Part 46 (1/2)

”From what you say, they can't well be here for another hour or two,”

he said, and there was a determined glint in his eyes. ”I fancy we'll be through by then.”

He swung around, and raised a hand to the men. ”Boys, you'll get the last holes filled with giant-powder as quick as you can, and couple up the firing battery. We'll lift that rock right out when you're ready.”

He turned again to Laura. ”I'm not sure you understand all that you have done,” he said. ”For one thing, I think, you have saved us from being beaten when what we have fought for was almost in our hand.”

He paused for a moment, and then his voice became hoa.r.s.e as he indicated the cl.u.s.tering men with a little forceful gesture.

”They have come in to see the last shot fired. We had arranged to put in a few more sticks of powder, and then lower the river once for all in another hour or two. Some of the boys are now getting a big supper ready to celebrate the occasion, but if you hadn't brought us the warning, it's scarcely likely that any of us would have felt much inclined for festivity. In all probability, those strangers are bringing an order to restrain me from going any further. Once it was in my hands, I could not have fired the shot. All we have done would have been thrown away.”

”Ah!” cried Laura, ”that would be intolerable!”

Nasmyth laughed significantly.

”Any way,” he declared, ”until the papers are served on me, my charter stands. We'll have scattered the last strip of rock when those men ride in.”

He made her a grave little bow. ”You set us to work,” he said. ”It is only fitting that you should once more hold the firing battery.”

He moved away abruptly from her and crawled into the heading. It was half an hour later when he came back, and almost every man who had a share in the undertaking gathered upon the strip of s.h.i.+ngle. n.o.body spoke, however, and there was tense expectancy in the bronzed faces.

Nasmyth beckoned to Laura and moved forward with Gordon, and Wheeler, who carried the battery. Nasmyth swung his battered hat off as he held out his hand, and Laura, clinging to him, climbed to a shelf of rock where she stood still a moment or two, looking about her.

In front the white spray of the fall whirled beneath the tremendous wall of rock, and about her stood groups of hard-handed men, who had driven the heading with strenuous, insistent toil. She knew what the work had cost them, and could understand the look in their steady eyes. They had faced the river in the depths of the tremendous rift, borne with the icy winter, and patiently grappled with obstacle after obstacle. Their money had not sufficed to purchase them costly machines. They had pitted steadfast courage and hardened muscle against the vast primeval forces of untrammelled Nature. Laura felt deeply stirred as she glanced at them. They were simple men, but they had faced and beaten roaring flood and stinging frost, caring little for the hazard to life or limb as they played their part in that tremendous struggle with axe and drill.

Suddenly Laura became conscious that Nasmyth, who held up a little box from which trailed a couple of wires, was speaking.

”Our last dollars bought that powder. Wish us good luck,” he said.

Laura stretched out her hands for the box, and standing upon the rock shelf, with one shoe burst and her skirt badly rent, raised her voice as she had done in that spot once before.

”Boys,” she said, ”you have stood fast against very heavy odds. May all that you can wish for--orchards, oat-fields, wheat, and cattle--be yours. The prosperity of this country is founded on such efforts as you have made.”

With a little smile in her eyes, she fitted in the firing-plug, and in another moment a streak of flame that seemed to expand into a bewildering brilliancy flashed through the spray of the fall. The flash of light was lost in rolling smoke and a tremendous eruption of flying rock that rang with deafening detonations against the side of the canon. The smoke rolled higher, and still great shattered fragments came whirling out of it, striking boulder and s.h.i.+ngle with a heavy crash, until the roar of the liberated river rose in tumultuous clamour and drowned all other sound.

A great foaming wave swept forward, was.h.i.+ng high along the bank, and poured seething down the rapid. s.h.i.+ngle and boulder were lost in it.

It drove on tumultuously, and a mad turgid flood came on behind. Then it slowly fell away again, and a man, clambering out, in peril of being swept away, beneath the dripping rock, flung up a hand. His voice rang harsh and exultant through the sinking roar of the beaten river.

”We've cut the last ledge clean away,” he said.

A great shout went up, and Nasmyth held out his hand to Laura.

”I owe it all to you,” he said with a curious gleam in his eyes.

The men trooped about them both, and, though they were not as a rule effusive, some of them thumped Nasmyth's shoulder and some wrung his hand. Half an hour had slipped by before he was free of them.

He and Laura went slowly back up the climbing gully. It was growing dark, but a light still streamed down between the pines, and Nasmyth, who pointed to a tree that had fallen, stood close by, looking down upon the girl.

”I will ride back with you presently, but you must rest first; and I have something to say, though if we had not beaten the river I think I should never have had courage enough,” he said. ”When you found me lying in the snow, you took me in; you nursed me back to life, gave me a purpose, and set me on my feet again.”

He paused for a moment. A flush dyed his worn face, and his voice was strained when he went on again.