CHAPTER XXIX.

A RIVER LET LOOSE.

Nothing of interest occurring at Greenbrier, the postboy resumed his journey, with the talkative stranger still beside him.

"I was in luck," he declared, "when I chanced to meet you. I should have hated to have gone over this lonely road without company. I don't see how you can do it. Is it as lonesome below Salt Works?"

"Until I get to Hutsland I think it is more dreary, though I have got so used to it I never stop to think of that."

"Just so. Say, Dix, what do you think of Jason Warfield?"

This question was asked so abruptly that Little Snap glanced up with a look of wonder.

"I don't know as I have anything against him," he replied, after a moment's pause.

"A safe answer. But I am going to tell you that I think he is a sneaking rascal. How long has he been in Six Roads?"

"Fifteen years, I think."

"Right the first time. I know, because he came there at the time I was through here before. Never'll get the nomination for Congress, will he?"

"Feels confident of it."

"Well, he is sure to get disappointed. Marion Calvert is the man."

"So you know Mr. Calvert?"

"By reputation. I have a mind to do a little electioneering while I am scouting over the country. Gee whiz! isn't this a wild country!" he concluded, for they were already entering the Devil's Bowl.

Mr. Goings' exclamation of astonishment increased as they rode up the Tracks and approached the Narrows.

"I want you to show me where you rode off the cliff into the river," said Little Snap's companion, very much to his surprise. "Oh, I heard of that a long way from here. Such news travels far and fast. Jerusalem! is it possible you went off there and came out alive? I never should have dared to do that. Now, you must tell me all about it. I am interested."

The postboy retold his thrilling adventure, and as he began to talk he grew animated, and before Salt Works was reached he had given Mr. Goings a more extended account of himself and his adventures than he had realized while telling it.

"It is a great satisfaction to have met you, Dix, and if I can arrange my business in season I am going back with you as far as Diamond."

These were Mr. Goings' parting words, and as Little Snap left Salt Works, where he had changed horses, he said, to himself:

"I don't know whether I am anxious or not for your company, Mr. Goings. If you do go back with me, I shall ask you a few questions in regard to yourself."

Below Salt Works the road wound down the valley for a couple of miles, when the base of Flat Top Mountains was reached, where a long ascent had to be made.

As at the Narrows, though the passage was wider, the Great Kanawha found its way along a rocky gorge, the banks of which were in places hundreds of feet in height.

Near the summit of the post road's greatest elevation, was a shelf of rock overhanging the stream, that was called "Lover's Leap," one of the three hundred dizzy crags in the United States bearing that favorite name.

After passing this spot, the post road, in making its descent on the west side of the mountain, wound away from the Kanawha, until the sullen roar of that river was supplanted by the musical ripple of a smaller stream, called Tripping Waters.

About two-thirds the way up this narrow valley the road led across this river, following its west bank to its outlet into the Kanawha at a point where the rugged mountain defile opened out into the broad basin of the western slope.

Little Snap was leisurely approaching the pole bridge that spanned Tripping Waters, when all at once a deep roaring sound reached his ears.

Abruptly reining in his horse, he listened for a moment, to find that the sound was rapidly increasing.

It seemed nearer, too, and more deadly in its sound!

He glanced wildly up the valley, but from his position he could see nothing to explain the heavy, booming thunder still growing louder and louder!

He had never heard anything like it.

The ground beneath him began to tremble and the mountain to shake!

He touched his horse smartly, fearing to remain there longer.

But the animal had not taken the second bound before the heart of Little Snap seemed to come into his mouth, as he suddenly realized the meaning of the awful sound.

A mile above, a dam had been built across the river to hold back the water for the benefit of a mill at the lower end of the valley.

This barrier had broken down, and the flood let loose!

"Fly, Tom!" he cried to his horse. "It is a race for life! On! on! It is overtaking us! We are lost!"