“Oh, I don’t know—sort of a notion—a hunch, maybe.”
“What kind of a hunch?
“It—it’s pretty vague,” Orkney confessed.
Sam, not deeply impressed but willing enough that Orkney should find even such diversion, moved back to the window. From sounds which proceeded, presently, from the direction of the chimney he inferred that Tom had taken out his knife and was scratching away at the old mortar. After a little, however, he lost consciousness of this activity, and, indeed, of a good deal more; for he fell into an uneasy doze.
Subsequently on comparing notes, the boys had to admit, one and all, that in spite of their perils they caught some sleep in the course of the night. Probably all of them slept longer than they realized. Sam, at any rate, must have passed from doze to sound slumber; for when he was awakened by a tremendous crash there was a second or two in which he did not realize where he was or how he came to be there. The old house was still trembling violently from the concussion, as well as from a series of minor blows, as the object which had collided with it was carried along, grinding and pounding against the side of the building.
In the room there was something closely akin to panic for a moment. Varley shouted wildly for help. Lon was scrambling to the window. Sam heard Orkney cry out, and caught distinctly the Shark’s shrill whistle, and close-following comment:
“Whew! There’s bulk, with momentum, for you! Say, what was it?”
Sam found himself peering over Lon’s shoulder. Certainly there was a slight lessening of the darkness. He could make out dimly a black mass drifting by.
“Great Scott! but that must be one o’ them big barges from the brick yards!” Lon groaned. “Use ’em to freight the bricks down to the railroad, they do. But the yards are up above the big dam. If that’s one o’ their boats, it means that dam has gone out as well as the little fellow we’ve been figgerin’ on. Jeewhillikens! but this is a reg’lar granddaddy of a flood! Must be, for they haul the barges out winters, and the one that hit us must ’a’ been well up the bank. And look how the water’s riz, anyhow!”
Sam looked; that is, he gazed as at a dark curtain, and saw a pale glimmer just discernible at what he estimated to be but a few inches below the level of the upper floor. As he was continuing his observations, Orkney plucked at his sleeve.