“Ben an’ me ’ll manage,” said jack. “Up wi’ thee, Tom. By gosh! hark to ’em screechin’ up the valley.”
Aye, aye, the warning cries had been heard and heeded, and as Tom wrung Ben’s hand and vaulted to patient Bess’s back the wind bore to his ears the startled cry, “The flood! The flood! It’s come at last,” and as the mare, spinning cobbles and pebbles behind its clattering feet, galloping as though the foul fiend pursued, dashed past farm and mill and house Tom cried loud and ever tender, “Oh, rouse yo’, good folk, rouse yo’. Bilberry’s on yo’. The bank’s brust,” and the small-paned windows were raised with quick grasp from within, and startled faces with widening eyes peered forth into the night, and still Tom raised the cry, now hoarse, now shrill, in voice that almost failed. “The flood, the flood!” And loud and louder still behind him grew the cries, deep toned of men, anguished shrill of women, wailing tones of children roused from cradle and from cot. The sleepy valley behind him slept no more. It had roused to panic, to the sudden apprehension of ravage, ruin, death. Whither flee? How save the little hoarded wealth; how bear the infirm mother, who by inglenook declined daily to her grave cheered by the babbling prattle of her daughter’s bairns; how save the bairns themselves! And even as Tom rode the cries behind him swelled in volume till they fell upon his ears as a hoarse roar, broken by shrill and piercing shriek, and if his ears betrayed him not, above the din of human voice he heard the growl of gathered waters loosed. No use to look behind, the darkening skies veiled the sight. Thank God! Here is Wilberlee. Well Tom knew the entrance to the yard. Pray God the gate yielded to his thrust! It did. By there, through the yard, was the shortest cut to the house. He swung from the back of the beast, now blown and trembling. The panic had seized upon it. Grasping its mane Tom led it through the yard, round the mill gable. Here the noises from above were broken by the mill’s flank and hushed. Not a light shone through the windows of the house. All was silent within, but at the garden foot the river roared, and Tom in the dim light saw that on its foaming breast it bore objects, strange, hideous, torn from the fields, floating stacks of hay, ponderous engines and machines, the dark outline of animals swept quickly by.
“Oh! rouse yo’! rouse yo’!” shrieked Tom. He tore a boulder from a rockery by, and with it crashed at the stout outer door. It shook and groaned but yielded not. Tom remembered that the window of the sitting-room or drawing-room came to within a foot’s step from the ground. It was a moment’s work to dash the window open with his feet, and Tom amid the falling of the glass and the creaking crash of wood-work was within the dark room, his clothes rent, his face scratched, his hands bleeding. There were sounds above of awakening life. Tom sprung to the foot of the passage stairs, finding the inner door he knew not how. “Wake ye, wake ye,” he cried hoarsely.
Then a light glimmered above, on the landing. It was Jabez Tinker in his dressing gown. A candle was in his hand that he shaded from the upward current.
“Thank God, yo’re up,” shouted Tom, bounding up the steps. “Dress yo’, quick. Rouse the house. Bilberry’s burst. Oh! hark yo’.”
Some building higher up the river had fallen with a groan into the stream and frantic cries rent the leaden skies mingling with the crash of stone and iron and stout timbers torn like mere sprigs.
Suddenly from the well of darkness shone the gleam of a lanthorn. It was impossible to see who held it. Mr. Tinker cried out:
“Who’s that?”
“It’s me, Sergeant Ramsden,” said a calm, stentorian voice. “Glad you’re up, sir. Time to flit. Had to wade here. Where’s Betty?”
“I’m here, George; but yo’ munnot think o’ coming up till aw’ve med mysen some bit like.”