The tempest had
the voice of a ravenous beast, cheated and angry. Outside the water lay
in sheets. The whole land was a river, and the shanty was like a boat
beached on a bar in the swash of it.
Nothing more could be done, and so they waited, Bailey watching at the
window, Blanche and Rivers standing in the centre of the room. Bailey
came back once to say: "This beats anything I ever saw. There will be
ruin to many a shanty out of this," he added, as the roar began to
diminish. "Nothing saved us but our ballast of pork and oil."
"As soon as it stops, Bob, I wish you'd hitch up for me. I want to take
Mrs. Burke home."
"All right, Jim; it's letting up now. I wonder if the storm was as bad
over where the Clayton girls are?" His voice betrayed anxiety greater
than he knew. Rivers looked at him indulgently and smiled at Blanche.
"You'd better go and see," he said.
As soon as it became possible to carry a light, Bailey went to the barn
and brought the team to the door. Rivers helped Blanche to a seat in
the wagon and drove off across the plain, leaving Bailey alone in the
water-soaked store-room.
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