i
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
"AUTHOR "THr CHALICE OF COURAGE."
'THE INLAND Of REGENERATION" FTC,
AND
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY JR
CIVIL. ENCJCR.
BERTRAM MEADE FACES ANOTHER GREAT CRISIS AND
APPARENTLY DESERTS HIS SUPERIOR AT THE
CRITICAL PERIOD
Following the collapse of an international bridge which his fa
ther, a noted engineer, had planned, and the old man's sudden death
from disgrace and shock, Bertram Meade takes the blame for the dis
aster which cost many lives and disappears from his home in New
York. He goes to the southwest, gets a job under the name of Rob
erts on an Irrigation dam project and makes good. Meanwhile, Helen
Illingworth, Meade's sweetheart, and Rodney, an old friend, are quiet
ly working to clear the young man's name and learn his whereabouts.
They are particularly anxious to get hold of a letter written by the
elder Meade to assume responsibility for the accident. This paper is
secretly held by Shurtliff, who had been the old man's devoted private
secretary for many years. This installment opens with the threat ot
disaster to the dam through flood ;ng by cloudburst.
CHAPTER XIV. Continued.
The lantern was standing on the
roadway on top of the dam. A man
was kneeling beyond it. his figure seen
dimly in the faint light of the lantern,
lie was staring intently down the
front of the dam at the water. The
lantern was near the edge and it faint
ly illuminated the black, rain-lashed
surface below. Vandeventer realized
with a shock of horror how much more
"rapid the rise had been. A quick esti
mate convinced him that the level of
the water was now within eight or nine
feet of the dam and it was still rain
ing! The face of the kneeling man was
hidden hy a sou'wester and he had on
a heavy black rubber raincoat. Van
deventer reached over and touched
him on the shoulder.
"What are you doing here?" he
asked.
The kneeling man sprang up with an
exclamation. It was Meade. The re
lief in Vandeventer's mind was great
at the recognition.
"I just came out to look at the wa
ter. I couldn't sleep with all that
pounding on the iron roof of the quar
ters, so I dressed and. came out."
Vandeventer opened the slide of his
own lantern and threw the light on the
reservoir.
"It's risen eight or ten feet since we
saw it, and with this rain "
"It's not coming down so hard as
It was when I first came out here,"
said Meade. "I think you can see it
slackening yourself."
"Yes," said the resident engineer,
listening a moment, "I believe it is. If
It stops now," he continued thought
fully, "we ought to be safe."
"Yes, I think so," answered Meade.
In the night alone, together in that
crisis in their fortunes, the two men
were interchanging thoughts and ideas
on terms of perfect equality. It did
not occur to Vandeventer to question
why, and that they were doing so
aroused no surprise in the mind of
Meade.
"Of course," continued Meade, "even
If it does stop raining we'll continue
to get a lot of runoff from the water
shed for some time."
"Yes," said the resident engineer,
"that of course, but if tho rain stops
everywhere we can scarcely have a
ris-i of more than five or six feet, and
th.tt would still be a little below the
spillway."
"It's stopping here now," pointed out
Meade, and, indeed, the force of the
downpour was greatly diminished.
The two stood watching the dam and
thn black lake beyond it in silence for
a few moments until the rain practical
ly feased. The air was misty and heavy
with moisture, but the rain was cer
tainly over for the time at any rate.
"Thank goodness," said the resident
engineer in great relief. "Now if it's
stopped everywhere we'll be all right."
"Yes," said Meade, "and I'm inclined
to think it has stopped everywhere.
Whoever thought it would rain in Jan
nary here? There hasn't a droi, to
spuik of, fallen in January for twenty
years, or since there have been a
records. Why in heaven's name
had to come now I don't see."
"Look hero, Roberts," said
venter suddenly, "you know y
first-class engineer."
Meade shook his head.
