Late as it was, Little went to the Town-hall directly. But there, to his
bitter disappointment, he learned that Mr. Ransome had been called to
Manchester by telegram. Little had nothing to do but to wait, and eat
his heart with impatience. However, next day, toward afternoon, Ransome
called on him at the works, in considerable excitement, and told him
a new firm had rented large business premises in Manchester, obtained
goods, insured them in the “Gosshawk,” and then the premises had caught
fire and the goods been burned to ashes; suspicions had been excited;
Mr. Carden had gone to the spot and telegraphed for him. He had met a
London detective there, and, between them, they had soon discovered that
full cases had come in by day, but full sacks gone out by night: the
ashes also revealed no trace of certain goods the firm had insured. “And
now comes the clew to it all. Amongst the few things that survived the
fire was a photograph--of whom do you think? Shifty Dick. The dog had
kept his word, and gone into trade.”
“Confound him!” said Little; “he is always crossing my path, that
fellow. You seem quite to forget that all this time I am in agonies of
suspense. What do I care about Shifty Dick? He is nothing to me.”
“Of course not. I am full of the fellow; a little more, and he'll make a
monomaniac of me. Mr. Carden offers L200 for his capture; and we got an
inkling he was coming this way again. There, there, I won't mention his
name to you again. Let us talk of what WILL interest you. Well, sir,
have you observed that you are followed and watched?”
“No.”
“I am glad of it; then it has been done skillfully. You have been
closely watched this month past by my orders.”
This made young Little feel queer. Suppose he had attempted anything
unlawful, his good friend here would have collared him.
“You'll wonder that a good citizen like you should be put under
surveillance; but I thought it likely your advertisement would either
make the lady write to you, or else draw her back to the town. She
didn't write, so I had you watched, to see if any body took a sly peep
at you. Well, this went on for weeks, and nothing turned up. But the
other night a young woman walked several times by your house, and went
away with a sigh. She had a sort of Protestant nun's dress on, and a
thick veil. Now you know Mr Carden told you she was gone into a convent.
I am almost sure it is the lady.”
Little thanked him with all his soul, and then inquired eagerly where
the nun lived.
“Ah, my man didn't know that. Unfortunately, he was on duty in the
street, and had no authority to follow anybody. However, if you can keep
yourself calm, and obey orders--”
“I will do anything you tell me.”
“Well, then, this evening, as soon as it is quite dark, you do what
I have seen you do in happier times. Light your reading-lamp, and sit
reading close to the window; only you must not pull down the blind.
Lower the venetians, but don't turn them so as to hide your face from
the outside. You must promise me faithfully not to move under any
circumstances, or you would be sure to spoil all.”
Little gave the promise, and performed it to the letter. He lighted
his lamp, and tried to read book after book; but, of course, he was too
agitated to fix his attention on them. He got all Grace's letters, and
read them; and it was only by a stern effort he kept still at all.
The night wore on, and heart-sickness was beginning to succeed to
feverish impatience, when there was a loud knock at the door. Little
ran to it himself, and found a sergeant of police, who told him in a low
voice he brought a message from the chief-constable.
“I was to tell you it is all right; he is following the party himself.
He will call on you at twelve to-morrow morning.”
“Not before that?” said Little. However, he gave the sergeant a
sovereign for good news, and then, taking his hat, walked twenty miles
out of Hillsborough, and back, for he knew it was useless his going to
bed, or trying to settle to any thing.
He got back at ten o'clock, washed, breakfasted, and dozed on two
chairs, till Ransome came, with a carpet-bag in his hand.
“Tell me all about it: don't omit any thing.” This was Little's
greeting.
“Well, sir, she passed the house about nine o'clock, walking quickly;
and took just one glance in at your window, but did not stop. She came
back in half an hour, and stood on the opposite side of the way, and
then passed on. I hid in a court, where she couldn't see me. By-and-by
she comes back, on your side the way this time, gliding like a cat, and
she crouched and curled round the angle of the house, and took a good
look at you. Then she went slowly away, and I passed her. She was crying
bitterly, poor girl! I never lost sight of her, and she led me a dance,
I can tell you. I'll take you to the place; but you had better let me
disguise you; for I can see she is very timid, and would fly away in a
moment if she knew she was detected.”
