Orde took charge of the situation in its entirety, as a general
might. He set North immediately to driving clumps each of sixteen
piles, bound to solidity by chains, and so arranged in angles and
slants as to direct the enormous pressure toward either bank, thus
splitting the enemy's power. The small driver owned by the Boom
Company drove similar clumps here, there and everywhere that need
arose or weakness developed. Seventy-five men opposed, to the
weight of twenty million tons of logs and a river of water, the
expedients invented by determination and desperation.
As in a virulent disease, the symptoms developed rapidly when once
the course of the malady was assured. After the first rush, when
the upper booms broke, nothing spectacular occurred. Steadily and
relentlessly the logs, packed close together down to the very bed of
the stream, pressed outward against the frail defences. Orde soon
found himself forced from the consideration of definite plans of
campaign. He gave over formal defences, and threw his energies to
saving the weak places which rapidly developed. By the most
tremendous exertions he seemed but just able to keep even. So
closely balanced was the equilibrium between the improvisation of
defence and the increase of pressure behind the jam that it seemed
as if even a moment's breathing spell would bring the deluge.
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