"You can't fool me," said '
man. "I've watched you. Y
more about
the game thu:
myself. You d J
here except m
to confide in me, although-
nd I am in a position to J
Li,nrnrec
date what yu
V
returned the
t
to whom I sli
story than
Vet."
ep your own counsel, but
jwant a friend, count on me;
i, as a man of experience and
jQiat would you do?"
's
et out the men and build up a
temporary dam on the top of the road
way here, to turn the flow over to the
east bank and make the spillway do
more work."
"But the rain has stopped."
"And in ail probability will stay
stopped still you never can tell. A
fev more hours of rain like that we've
had and the whole thing would go. If
n
f
W
copyright by rirninc mwrn l compact
the water were as high as the top
there'd only be two feet of head in the
uncompleted spillway, and that
wouldn't be enough to discharge it at
the rate it's been coming in."
"Of course," said Vandeventer
thoughtfully. "And if the dam goes,"
he added, "there are ten miles of back
water up there and millions of cubic
yards impounded, which would sweep
down the valley. There wouldn't be
a thing left of the camp, the town, the
new railroad bridge, or anything else."
"Coming on top of the International,
the loss of this big and expensive via
duct would about finish the Martlet
company," said Meade thoughtlessly.
Vandeventer looked at him sharply.
An idea suddenly came to him. Meade
had turned away his head as he real
ized his slip, so he did not observe the
light in Vandeventer's eyes. However,
the resident engineer was a good sort.
"You are right," he said quickly. "I
hate to call out the men, but we've got
a little chance, now the rain has
stopped, and we can work to advantage
in spite of all this awful mud" he lift
ed his foot up and disclosed it caked
and clogged with masses. "I'll take
charge in the center here, and Stafford
on the left, and I'm going to give you
charge of the east end of the dam, over
by the spillway. If only those drills
had been here six weeks ago."
"We might set the men to work on
that rock now," said Meade.
"It would be useless. There's too
much of it. No, if we're going to save
the dam, we've got to build it up and
try to keep ahead of the waters if
they rise any more. The higher we
can build it the greater will be the
head on the spillway, and the more
will be discharged. I'll turn the men
out at once."
"But what are you going o do?"
"I'm going to palisade the top of the
dam. There's plenty of timber already
cut down, and we will cut a lot of
young pines and build a palisade wall
of timber across the top three or four
feet back from the edge. Well banked
on the downstream side, it may hold."
"It might be worth while to line that
palisade with galvanized iron sheets
from the houses." said Meade.
"A good Idea," said Vandeventer,
"and -we'll pile what underbrush and
small stuff we have in front of the
palisade and heap what rocks we can
find on top of that, and we'll bank it
up on the other side with earth. It's a
poor dependence, but it will hold for a
while anyway, and every moment of
lime may be precious."
"TIow about sandbags, sir?"
"We've got a few hundred cement
bags, but not enough. I wish we had
a few thousand; howevei, we will fill
what we have, and if the water rises
and begins to trickle over the top and
through the palisade, we'll jam those
down at the danger points. Can you
suggest anything more?"
"Nothing."
"Good. We'll turn out the men.
They've had six hours' sleep anyway."
CHAPTER XV.
The Battle.
'It was now three o'clock in the
"ning. In about half an hour the
naturally grumbling and protest
fit being deprived of any of their
were out and at work. Lanterns
I lighted everywhere. The rain
rtunately not resumed, and the
Js soon filled with noise and con
t. Men with axes were busy on
jillslde cutting the young pines.
s were hitched to the dump wag-
t ..i U 1 V. 1
I e sieum Biiuvci ueguu icuiiu
the hillside. Some of the men
detailed to knock down some
?he galvanized iron houses and the
attering of the hammers on the metal
added to the din.
Under Vandeventer's personal direc
tion a row of stakes was driven into
the top of the dam about three feet
from the front of it. Big sheets of
overlapping galvanized iron were
nailed roughly to the fronts of the
j firmly bedded stakes and the small
branches and brushwood were thrown
down before it. Bowlders and big
stones were carried out oi the dam in
the wagons and thrown down on the
brushwood; spare timbers, broken
wagon beds, old wheel, joists of dis
membered bouses were driven into t'iH
earth to serve as braces behind the
palisade; a bank of earth was piled
up behind it, on which every man who
could be spared from other tasks, even
the chiefs themselves, labored with
breathless energy. The water was still
rising, although the rain had stopped;
the natural drainage would cause that,
but the rise was slower.