Little acquiesced, and Ransome disguised him in a beard and a loose set
of clothes, and a billy-cock hat, and said that would do, as long as he
kept at a prudent distance from the lady's eye. They then took a cab and
drove out of Hillsborough. When they had proceeded about two miles up
the valley, Ransome stopped the cab, and directed the driver to wait for
them.
He then walked on, and soon came to a row of houses, in two blocks of
four houses each.
The last house of the first block had a bill in the window, “To be let
furnished.”
He then knocked at the door, and a woman in charge of the house opened
it.
“I am the chief-constable of Hillsborough; and this is my friend Mr.
Park; he is looking out for a furnished house. Can he see this one?”
The woman said, “Certainly, gentlemen,” and showed them over the house.
Ransome opened the second-story window, and looked out on the back
garden.
“Ah,” said he, “these houses have nice long gardens in the rear, where
one can walk and be private.”
He then nudged Henry, and asked the woman who lived in the first house
of the next block--“the house that garden belongs to?”
“Why, the bill was in the window the other day; but it is just took. She
is a kind of a nun, I suppose: keeps no servant: only a girl comes in
and does for her, and goes home at night. I saw her yesterday, walking
in the garden there. She seems rather young to be all alone like that;
but perhaps there's some more of 'em coming. They sort o' cattle mostly
goes in bands.”
Henry asked what was the rent of the house. The woman did not know,
but told him the proprietor lived a few doors off. “I shall take this
house,” said Little. “I think you are right,” observed Ransome: “it
will just answer your purpose.” They went together, and took the house
directly; and Henry, by advice of Ransome, engaged a woman to come into
the house in the morning, and go away at dusk. Ransome also advised him
to make arrangements for watching Grace's garden unseen. “That will be
a great comfort to you,” said he: “I know by experience. Above all
things,” said this sagacious officer, “don't you let her know she is
discovered. Remember this: when she wants you to know she is here,
she'll be sure to let you know. At present she is here on the sly: so if
you thwart her, she'll be off again, as sure as fate.”
Little was forced to see the truth of this, and promised to restrain
himself, hard as the task was. He took the house; and used to let
himself into it with a latch-key at about ten o clock every night.
There he used to stay and watch till past noon; and nearly every day he
was rewarded by seeing the Protestant nun walk in her garden.
He was restless and miserable till she came out; when she appeared his
heart bounded and thrilled; and when once he had feasted his eyes upon
her, he would go about the vulgar affairs of life pretty contentedly.
By advice of Ransome, he used to sit in his other house from seven till
nine, and read at the window, to afford his beloved a joy similar to
that he stole himself.
And such is the power of true love that these furtive glances soothed
two lives. Little's spirits revived, and some color came back to Grace's
cheek.
One night there was a house broken into in the row.
Instantly Little took the alarm on Grace's account, and bought powder
and bullets, and a double-barreled rifle, and a revolver; and now at the
slightest sound he would be out of bed in a moment ready to defend her,
if necessary.
Thus they both kept their hearts above water, and Grace visited the
sick, and employed her days in charity; and then, for a reward, crept,
with soft foot, to Henry's window, and devoured him with her eyes, and
fed on that look for hours afterward.
When this had gone on for nearly a month, Lally, who had orders to keep
his eye on Mr. Little, happened to come and see Grace looking in at him.
He watched her at a distance, but had not the intelligence to follow her
home. He had no idea it was Grace Carden.
However, in his next letter to his master, who was then in London, he
told him Little always read at night by the window, and, one night, a
kind of nun had come and taken a very long look at him, and gone away
crying. “I suspect,” said Lally, “she has played the fool with him some
time or other, before she was a nun.”
He was not a little surprised when his master telegraphed in reply that
he would be down by the first train; but the fact is, that Coventry
had already called on Mr. Carden, and been told that his wife was in a
convent, and he would never see her again. I must add that Mr. Carden
received him as roughly as he had Little, but the interview terminated
differently. Coventry, with his winning tongue, and penitence and
plausibility, softened the indignant father, and then, appealing to his
good sense, extorted from him the admission that his daughter's only
chance of happiness lay in forgiving him, and allowing him to atone his
faults by a long life of humble devotion. But when Coventry, presuming
on this, implored him to reveal where she was, the old man stood stanch,
and said that was told him under a solemn assurance of secrecy, and
nothing should induce him to deceive his daughter. “I will not lose her
love and confidence for any of you,” said he.
