Mississippt Valley dwellers, wise with the terrible wisdom born of much suffering under the dominance of this
voracious and untamed monster, so ruthless when
roused, were preparing against catastrophe should these
days of rain continue.
Captain Andy Hawks clawed his mutton—chop whiskers, this stde and that, and scanned the skies, and searched the yellowing swollen stream with his bright brown eyes. "We'll make for Cairo," he said. "Full steam ahead. I don’t like the looks of her—the big yella snake."
But full steam ahead was impossible for long in a snag-infested river, as Andy Hawks well knew; and in a river whose treacherous channel shifted almost daily in normal times, and hourly in flood-time. Cautiously they made for Cairo. Cape Girardeau, Gray’s Point, Commerce—then, suddenly, near evening, the false sun shone for a brief hour. At once everyone took heart, The rains, they assured each other, were over. The spring freshet would subside twice as quickly as it had risen. Fittingly enough, the play billed for that evening was lempest and Sunshine, always a favourite. Magnolia Ravenal cheerfully laced herself into the cruel steel-stiffened high-busted corset of the period, and donned the golden curls and the prim ruffles of the part. A goodish crowd scrambled and slipped and slid down the rain-soaked clay bank, torch-illumined, to the show boat, their boots leaving a trail of mud and water up and down the aisles of the theatre and between the seats. It was a restless audience, and hard to hold. There had been an angry sunset, and threatening clouds to the
