The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

THE BUNKEL MYSTERY. | 309 a year since he had listened to any such plain speech aes to himself. ‘‘ Do you understand me, Lamb?”’ ‘‘T understand you perfectly, Barkpool, and of course I expected this. Now, I want you to understand, Barkpool, that I have got a soul, and that my soul belongs to me. Come, Andy, my boy, shake the dust off your feet, and let us go home.’’ Mr. Barkpool was too much confounded by the boldness and plain speech of the mechanic to say another word. He was quivering with rage, for he had found that the engineer was a man, and not a thing. It was a new reve- lation to him. He meant to be kind and condescending to his employees because they were his inferiors, not because they were human beings like himself. ‘You have lost your place, father,’ of the house. ‘* But I have not lost my manliness nor my self respect ; and that 1s a good deal better,’’ replied the engineer. ‘‘ These two mill owners think they are a couple of gods, before whom we should all bow down ; and I am willing to do so within reasonable limits, but not at the sacrifice of my soul and con- science. I have got money enough to live on till I get another situation. We are allright, Andy; do your duty as you understand it, and you will come out right in the end, though you may get some hard knocks for it.”’ He had hardly finished the sentence before a tremendous explosion shook the very ground on which they stood. They were standing on the bank of the river, just below the upper dam, in the darkness, for they had taken the path from the house to the road. Both of them stepped back, for it seemed as though they were going to be pitched into the stream. For an instant the scene was lighted up, and Andy and his father, as they turned, saw that it was the dam in which the explosion centered. The struc- ture was torn into fragments for half the width of the river on the farther side, and vast quantities of water, as well as pieces of timber and planks, with stones and earth, were scattered in every direction. The upper dam had been blown up with powder or some other explosive. The pent up waters rushed with tremendous velocity down the narrow gorge of the stream, carrying with it the wreck of the dam. It wasa terrible sight, and father and son gazed with awe upon it. Ina few minutes it was followed by another crash down the river, and Mr. Lamb said the lower dam had been carried away by the rush of waters. He was right. b] said Andy, as soon as they were out CHAPTER XI.—GREAT EXCITEMENT IN MONTOBAN. TH explosion must have shaken the country for miles around. To Mor- gan Lamb and his son, who were standing on the bank of the river and but a short distance from it, it had the effect of an earthquake. ‘The flash and glare first attracted their attention, and the sudden illumination was instantly fol- lowed by the terrific report and the shaking of the earth beneath them. Then came the crash of waters, and the heavy roaring, which did not cease for half an hour. COMicoookssc@