So now Coventry put that word “convent” and this word “nun” together,
and came to Hillsborough full of suspicions.
He took lodgings nearly opposite Little's house, and watched in a dark
room so persistently, that, at last, he saw the nun appear, saw her
stealthy, cat-like approaches, her affected retreat, her cunning
advance, her long lingering look.
A close observer of women, he saw in every movement of her supple body
that she was animated by love.
He raged and sickened with jealousy, and when, at last, she retired, he
followed her, with hell in his heart, and never lost sight of her till
she entered her house in the valley.
If there had been a house to let in the terrace, he would certainly have
taken it; but Little had anticipated him.
He took a very humble lodging in the neighborhood; and by dint of
watching, he at last saw the nun speaking to a poor woman with her veil
up. It revealed to him nothing but what he knew already. It was the
woman he loved, and she hated him; the woman who had married him under
a delusion, and stabbed him on his bridal day. He loved her all the more
passionately for that.
Until he received Lally's note, he had been content to wait patiently
until his rival should lose hope, and carry himself and his affections
elsewhere; he felt sure that must be the end of it.
But now jealousy stung him, wild passion became too strong for reason,
and he resolved to play a bold and lawless game to possess his lawful
wife. Should it fail, what could they do to him? A man may take his own
by force. Not only his passions, but the circumstances tempted him. She
was actually living alone, in a thinly-peopled district, and close to a
road. It was only to cover her head and stifle her cries, and fly with
her to some place beforehand prepared, where she would be brought to
submission by kindness of manner combined with firmness of purpose.
Coventry possessed every qualification to carry out such a scheme as
this. He was not very courageous; yet he was not a coward: and no great
courage was required. Cunning, forethought, and unscrupulousness were
the principal things, and these he had to perfection.
He provided a place to keep her; it was a shooting-box of his own, on a
heathery hill, that nobody visited except for shooting, and the season
for shooting was past.
He armed himself with false certificates of lunacy, to show on an
emergency, and also a copy of his marriage certificate: he knew how
unwilling strangers are to interfere between man and wife.
The only great difficulty was to get resolute men to help him in this
act.
He sounded Cole; but that worthy objected to it, as being out of his
line.
Coventry talked him over, and offered a sum that made him tremble with
cupidity. He assented on one condition--that he should not be expected
to break into the house, nor do any act that should be “construed
burglarious.” He actually used that phrase, which I should hardly have
expected from him.
Coventry assented to this condition. He undertook to get into the house,
and open the door to Cole and his myrmidons: he stipulated, however,
that Cole should make a short iron ladder with four sharp prongs. By
means of this he could enter Grace's house at a certain unguarded
part and then run down and unbar the front door. He had thoroughly
reconnoitered the premises, and was sure of success.
First one day was appointed for the enterprise, then another, and, at
last, it was their luck to settle on a certain night, of which I will
only say at present, that it was a night Hillsborough and its suburbs
will not soon forget.
Midnight was the hour agreed on.
Now at nine o'clock of this very night the chief-constable of
Hillsborough was drinking tea with Little scarcely twenty yards from the
scene of the proposed abduction. Not that either he or Little had the
least notion of the conspiracy. The fact is, Hillsborough had lately
been deluged with false coin, neatly executed, and passed with great
dexterity. The police had received many complaints, but had been unable
to trace it. Lately, however, an old bachelor, living in this suburban
valley, had complained to the police that his neighbors kept such
enormous fires all night, as to make his wall red-hot and blister his
paint.
This, and one or two other indications, made Ransome suspect the
existence of a furnace, and he had got a search-warrant in his pocket,
on which, however, he did not think it safe to act till he had watched
the suspected house late at night, and made certain observations for
himself. So he had invited himself to tea with his friend Little--for
he was sure of a hearty welcome at any hour--and, over their tea, he now
told him his suspicions, and invited him to come in and take a look at
the suspected house with him.
