj ah, but
even men like the worldly Viceroy
himself, that he was great en-
gineer.
After the disaster when the first
news of its horrors reached the
Dewan. surrounded by his innum-
cradle family in Poona, the old
man, running his lean fingers
through the long white beard,
sadly There was some fault in
the dam. l can scarcely remember
that man de Groot save for his
eyes. In his eyes was hidden the
whole tragedy of European greed, :"
And the fault in the dam was
nothing which any one could prove.
least of all in court of justice
where Aristide de Groot would sit
surrounded by rich and corrupt
lawyers; and there was always the
shock Of the earthquake which
accompanied the flood as an ex-
cuse for the collapse.
II was the British Government
which uncovered in detail the rise
of the famous Aristide de Groot
since the comparatively lean and
shoddy days when he had con-
structed the great barrage of
Ranchipur. Those who had the
investigation in charge discovered
that he was no longer, as indeed
he had never been. a proper engi-
neer. and that long ago ne had
abandoned any pretentions in that
direction; now he had interests in
oil and foreign exchange and mu-
nitions and even more shady I'M
dertakings.
Out of the misery of bankrupt
nations and the death of men he
had built a fabulous fortune which
was vague and untracea bile Some
of II was in New York. some in
London, little in Paris. some in
Amsterdam. and some in Sweden
And the British Government dis
covered that behind dozen petty
wars and revolutions and dis
orders there always lurked the
sinister presence of the man with
eyes like kraft and the tongue
of a Russell's viper. man with q
genius for creating markets for
rifles and shells and cannon and
machine guns.
And almost at once Aritide dc