“Do you mean it? Are you sure?”
“Yes, father, it’s twice as big now as it was when I saw it first.”
“Ah!” ejaculated Mr Willows, and he stood for a moment with brow knit and fists clenched, like a man gazing inwards.
“Run to the big bell, boy, and pull with all your might!”
“Yes, father. Is it very dan—”
“Run! Act!” was the reply, and in a few seconds the great bell was sending its notes in what seemed to the boy a harsh jangle, such as he had never heard before.
Rung at such a time and in such a manner, it carried but one message to those who heard—Danger!—and in a very short time the work-people came hurrying from the cottages which formed a scattered village down the vale, to where their master was standing on a block of stone where he could be well seen, waiting to give his orders.
“You, Dacey,” he shouted to the first man, “take one of the horses—don’t stop to saddle—and gallop right down the vale, giving the warning. Stop nowhere—shout as you go by each cottage, ‘The dam bursts!’”
The man was off, and, while Willows was giving fresh orders, the clatter of the horse’s hoofs was heard, and the man passed out of sight. Meanwhile, from the directions Willows was giving, the alarm was spreading fast, men’s voices giving it everywhere.
There were a few women’s shrieks heard, children began to cry, and there was wild excitement about the Mill House. Women’s voices, too, were heard remonstrating, and words were uttered about saving this or that; but Willows rushed up to the first group, and shouted—