THE RACE
The two girls on the front seat of the flying automobile were not
prepared for racing. Of course, Ruth Fielding had no proper automobile
outfit, and Helen had not expected such an emergency when she had
started with her crippled brother for this afternoon run. She had no
goggles, nor any mask; but she had the presence of mind to raise the
wind-shield.
Already they could have heard the steady roaring of the advancing
flood had not the racing motor car drowned all other sounds. There
was, however, no need to look behind; they knew the wave was there and
that it was sweeping down the valley of the Lumano with frightful
velocity.
Indeed, they were not at all sure for those first few miles whether
they were traveling as fast as the flood, or not. Suppose the wave
should reach and sweep away the bridge before they could cross the
river? The thought was in the mind of both Helen and Ruth, whether
Tom, on the rear seat, considered it or not. When they finally shot
out of the woods and turned toward the toll-bridge, all glanced
around. From here the upper reaches of the Lumano were plainly
revealed. And extending clear across the valley was the foam-crested
wave charging down upon the lowlands, but a number of miles away.
Here was the first house, too. They saw a man and woman and several
children out front, staring at the automobile as it raced down the
road. Perhaps they had been called from the house by the vibration of
the bursting dam.
Tom sprang up in the car and pointed behind him, yelling:
"The flood! The flood!"
It is doubtful if they heard what he said; and they, too, were on a
knoll and likely out of the reach of the water. But the three in the
automobile saw the whole family turn and run for the higher ground
behind their house. They understood the peril which menaced the whole
valley.
In a flash the auto had turned the bend in the river road, and the
occupants saw the toll-bridge and the peaceful hamlet of Culm Falls.
There was no stir there. The toll-bridge keeper was not even out of
his cottage, and the light and flimsy gates were down across the
driveway at either end of the bridge. The bend in the river hid the
advancing wall of water. Perhaps, too, it deadened the sound of the
bursting dam and the roar of the waters.
There was another house at the bend. Helen tooted the automobile horn
as though it had gone crazy. The raucous notes must of a certainty
have awakened anybody but the Seven Sleepers. But the three in the car
saw no sign of life about the premises. Helen had started to slow
down; but Tom stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"Not here! Not here!" he yelled. "Get across the river first, Nell!
That wave is coming!"
Indeed it was. And the toll-bridge keeper did not appear, and the
gates were shut. But Helen Cameron was excited now and her racing
blood was up. She never hesitated at the frail barrier, but drove
straight through it, smashing the gate to kindling wood, and smashing
their own wind shield as well.
Out ran the toll-man then; but they were half way across the bridge;
he could barely have raised the other gate had he set about it
instantly. So they went through that, too, leaving him bawling and
shrieking after them, but soon to learn by looking up the river what
Tom meant by his excited words as the motor car swept by.
Helen slowed down at the smithy. There were several men there and a
number of wagons. The trio in the car screamed at them: "The dam has
burst! The flood is coming!" and then started up again and swept
through the little village, looking back to see the group at the
smithy running in all directions to give the alarm.
Now the road, clear to the Red Mill and beyond, ran within sight of
the river. The mill was all of ten miles away. The valley was low here
and as far as they could see ahead it broadened considerably on this
side of the Lumano. But the hills arose abruptly on the farther bank
and all the force and mass of the flood must sweep across these
meadows.
As the car moved on, Helen tooted the horn constantly. Its blasts
alone should have warned people of what threatened, without Tom's
frantic shouts and gesticulations. They were obliged, however, to slow
down before several houses to make the occupants understand their
danger.
They were not half way to the Red Mill when the roar of the advancing
tidal wave was apparent even above the noise of the auto. Then they
saw the crest of the flood appear around the bend and the already
heavily burdened waters dashed themselves upon the toll-bridge. It
crumpled up and disappeared like a spider-web bridge, and the flood
rolled on, the wave widening and overflowing the lowlands behind the
automobile.
Ahead of them now upon the road there was a single foot-passenger--a
man carrying a heavy basket. He seemed so far from the higher ground,
and so determined to keep to the road, that Ruth cried out and laid
her hand upon Helen's arm. The latter nodded and shut off the engine
so that the automobile ran down and almost stopped by this pedestrian.
"Here, you!" shouted Tom, from the tonneau. "Get in here quick!
There's no time to lose!"
Much of what he said was lost in the roaring of the waters; but the
fellow understood him well enough, and scrambled into the car with his
basket. It was Jasper Parloe, and the old man was shaking as with
palsy.
"My goodness gracious!" he croaked, falling back in the seat as the
car darted away again. "Ain't this awful? Ain't this jest awful?"
He was too scared, one would have supposed, to think of much else than
the peril of the flood sweeping the valley behind them; yet he stared
up at Tom Cameron again and again as the auto hurried them on toward
the safety of the higher ground about the Red Mill, and there was
something very sly in his look.
"Ye warn't hurt so bad then, arter all, was ye, Master Cameron?" he
croaked.
"I reckon I shall live to get over it," returned the boy, shortly.
"But no thanks to Jabe Potter--heh? Ha! I know, I know!"
Tom stared in return angrily, but the old man kept shaking his head
and smiling up at him slily and in such a significant way that, had
the boy not been so disturbed by what was going on behind them, he
certainly would have demanded to know what the old fellow meant.
But the car was getting close to the long hill that mounted to the
crest on which the Red Mill stood. How much better would it have been
for Jabez Potter and all concerned had he taken Doctor Davison's
advice and let out the water behind his dam! But now he was not even
at home to do anything before the thousands upon thousands of tons of
water from the Minturn reservoir swept through the Red Mill dam.
They saw the foaming, yellow water spread over the country behind
them; but within half a mile of the mill it gathered into narrower
compass again because of the nature of the land, and the wave grew
higher as it rushed down upon Potter's dam. The motor car puffed up
the hill and halted before the mill door.
"Will we be safe here, Tom?" cried Helen, as pale as a ghost now, but
too brave to give way. "Are we safe?"
"We're all right, I believe," said Tom.
Jasper Parloe was already out of the car and ran into the mill. Only
the hired man was there, and he came to the door with a face whiter
than it was naturally made by the flour dust.
"Come in, quick!" he cried to the young people. "This mill can't go--
it's too solid."
Beyond the Red Mill the ground was low again; had the Camerons tried
to keep on the road for home the flood would have overtaken the car.
And to take the road that branched off for Cheslow would have
endangered the car, too. In a few seconds the knoll on which the mill
stood was an island!
The girls and Tom ran indoors. They could hardly hear each other shout
during the next few minutes. The waters rose and poured over the dam,
and part of it was swept out. Great waves beat upon the river-wall of
the mill. And then, with a tearing crash of rent timbers and masonry,
the front of the little office and the storeroom, built out over the
river, was torn away.
From that quarter Jasper Parloe ran, yelling wildly. Ruth saw him dart
out of the far door of the mill, stooping low and with his coat over
his head as though he expected the whole structure to fall about his
ears.
But only that wall and the loading platform for the boats were sliced
off by the flood. Then the bulk of the angry waters swept past,
carrying all sorts of debris before it, and no farther harm was done
to the mill, or to Mr. Potter's other buildings.