At dawn Vandeventer personally
carefully measured the depth of the
water and gauged it again. It was a
scant six and a" half feet below the top
of the dam. If the water rose above
the top it was gravely questionable
whether the palisade would hold it at
all, yet there was no other way of In
creasing the depth of the spillway
enough to discharge the flood volume.
Working as hard as they could, they
had barely succeeded in raising the
earth bank back of it a foot high.
They kept at it unremittingly, although
it did not seem to be of much use.
Vandeventer, Stafford and Meade gath
ered together and scanned the sky,
seeking to discern the signs of the
time, the purpose of the heavens. It
was clearer in the east. The clouds to
the northwestward were in violent ac
tion apparently. Lightning flashed
through them and over the great range
Itself; low, muttered peals of thunder
came down from the peaks lost to sight
in the blackness overhead. They ob
served all this carefully and Vande
venter turned away, shaking his head.
"I don't know," he began the three
of them were over on the east side
the better to see up the valley "it
looks pretty bad, doesn't it?"
"It does," answered Meade, while
Stafford nodded his head.
"And, by the way, Stafford, have you
notified the town and the bridge people
of the danger and bid them prepare
for it?"
"I tried to telephone them a while
ago. but the connection has been bro
ken; the storm has played havoc with
the line probably," answered the as
sistant engineer.
"Well, what did you do then?" asked
Vandeventer a little impatiently.
"I sent a man down on horseback in
a hurry to warn them that if it rains
again the dam might go, and if it did
it would go wit h a rush ; that the water
was now only six feet below the level,
and that they had better get up on the
hills. Of course, last night's rain must
have made the road almost Impassable,
but he ought lo get there by nine
o'clock. I told him to tell the Martlet
people to take whatever steps they
could devise to hold their viaduct and
their machinery," answered Stafford,
as he turned and walked toward his
own part of the dam.
"Good," exclaimed Vandeventer.
"There's nothing left for us to do but
keep on."
The resident engineer looked white
and haggard. Although it was cold
and raw in the wet air, he wiped the
sweat from his forehead.
"The men are doing splendidly, sir,"
said Meade.
"Yes," said Vandeventer, "many of
them have their wives and children
back in the town. Some of the Ital
ians have bought land on the prairie
and are going to settle here. They're
fighting for everything they've got on
earth. What do you think of the
chances of this palisade of ours?"
Meade shook his head.
"It's all we can do, sir, but if the
water rises more than seven or eight
feet"
"Say it," said Vandeventer.
"The dam would go like a house of
cards."
"Exactly. And look at that cloud
bank over there In the northwest. It's
spreading."
"What wind there is," said Meade,
moistening his finger and holding it
up to feel the direction, "is blowing
the opposite way down here, but you
can't tell what is happening up there.
Well, all we can .do is to fight on."
And fight they did. It was almost at
first sight like the hand of man against
the hand of God. There was no more
room for engineering expedient. It
was chop and hew, break and pound,
A Man Was Kneeling Beyond It.
dig and drive, carry and pile. Throw
ing off his coot, Vandeventer seized a
spade and began to work like any
other laborer, and the rest of the
higher men followed his example.
At six o'clock the blackness hanging
In the northwest began to turn their
way. It was coming down the moun
tain. It was headed for the valley.