Little consented. But there was no hurry; the later they went to the
house in question the better. So they talked of other matters, and the
conversation soon fell on that which was far more interesting to Little
than the capture of all the coiners in creation.
He asked Ransome how long he was to go on like this, contenting himself
with the mere sight of her.
“Why;” said Ransome, “even that has made another man of you. Your eye
is twice as bright as it was a month ago, and your color is coming back.
That is a wise proverb, 'Let well alone.' I hear she visits the sick,
and some of them swear by her. If think I'd give her time to take root
here; and then she will not be so ready to fly off in a tangent.”
Little objected that it was more than flesh and blood could bear.
“Well, then,” said Ransome, “promise me just one thing: that, if you
speak to her, it shall be in Hillsborough, and not down here.”
Little saw the wisdom of this, and consented, but said he was resolved
to catch her at his own window the next time she came.
He was about to give his reasons, but they were interrupted by a man and
horse clattering up to the door.
“That will be for me,” said Ransome. “I thought I should not get leave
to drink my tea in peace.”
He was right; a mounted policeman brought him a note from the mayor,
telling him word had come into the town that there was something wrong
with Ousely dam. He was to take the mayor's horse, and ride up at once
to the reservoir, and, if there was any danger, to warn the valley.
“This looks serious,” said Ransome. “I must wish you good-by.”
“Take a piece of advice with you. I hear that dam is too full; if
so, don't listen to advice from anybody, but open the sluices of the
waste-pipes, and relieve the pressure; but if you find a flaw in the
embankment, don't trifle, blow up the waste-wear at once with gunpowder.
I wish I had a horse, I'd go with you. By the way, if there is the least
danger of that dam bursting, of course you will give me warning in time,
and I'll get her out of the house at once.”
“What, do you think the water would get as far as this, to do any harm?
It is six miles.”
“It might. Look at the form of the ground; it is a regular trough from
that dam to Hillsborough. My opinion is, it would sweep everything
before it, and flood Hillsborough itself--the lower town. I shall not go
to bed, old fellow, till you come back and tell me it is all right.”
With this understanding Ransome galloped off. On his way he passed by
the house where he suspected coining. The shutters were closed, but
his experienced eye detected a bright light behind one of them, and a
peculiar smoke from the chimney.
Adding this to his other evidence, he now felt sure the inmates were
coiners, and he felt annoyed. “Fine I look,” said he, “walking tamely
past criminals at work, and going to a mayor's nest six miles off.”
However he touched the horse with his heel, and cantered forward on his
errand.
John Ransome rode up to the Ousely Reservoir, and down again in less
than an hour and a half; and every incident of those two rides is
imprinted on his memory for life.
He first crossed the water at Poma bridge. The village of that name lay
on his right, toward Hillsborough, and all the lights were out except
in the two public houses. One of these, “The Reindeer,” was near the
bridge, and from it a ruddy glare shot across the road, and some boon
companions were singing, in very good harmony, a trite Scotch chorus:
“We are no that fou, we are no that fou,
But just a drappie in our ee;
The cock may craw, the day may daw,
But still we'll taste the barley bree.”
Ransome could hear the very words; he listened, he laughed, and then
rode up the valley till he got opposite a crinoline-wire factory
called the “Kildare Wheel.” Here he observed a single candle burning; a
watcher, no doubt.
The next place he saw was also on the other side the stream; Dolman's
farm-house, the prettiest residence in the valley. It was built of
stone, and beautifully situated on a promontory between two streams. It
had a lawn in front, which went down to the very edge of the water, and
was much admired for its close turf and flowers. The farm buildings lay
behind the house.
There was no light whatever in Dolman's; but they were early people.
The house and lawn slept peacefully in the night: the windows were
now shining, now dark, for small fleecy clouds kept drifting at short
intervals across the crescent moon.
Ransome pushed on across the open ground, and for a mile or two saw
few signs of life, except here and there a flickering light in some
water-wheel, for now one picturesque dam and wheel succeeded another
as rapidly as Nature permitted; and indeed the size of these dams, now
shining in the fitful moonlight, seemed remarkable, compared with the
mere thread of water which fed them, and connected them together for
miles like pearls on a silver string.
