Adventure, August 1917 — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Northwoman *‘Perhaps it’s my fault, taking the word of @ man with so little experience. And I guess you’re on the square. It’s just a plain case of your overlooking some weak place in the shore line. The river has broken out somewhere else.”’ “But rivers don’t do such things in a day, in this country,” protested Wallace. ‘It’s impossible in such a formation. It could hardly wear out, let alone break out.” “Had any opposition, since you started this thing?” asked Madison suddenly. ‘“‘There was an indication of it, but I came to believe that it was only a co- incidence. Besides, if there were opposition it would be from some one who wanted the site. A man doesn’t ruin a thing like this just to keep some one else from getting it.” “What was this indication of opposition?” “The fourth night I was here some one got my guide drunk and then went through my things. Or, at least, that’s the way it looked when I got back. Frank was dead to the world and things in the tent had been scattered about as though some one were looking for something.” “Anything taken?” ‘“‘All my notes and figures on the falls.” ‘Seen any one around here?” ‘Just the people at the mission across the river and the man who runs a trading- post half a mile beyond. But it can’t be any one after the site. They wouldn’t destroy it.”’ ‘“What’s the mission, Catholic?” “No, it’s a small one run by a young man named Bancroft. His father ran it before him. There is a Mrs. Knox who has been housekeeper since Bancroft was a boy, and a—a young lady, Miss Malloch, who was the older Bancroft’s ward.” ‘“‘No chance for opposition there.”’ Wallace started forward suddenly and was about to speak. Then he turned quickly away. “What's your hunch now?” asked Madison. ‘“‘Nothing,” was the reply, but there was in Wallace’s mind a reconstructed picture of the grim, hard lines of Stanton Ban- croft’s face when he had told the missionary why he was in the country. He re- membered, too, the outburst, the opposition implied rather than expressed. Bancroft wanted nothing new in the country. He did not care about the falls. He would rather see them destroyed than converted 3! into useful power, anything rather than have his cursed Indians subjected to what he considered the evil influences of civiliza- tion. Doubt and conviction struggled for a moment, but conviction won because Wal- lace must have some outlet for his anger, his .chagrin, his complete sense of defeat. He turned back to Madison, who still sat on the rock. “IT suppose you’re ‘going back at once,’ he said. “I don’t see any reason for staying. I’ll just charge up a week to profit and loss.” “Can’t you give me another day—two more—three?”’ “What for, in Heaven’s name?” “It may not be so bad. It can’t be. Such a thing can’t happen—not this way. It was too wonderful a thing just to dis- appear like that. Come here and look. You can see where the level of the lake was, that black line on the rocks. It will give you an idea of the volume of water that flowed over that natural rock dam there. You can see the fall. A good hundred feet. And straight. Not a ledge in the way.” Wallace, fired once more by the wonder- ful falls he had known, picturing them:as he had seen them, went over in detail the plans he had made for the installation of the power-plant. Technical it was, but understood by the other, and his descrip- tion and outline of the work that might have been were so vivid that they finally had their impression on Madison. “It is quite unusual,” he said when _ Wallace finally ceased speaking, ‘‘this being able to see the interior workings of a big falls.” “And it may prove a Godsend!’’ cried Wallace excitedly. ‘‘Don’t you see? With the water at this level it will be possible to install the turbines without having to build coffer-dams.”’ “But why install them without water to turn them?” “Don’t you see? This river runs out of the lake somewhere. We need only find that place and fill it in. It wouldn’t be much of a job.” Madison looked at the engineer closely for a moment. “Young man,” he finally said, “‘this is too good to be true. Things like this don’t happen, is all. It’s impossible. CoOMmiclsoo CO S|