Vandeventer saw it, every teamster,
every common laborer saw it. It was
coming. Unless heaven Itself inter
fered there would be more rain. They
had worked desperately before, but
j now they applied themselves to their
i tasks with a kind of wild fury. A
WKm.
sort cf Insanity took possession of
them. They ;vould not be beaten. They
cried, at first sla-UI 'and then hoarsely
and raucously, encouraging words and
phrases from one to another ; in words
vivid, profane, desperate. They stood
there and they heaved fifid dug and
piled and hammered and hurled and
drove fiercely. It was a battle mad
ness that came into them. They saw
red like the berserker of old. Yes, It
was not unlike a battle In other ways,
for with the rush of the northwest
storm came roaring mighty thunder
and vivid and terrifying lightning. It
was as if great darts of light literally
were hurled by some gigantic hand be-
And Shook His Fist at the Sky.
hind the black screen of sweeping
cloud down upon the granite moun
tains. They saw splinters of fire where
the thunderbolts struck. The pealing
of thunder was appalling.
Their frail palisade backing was not
half completed. It must be raining
somewhere, for the water was still
slowly rising. It was five and a half
feet now from the crest. It was hope
less If another rain fell, and the rain
was coming. There was an added chill
in the still air of the valley as the
storm drove down upon them. A few
of the fainter hearts flung down pick
and shovel and ax and stood craven.
Oaths, curses, blows even, from those
of the braver sort shamed them into
work again. These brave hearts and
true might be swept away with the
dam if it gave way, but they would
not give up, and no man working with
them should flee his task or shirk his
duty. By the living God, whose sport
and plaything they seemed to be, they
swore it; and so weak and strong,
bold and timid labored on desper
ate, resolved, godlike In their cour
age and persistence.
The clouds were moving swiftly
now. To the east it had been clear,
but now it was also black, and then
with a roar greater even than
a thousand thunderclaps, the wind
tore down the mountains, through the
narrow canyons, into the valleys,
shrieking in the pines, and fell upon
them and hurled them down and
brushed them back. And after the
wind, the rain. A drop or two struck
Vandeventer's cheek ; another, anoth
er, and then the flood. He lifted his"
head and stared and shook his fist at
the sky and turned to the human ter
mites he commanded.
"Carry on, carry on, boys," he cried,
shrieking to be' heard above the thun
der peals, "we'll beat It yet."
A cheer rose about him and was
caught up and ran along the top of
the great dam. The half-manlacal yell
was such a cry as men might give
vent to in the heat of battle, the ex
citement of wild charge, and then they
fell to It again. The more ignorant,
unaware of the feebleness of the pali
sade, the more knowing indifferent to
it, seeing only the job, alike realized
only their duty to fight on, to answer
the appeal to their manhood, to refuse
to admit defeat even when life trem
bled in the balance.
Yes, to use the ancient simile again,
the fountains of the great deep were
broken open.. What had befallen them
before was nothing to this. The hard
rain of the night seemed trifling com
pared to this avalanche of water. This
was a cloudburst indeed. And to
make It worse, to make their task
harder, to render their efforts useless,
the high wind roaring down the valley
piled the water up and drove it In
thunderous assaulting waves against
the great mound of earth on which the
men struggled and labored frantically.
Vandeventer, shovel in hand he did
not dare to throw it down, lest his ac
tion be misconstrued went from gang
to gang, from man to man, talking to
them, appealing to them, pointing out
weaknesses here and there, inspiring
them, holding them up as a man might
hold a stricken line against the on
slaught of a victorious and overwhelm
ing force. And against wind and rain
in that thick darkness, blinded by the
flashing lightning, stunned by the peal
ing thunder, with zeal superhuman
they toiled on and on and on.
Back and forth went the chief, show
ing himself a leader of leaders, and
wherever he stopped the fury and des
peration of the effort to stem the tide
increased. When he came plodding
along the muddy roadway to the part
committed to Meade he did not find
the engineer.
"Where's Roberts?" he yelled above
the noise of the storm.
"He and two men have gone, sir,
"Gone?" cried Vandeventer, cut to
the heart at what he thought was. a
desertion. "Well," he shouted, realiz
Ing there was nothing he could do then
and that he had neither breath nor
time to waste, "there's n;ore need for
the rest of us to take their places."
lie drew a man or two from the
other gangs to re-enforce this danger
point and himself directed their work.
