Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/264

238 ominous, distant murmur increased to a loud roar. Jacqueline at the window called to Gysbert, and together they watched the terrible, awe-inspiring sight, or as much of it as  they could see in the darkness.

The dreadful something approached nearer and nearer, till, with an ear-splitting sound  it suddenly appeared out of the gloom,—a  huge black wall of water nearly ten feet high,  rolling forward with incredible swiftness,  deluging, submerging, or pushing before it  everything that came in its way. For one horrible instant it surged about the house,  rocking the structure to its very foundations, and threatening to uproot it outright, and  fling it to the ground. But the house stood firm, and the vanguard of the flood passed  on, leaving the water well up to the second  story window, and burying all else in its  swirling depths.

When this moment of danger was past the children breathed again. Gysbert went back to his work on the door with only an, “I