The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-03-16

of her sent coursing through him. Gently, as if conso,ing a child who had bruised finger, he talked, ull- til the sobs grew fainter and fainter.
 At last she raised her face to him. Her lips were close to his. Tears sl1one in her eyes. There was an instant of tense silence then
 You're . darling, Eric, and I'm just a spoiled brat, and I-I need a handkerchief"
 'I1l say you do," he laughed as he handed her his. She wiped her eyes.
 My makeup is ruined" Control regained, Emily was once more her. self. "Give me five minutes and I'll be All right. There1l be no more tearG I promise you. We'll go to the party, and laugh, and have fun"
 She hurried up the stairs. At the top she paused. Eric was still stand. ing where she had left him, star ing into the fire.
 NS
 Eric, if you insist on giving away tricks, Dr. Farrell and just have to beat you" Alans laugh was hearty as he added up the score. The four-Emily, Alan, Eric, and pr. Farrell--were seated at the bridge tables, the night after the Maddox dinner party.
 Fries not keeping his mind on the cards tonight" Dr. Farrell broke in. Whats wrong, son? Wor- ried?"
 Frankly, yes, Dr. Farrell" Eric answered. About the weather"
 Whats wrong with the weather? Forecast says warmer Dr. Farrell replied. After this snow, a little warm weather should be welcome ,
 Tt probably is, to everyone but me-" Eric said. Personally, I'd like to have it stay cold for a while longer" He noted the rinasked ques- ton in their eyes and went on to explain.
 Its about the dam. We had a heavy snowfall here, but farther north 1t was record breaker for this time of year. Now, if we get rain and warm weather, all of this snow will run off, rather than soak into the ground, as it would do if the thaw was gradual"
 And what has all this to do with your dam?" Emily asked. "It may make, or break it," Eric said simply. You see, we built a diversion dam about a half mile upstream before we started work on the main dam. This diversion dam is little more than pile of rock and earth. Right now it is back wa ter a mile upstream. It's taking about all the pressure it can stand, and if the river starts to rise, it may go out.
 "If 1t does, and all that flood comes pounding down the gorge, the new dam may go out too. We've got crews working day and night-24 hours day-pouring gravel into that diversion dam, sandbagging the top; we're doing everything we can to save it. Every available man in the county has been put to work. If the thaw will hold of for 10 days more, we'll make it.
 Summer and the lowlands are in no particular danger, right now" he added, noting Emily's alarmed expression. '"The river, below the dam, is low, and can carry good- sized flood without much trouble. Some of that low country right around the dam might get a few feet of water, but no one lives in there, so there's little danger. We antici- pated that"
 But you didn't anticipate a flood" Farrell asked.
 We thought we had" Eric said. We checked data on the river for years back and built accordingly but we had no idea that there might be such blizzard in March, or that it might be followed by rains and warm weather. Not in 30 years of weather records did we find any, thing that parallels 1t.
 But don't let me bother you with my troubles-you have enough of your own And anyway, we're going to beat this river, snow or no snow, thaw or no thAw. We'll have that diversion dam sound enough to take 10 times all the water this snow can give us. All we need is 8 little time and little more cold weather" You had me worried for min- ute," Alan said. T had a life-sized picture of Sumner floating down. stream in a flood of debris. I'm sure Emily would look most attractive riding a chicken coop, like those pictures one always sees of floods"
 No doubt about it," Farrell shook with laughter at the mental pic- ture. Emily you'd look adorable, even on 8 floating chicken coop"
 Accompanied by my three charm ing men, of course" Emily joined in the laughter. T suppose you all think you'd be handsome matinee idols, even in Noah's ark"
 
 Alone in his hotel room, Eric Kane gazed at his reflection in the mirror and cursed it, softly but fer vently.
 You can't even play bridge with her. She bids hearts-yours does flip Hop. She plays a diamond, and you stare at the one on her finger. SIDE CHANGES