Page:Hell-Bent fer Heaven (Hughes 1924).pdf/198

184 It ’ll be over the top o’ this house afore mornin’ unless a merricle happens.

[They are all sobered by this and turn toward anxiously.]

What makes you think that?

While I ’us down thar under the dam a-telephonin’, a Message come through that all the dams between here an’ Asheville had busted an’ the river ’us a-sweepin’ everything afore it. It ’us twenty-five feet above high-water at Eagle Bluff. An’ they said if this new dam didn’t hold it ’ld be lots wuss down here afore mornin’.

Then we’re all a-goin’ to have to swim fer our lives!

Has the water s’rrounded the house?

Yeh. It’s six feet deep twixt here an’ the nearest hill!

Then they ain’t nothin’ left fer me an’ Jude to do but pray, fer we cain’t swim!