Ransome pushed rapidly on, up hill and down dale, till he reached the
high hill, at whose foot lay the hamlet of Damflask, distant two miles
from Ousely Reservoir.
He looked down and saw a few lights in this hamlet, some stationary, but
two moving.
“Hum,” thought Ransome, “they don't seem to be quite so easy in their
minds up here.”
He dashed into the place, and drew up at the house where several persons
were collected.
As he came up, a singular group issued forth: a man with a pig-whip,
driving four children--the eldest not above seven years old--and
carrying an infant in his arms. The little imps were clad in shoes,
night-gowns, night-caps, and a blanket apiece, and were shivering and
whining at being turned out of bed into the night air.
Ransome asked the man what was the matter
One of the by-standers laughed, and said, satirically, Ousely dam was to
burst that night, so all the pigs and children were making for the hill.
The man himself, whose name was Joseph Galton, explained more fully.
“Sir,” said he, “my wife is groaning, and I am bound to obey her. She
had a dream last night she was in a flood, and had to cross a plank
or summut. I quieted her till supper; but then landlord came round and
warned all of us of a crack or summut up at dam. And so now I am taking
this little lot up to my brother's. It's the foolishest job I ever done:
but needs must when the devil drives, and it is better so than to have
my old gal sour her milk, and pine her suckling, and maybe fret herself
to death into the bargain.”
Ransome seized on the information, and rode on directly to the village
inn. He called the landlord out, and asked him what he had been telling
the villagers. Was there any thing seriously amiss up at the reservoir?
“Nay, I hope not,” said the man; “but we got a bit of a fright this
afternoon. A young man rode through, going down to Hillsborough, and
stopped here to have his girth mended; he had broke it coming down our
hill. While he was taking a glass he let out his errand; they had found
a crack in the embankment, and sent him down to Hillsborough to tell Mr.
Tucker, the engineer. Bless your heart, we should never have known aught
about it if his girth hadn't broke.” He added, as a reason for thinking
it was not serious that Mr. Tucker had himself inspected the dam just
before tea-time, and hadn't even seen the crack. It was a laboring man
who had discovered it, through crossing the embankment lower down than
usual. “But you see, sir,” said he, in conclusion, “we lie very low
here, and right in the track; and so we mustn't make light of a warning.
And, of course, many of the workmen stop here and have their say; and,
to tell you the truth, one or two of them have always misliked the
foundation that embankment is built on: too many old landslips to be
seen about. But, after all, I suppose they can empty the dam, if need
be; and, of course, they will, if there is any danger. I expect Mr.
Tucker up every minute.”
Ransome thanked him for his information and pushed on to Lower Hatfield:
there he found lights in the houses and the inhabitants astir; but he
passed through the village in silence, and came to the great corn-mill,
a massive stone structure with granite pillars, the pride of the
place. The building was full of lights, and the cranes were all at work
hoisting the sacks of flour from the lower floors to the top story. The
faces of the men reflected in the flaring gas, and the black cranes with
their gaunt arms, and the dark bodies rising by the snake-like
cords, formed a curious picture in the fluctuating moonlight, and an
interesting one too; for it showed the miller did not feel his flour
quite safe.
The next place Ransome came to was Fox Farm.
Farmer Emden was standing at the door of his house, and, in reply to
Ransome, told him he had just come down from the reservoir. He had seen
the crack and believed it to be a mere frost crack. He apprehended no
danger, and had sent his people to bed; however, he should sit up for an
hour or two just to hear what Tucker the engineer had to say about it;
he had been sent for.
Ransome left him, and a smart canter brought him in sight of what seemed
a long black hill, with great glow-worms dotted here and there.
That hill was the embankment, and the glow-worms were the lanterns of
workmen examining the outer side of the embankment and prying into every
part.
The enormous size and double slope of the bank, its apparent similarity
in form and thickness to those natural barriers with which nature hems
in lakes of large dimensions, acted on Ransome's senses, and set him
wondering at the timidity and credulity of the people in Hatfield and
Damflask. This sentiment was uppermost in his mind when he rode up to
the south side of the embankment.