Now it takes time for water to rise
five feet, even in a cloudburst or a
succession of them. The rain constant
ly seemed to increase as the wind
drove it on. Vandeventer knew that
the dam was doomed, that the sluice
and the' half-finished spillway com
bined could discharge only a small part
of the flow, but he knew that he would
have two hours at least to work be
fore the water could pass the crest,
undermine, and batter down the pall
slde and begin to trickle over. Just
as soon as it did roll over the top,
unless they could stop it, the whole
thing was gone. For those two hours
the supermen labored unremittingly in
the downpour with a persistent and he
roic courage that should have been re
corded in song and story but which
was not. It was remembered after
a while by none save a few. To the
many it wa only "all in the day's
work !"
The undersluice In the side of the
dam which would later serve as head
gate for the canal had been Intended
to pass the smaller floods which might
occur during the construction and had
been open since the rain begun. It
carried off a great volume of water,
but hopelessly little In comparison with
the flood. Foot by foot In the torren
tial downpour the water rose. At half
after eight it reached the level of the
spillway and commenced to rush
through In ever-Increasing volume, but
the How Into the reservoir was far
greater than the spillway's capacity.
Still the sight of the rushing water
encouraged the men. Every one of
them felt that if the palisade held the
discharge would be increased enough
to stop the rise, but at present the ef
fect was small. By nine o'clock it was
within a foot of the top. They began
to measure its rise by inches. Although
the clam had been carefully kept level
as it was built, the trample of horses
and men, the present digging and pali
sading and revetting had caused little
depressions. Now the water rose to
the level. Here and there it began to
trickle over !
The rain coming down from tho
mountain tops was as cold as Ice, yet
the men were in a fever of excitement.
They had got their second wind. They
were too enthused, too desperate, to
feel their weariness. They had not
worked before as they did then. It
was the last possible nervous outburst
with most of them. They could keep
it up a little longer till they dropped
dead. As the mad thoroughbred falls
In his stride on the track, pushed be
yond his power of endurance, as even
the common carthorse can be made to
go until he drops, so these men, white,
haggard, nervous, drawn-faced, sweat
mingling with the rain on their sodden
bodies, would go till they broke. They
had not quite reached that point yet.
There were some five hundred heavy
cement bags which had been filled with
sand and piled up on the roadway at
convenient points. As a forlorn hepe,
as a last try, Vandeventer called all
the diggers and ditchers, and hewers
and drivers, and bade them tackle the
sandbags. The timber wall that rose
to four or five feet was now packed to
a height of three with an unequal wall
of earth.
The waves were beginning to roll
against the , rampart, although their
force as yet was broken by the brush
wood. Vandeventer jumped up on the
palisade near the center. There were
some large logs there where he could
stand, and whence he could get as
clear a view of the whole top of the
dam as was possible through the driv
ing rain.
"There," shouted the engineer, point
ing to a red trickle it seemed to him
like blood, taking its hideous hue
from the red clay of the banks where
the water had found a low spot and
was washing across the top and
trickling through the new wall and
down on the other side. Even as he
pointed, the trickle became a stream
and the stream bade fair to be a flood.
Men ran and dropped sandbags over
in front of the palisade, right where
the leak had occurred. Other men
heaped up the earth behind the wall,
seeking to smother it and stop It. The
water checked there, they were forced
to do the same thing at another place.
Desperately they dropped their sand
bags, sturdily they plied their shovels
in the mud; scrambling and yelling,
they ran from leak to leak. They lift
ed the heavy bags of sand as if they
had been loaves of bread and jammed
them down. They swung pick and
shovel like toys, although the rain
made all the earth sticky mud and
the work all the harder. The water
was clear over the top of the dam now,
and streaming through the revetment
of brush and surging against the pali
sade. Where it did not let the water
through, the line of stakes was begin
ning to bend backward.
