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themrison. He hadsaved her ff om a
crashing world, and they two stood'
alone together upon the crests of the
mountains looking northward over
the -plains:
"This is our home, Mary," he said,
and kissed her.
"She started from, her sleep. That
crash had been no dream.It seemed
'as though the whole universe were
rearing into ruin. There was the
noise of a hundred-avalanches.
- She had barely thrust on a few
clotheswhen her father ran scream
ing to the door. v -
'"Mary! Mary!" he yelled. "The
dam's burst. God help us! The water
will be here in twenty seconds'."
Mary looked at him in quiet joy.
The water! That meant the end of
Elkwood, the end of all she feared
and hated. It meant'death; too, but
death could bring no unhappiness.
- ' Suddenly, with the force of a battering-ram,
the floods smashed down
'upon the house, and timber and stone
went crashing intoa heap of rubble
and splinters. The floor yielded, the
fldods surged and swirled around her.
Unconsciousness, black, barren, and
all enveloping, took possession of her.
Yet her last sensation "was one of indifference.
She opened 'her eyes long after-J
ward, it was aayiignt; tne sun was
'rising over the plains and touching
the tops of the hills with gold. ' She
was lying upon a heap of what had
once been beams and- girders, but
was now only'a'neap of "woodcaught
between two islands of masonry tfiat
Tose out of the swirling flood. And
all around her wa& water. Not a
, house was left in, Elkwood. The yal
sley had bepome a river," the stream
had forced its way through the weak
spots inlthe masonry and was roar
ing on its thousand-mile journey to
ward the sea. And -where the prison
had been was only a pile of shattered
stone.
Suddenly she perceived something
that made her heart beat quickly.
masonry lay the'.'Body'pf the prisoner.
He lay f Lre as-, if dead, "his face pal
lid as snow, his sinewy arms out
stretched, while the water rippled
round iim. Painfully the girl,crawled
toward iim, She bent over him, and,
as she did so, his eyes opened.
For a moment he jtared at-ber, and
then consciousness returned,
"The floodJhe muttered. ""Where
are they?" i ' ,
"They are aHt dead' she sobbed,
and, all at once the sense of desola
tion, came upon her. 4Her father,
tyrannical though hef Jia'd, been, "had
been all,shead everaadAnd they
two alone survived out of a thousand.
"! was with Ihe wagon," hemut
tered. "The flood struck-me. I knew
nothing ihore
?Fhatwaa how heha&escaped; as
for those sl$tf upfintheSprison, 'not
one had survived the 4lood. The
same fortu&ate accident, that had
saved him hadsaved the girl;, the
ruins of masonry-had held fast and.
formed' ialr3r on whiclthe float
ing debris had; accumulated: ;
AH day 3tbey cowered- there and
by nightfall, When the water;- was
Ipwer, they managed to wade'to land.
They had found a box of canned
meats, and flour-,, but little damaged
by the water". "While they ate he told
her his story. He had been a trap
per; he hadjbeen arrested on acbarge
of burglary,- trumped up by a store
keeper with whom he had quarreled,
and sentenced to two years' impris-v'
onment He had servedthree-fourths
of hiS'time. V,
'"Where will you go?" she asked.
VHonte' he' answered ' simply,
pointing over the mountains: -. His
home lay there; the plains and for
ests -were "bis, and all the boundless
prairies his domain.
He took her by the hand -and tbejr
fared forth .like two children'. Each
had an'infinite faitblin.the oiherfqr
it takes two to make' a he-me, and
so there was no need for'any formal
questioning. -s
(Qopyright byv (h. Chapman.),
r Upon the other side of the .pile, of J