He gave his horse to a boy, and got upon the embankment and looked
north.
The first glance at the water somewhat shook that impression of absolute
security the outer side of the barrier had given him.
In nature a lake lies at the knees of the restraining hills, or else has
a sufficient outlet.
But here was a lake nearly full to the brim on one side of the barrier
and an open descent on the other.
He had encountered a little wind coming up, but not much; here, however,
the place being entirely exposed, the wind was powerful and blew right
down the valley ruffling the artificial lake.
Altogether it was a solemn scene, and, even at first glance, one that
could not be surveyed, after all those comments and reports, without
some awe and anxiety. The surface of the lake shone like a mirror, and
waves of some size dashed against the embankment with a louder roar than
one would have thought possible, and tossed some spray clean over all;
while, overhead, clouds, less fleecy now, and more dark and sullen,
drifted so swiftly across the crescent moon that she seemed flying
across the sky.
Having now realized that the embankment, huge as it was, was not so high
by several hundred feet as nature builds in parallel cases, and that,
besides the natural pressure of the whole water, the upper surface of
the lake was being driven by the wind against the upper or thin part of
the embankment, Ransome turned and went down the embankment to look at
the crack and hear opinions.
There were several workmen, an intelligent farmer called Ives, and Mr.
Mountain, one of the contractors who had built the dam, all examining
the crack.
Mr. Mountain was remarking that the crack was perfectly dry, a plain
proof there was no danger.
“Ay, but,” said Ives, “it has got larger since tea-time; see, I can get
my hand in now.”
“Can you account for that?” asked Ransome of the contractor.
Mountain said it was caused by the embankment settling. “Everything
settles down a little--houses and embankments and all. There's no
danger, Mr. Ransome, believe me.”
“Well, sir,” said Ransome, “I am not a man of science, but I have got
eyes, and I see the water is very high, and driving against your weak
part. Ah!” Then he remembered Little's advice. “Would you mind opening
the sluice-pipes?”
“Not in the least, but I think it is the engineer's business to give an
order of that kind.”
“But he is not here, and professional etiquette must give way where
property and lives, perhaps, are at stake. To tell you the truth, Mr.
Mountain, I have got the advice of an abler man than Mr. Tucker. His
word to me was, 'If the water is as high as they say, don't waste time,
but open the sluices and relieve the dam.'”
The workmen who had said scarcely a word till then, raised an assenting
murmur at the voice of common sense.
Mountain admitted it could do no harm, and gave an order accordingly;
screws wore applied and the valves of the double set of sluice-pipes
were forced open, but with infinite difficulty, owing to the tremendous
pressure of the water.
This operation showed all concerned what a giant they were dealing with;
while the sluices were being lifted, the noise and tremor of the pipes
were beyond experience and conception. When, after vast efforts, they
were at last got open, the ground trembled violently, and the water, as
it rushed out of the pipes, roared like discharges of artillery. So hard
is it to resist the mere effect of the senses, that nearly every body
ran back appalled, although the effect of all this roaring could only
be to relieve the pressure; and, in fact, now that those sluices were
opened, the dam was safe, provided it could last a day or two.
Lights were seen approaching, and Mr. Tucker, the resident engineer,
drove up; he had Mr. Carter, one of the contractors, in the gig with
him.
He came on the embankment, and signified a cold approval of the sluices
being opened.
Then Ransome sounded him about blowing up the waste-wear.
Tucker did not reply, but put some questions to a workman or two. Their
answers showed that they considered the enlargement of the crack a fatal
sign.
Upon this Mr. Tucker ordered them all to stand clear of the suspected
part.
“Now, then,” said he, “I built this embankment, and I'll tell you
whether it is going to burst or not.”
Then he took a lantern, and was going to inspect the crack himself; but
Mr. Carter, respecting his courage and coolness, would accompany him.
They went to the crack, examined it carefully with their lanterns, and
then crossed over to the waste-wear; no water was running into it in the
ordinary way, which showed the dam was not full to its utmost capacity.
They returned, and consulted with Mountain.
Ransome put in his word, and once more remembering Little's advice,
begged them to blow up the waste-wear.