The men who had expended their
sandbags and could get no more, in
one final effort ran to the palisade, dug
their heels madly In the wet, slimy
earth and put their shoulders against
the bending stakes as if to hold them
up by main strength. Thin streams
were flowing here and there, now un
heeded. Checked and held in one spot,
the water broke through at another.
The spillway could not control the
rise.
"She's gone, she's gone!" gasped
Vandeventer under his breath. He had
fought a good fight. lie could do no
more. There were no more bags of
sand. Save for the men straining at
the wall here and there and every
where, there was left nothing but to
stand and wait, having done all. As
one man saw another the whole hun
dred and fifty caught the contagion
and threw themselves figaiast the pnlb
sade, wet and chilled from the rain,
but yet madly, recklessly, Americans
and foreigners alike. They would hold
it by main strength for another min
ute, they swore, oblivious to the fact
that just as soon as it went it would
go with a rush.
The stockade would be swept away
first, and they would go with It. What
of that? The men back of it matched
their brawny arms against rain and
wind, the powers of man against the
powers of God, but not mockingly. It
is perhaps doubtful if they realized
what they did. It was instinct, habit,
blind desperation now. If the flimsy
wall failed under the terrific water
pressure, they would be hurled beneath
It, swept down the slope of the dam,
buried in the debris as it was swept
away, caught up if they by any chance
survived so far, and hurled, broken and
battered, down the valley in the ter
rible flood that would ensue. What
did they know about that, or knowing,
what did they care, as they strained
at the wavering timber wall? And
still they held as the rain poured down
on them, soaking through their soggy
clothes, the colder on their exhausted
bodies for the keen wind that blew
across them.
Well, they had done everything they
could. Vandeventer jumped clown and
pressed himself against the nearest
timber with the men and waited, silent.
He had never sustained such a pres
sure In all his life. Like Atlas, he
felt as If he were holding up a world
And the mocking thing about it all
was his feeling, nay his realization,
that he was not really holding any
thing, that if the palisades failed, his
pressure, his resistance and that of all
the other men amounted to nothing.
Yet he held on, and they, too demi
gods. CHAPTER XVI.
The Ancient Art of Fascination.
And much of the last wild hurricane
of work took place under the observa
tion of a woman !
From the top of the big mesa there
was a clear view of the new reservoir,
from the dam on one side far back into
the hills on the other. In spite of
the tremendous downpour and the
fierce gale Helen Illingworth stood ex
posed to both attacks, and, indeed, in
different to them albeit protected by
slicker and boots and sou'wester fas
cinated by the titanic struggle between,
nature and man of which she was a
witness.
The general investigation by Rodney
and Miss Illingworth had produced
Helen Illingworth Stood Exposed to
Both Attacks.
no results. A careful study of Rod
ney's notes upon the subject had only
served the more thoroughly to convince
them that Meade was blameless. But
the most assiduous effort With the
heartiest will in the world and the
promptings of devotion and affection
could not make a case out of these
suggestions and their inferences that
would hold water. They could not es
tablish their contention beyond perad
venture in the face of Meade's direct
admission and Shurtliff's corrobora
tion. They could not establish it in the
public mind by any evidence at all if
Meade and Shurtliff remained silent.
If either one or the other of the two
conspirators could be brought to tell
the truth, Meade could be restored, at
least sufficiently so for the purpose of
argument ; the argument that Helen.
Illingworth sooner or later must make
to her father. It was that to which she
gave the most thought, It was for that
she planned and longed.
Two people cannot resolve, even by
mutual consent to dismiss from their
daily thought and conversation any
subject whatsoever without introduc
ing in place of It a certain constraint.
It is as futile to attempt to dismiss
anything absolutely from the human '
mind as Is the oft-suggested cure for
rheumatism doing certain things
without thinking of the alsease sought
to be cured !
The next installment brings
the climax of the story. The
most important developments In
the lives of Meade and his
friends are described.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Old Stuff.
"A scientist can take one Done and
reconstruct a dinosaur."
"That's nothing. Our landlady can
take one bone and reconstruct a din
ner." Louisville Courier-Journal.