Tucker thought that was a stronger measure than the occasion required;
there was no immediate danger; and the sluice-pipes would lower the
water considerably in twenty-four hours.
Farmer Ives put in his word. “I can't learn from any of you that an
enlarging crack in a new embankment is a common thing. I shall go home,
but my boots won't come off this night.”
Encouraged by this, Mr. Mountain, the contractor, spoke out.
“Mr. Tucker,” said he, “don't deceive yourself; the sluice-pipes are
too slow; if we don't relieve the dam, there'll be a blow-up in half an
hour; mark my words.”
“Well,” said Mr. Tucker, “no precaution has been neglected in building
this dam: provision has been made even for blowing up the waste-wear;
a hole has been built in the masonry, and there's dry powder and a fuse
kept at the valve-house. I'll blow up the waste-wear, though I think it
needless. I am convinced that crack is above the level of the water in
the reservoir.”
This observation struck Ransome, and he asked if it could not be
ascertained by measurement.
“Of course it can,” said Tucker, “and I'll measure it as I come back.”
He then started for the wear, and Carter accompanied him.
They crossed the embankment, and got to the wear.
Ives went home, and the workmen withdrew to the side, not knowing
exactly what might be the effect of the explosion.
By-and-by Ransome looked up, and observed a thin sheet of water
beginning to stream over the center of the embankment and trickle
down: the quantity was nothing; but it alarmed him. Having no special
knowledge on these matters, he was driven to comparisons; and it flashed
across him that, when he was a boy, and used to make little mud-dams in
April, they would resist the tiny stream until it trickled over them,
and from that moment their fate was sealed. Nature, he had observed,
operates alike in small things and great, and that sheet of water,
though thin as a wafer, alarmed him.
He thought it was better to give a false warning than withhold a true
one; he ran to his horse, jumped on him, and spurred away.
His horse was fast and powerful, and carried him in three minutes back
to Emden's farm. The farmer had gone to bed. Ransome knocked him up, and
told him he feared the dam was going; then galloped on to Hatfield Mill.
Here he found the miller and his family all gathered outside, ready for
a start; one workman had run down from the reservoir.
“The embankment is not safe.”
“So I hear. I'll take care of my flour and my folk. The mill will take
care of itself.” And he pointed with pride to the solid structure and
granite pillars.
Ransome galloped on, shouting as he went.
The shout was taken up ahead, and he heard a voice crying in the night,
“IT'S COMING! IT'S COMING!” This weird cry, which, perhaps, his own
galloping and shouting had excited, seemed like an independent warning,
and thrilled him to the bone. He galloped through Hatfield, shouting,
“Save yourselves! Save yourselves!” and the people poured out, and ran
for high ground, shrieking wildly; looking back, he saw the hill dotted
with what he took for sheep at first, but it was the folk in their
night-clothes.
He galloped on to Damflask, still shouting as he went.
At the edge of the hamlet, he found a cottage with no light in it; he
dismounted and thundered at the door: “Escape for your lives! for your
lives!”
A man called Hillsbro' Harry opened the window.
“The embankrncnt is going. Fly for your lives!”
“Nay,” said the man, coolly, “Ouseley dam will brust noane this week,”
and turned to go to bed again.
He found Joseph Galton and another man carrying Mrs. Galton and her
new-born child away in a blanket. This poor woman, who had sent her five
children away on the faith of a dream, was now objecting, in a faint
voice, to be saved herself from evident danger. “Oh, dear, dear! you
might as well let me go down with the flood as kill me with taking me
away.”
Such was the sapient discourse of Mrs. Galton, who, half an hour ago,
had been supernaturally wise and prudent. Go to, wise mother and silly
woman; men will love thee none the less for the inequalities of thine
intellect; and honest Joe will save thy life, and heed thy twaddle no
more than the bleating of a lamb.
Ransome had not left the Galtons many yards behind him, when there was a
sharp explosion heard up in the hills.
Ransome pulled up and said aloud, “It will be all right now, thank
goodness! they have blown up the wear.”
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when he heard a loud sullen
roar, speedily followed by a tremendous hiss, and a rumbling thunder,
that shook the very earth where he stood, two miles distant.
This is what had taken place since he left the reservoir, but ten
minutes ago.
Mr. Tucker and Mr. Carter laid the gunpowder and the train, and lighted
the latter, and came back across the middle of the embankment.
Being quite safe here from the effect of the explosion, Mr. Tucker was
desirous to establish by measurement that the water in the reservoir had
not risen so high as the crack in the embankment.
With this view he took out a measure, and, at some risk of being swept
into eternity, began coolly to measure the crack downward.
At this very time water was trickling over; and that alarmed Carter, and
he told Tucker they were trifling with their own lives.
“Oh,” said Tucker, “that is only the spray from the waves.”
They actually measured the crack, stooping over it with their lanterns.
When they had done that, Carter raised his head, and suddenly clutched
Tucker by the arm and pointed upward. The water was pouring over the
top, still in a thin sheet, but then that sheet was gradually widening.
The water came down to their feet, and some of it disappeared in the
crack; and the crack itself looked a little larger than when last
inspected. Tucker said, gravely, “I don't like that: but let me examine
the valve-house at once.” He got down to the valve-house, but before
he could ascertain what quantity of water was escaping Carter called to
him, “Come out, for God's sake, or you are lost.”
He came running out, and saw an opening thirty feet wide and nearly a
foot deep, and a powerful stream rushing over it.
The moment Tucker saw that, he cried, “It's all up, the embankment must
go!” And, the feeling of the architect overpowering the instincts of the
man, he stood aghast. But Carter laid hold of him, and dragged him away.
Then he came to himself, and they ran across the embankment.
As they started, the powder, which had hung fire unaccountably, went
off, and blew up the waste-wear; but they scarcely heard it; for, as
they ran, the rent above kept enlarging and deepening at a fearful
rate, and the furious stream kept rushing past their flying heels, and
threatened to sweep them sideways to destruction.
They were safe at last; but even as they stood panting, the rent in the
top of the embankment spread--deepened--yawned terrifically--and the
pent-up lake plunged through, and sweeping away at once the center
of the embankment, rushed, roaring and hissing, down the valley, an
avalanche of water, whirling great trees up by the roots, and sweeping
huge rocks away, and driving them, like corks, for miles.
At that appalling sound, that hissing thunder, the like of which he had
never heard before, and hopes never to hear again, Ransome spurred
away at all his speed, and warned the rest of the village with loud
inarticulate cries: he could not wait to speak, nor was it necessary.
At the top of the hill he turned a moment, and looked up the valley;
soon he saw a lofty white wall running down on Hatfield Mill: it struck
the mill, and left nothing visible but the roof, surrounded by white
foam.
Another moment, and he distinctly saw the mill swim a yard or two, then
disappear and leave no trace, and on came the white wall, hissing and
thundering.
Ransome uttered a cry of horror, and galloped madly forward, to save
what lives he might.
Whenever he passed a house he shrieked his warning, but he never drew
rein.
As he galloped along his mind worked. He observed the valley widen in
places, and he hoped the flying lake would spread, and so lose some of
that tremendous volume and force before which he had seen Hatfield stone
mill go down.
With this hope he galloped on, and reached Poma Bridge, five miles and a
half from the reservoir.
Here, to his dismay, he heard the hissing thunder sound as near to him
as it was when he halted on the hill above Damflask; but he could see
nothing, owing to a turn in the valley.
At the bridge itself he found a man standing without his hat, staring
wildly up the valley.
He yelled to this man, “Dam is burst. Warn the village--for their
lives--run on to Hillsborough--when you are winded, send another on.
You'll all be paid at the Town Hall.”
Then he dashed across the bridge.
As he crossed it, he caught sight of the flying lake once more: he had
gone over more ground, but he had gone no further. He saw the white wall
strike Dolman's farm; there was a light in one window now. He saw the
farm-house, with its one light, swim bodily, then melt and disappear,
with all the poor souls in it.
He galloped on: his hat flew off; he came under the coiners' house, and
yelled a warning. A window was opened, and a man looked out; the light
was behind him, and, even in that terrible moment, he recognized--Shifty
Dick.
“The flood! the flood! Fly! Get on high ground, for your lives!”
He galloped furiously, and made for Little's house.