"
"You can't hold that jam two hours, let alone two days," said Welton
decidedly.
"That's my business. You're wasting time. Will you send for
lanterns and wrenches and keep this crew working?"
"I will," said Welton.
"Then do it."
During the next two days the old scenes were all relived, with back
of them the weight of the struggle that had gone before. The little
crew worked as though mad. Excepting them, no one ventured on the
river, for to be caught in the imminent break meant to die. Old
spars, refuse timbers of all sorts--anything and everything was
requisitioned that might help form an obstruction above or below
water. Piles were taken where they could be found. Farmer's trees
were cut down. Pines belonging to divers and protesting owners were
felled and sharpened. Some were brought in by rail. Even the
inviolate Government supply was commandeered. The Railroad Company
had a fine lot which, with remarkable shortsightedness and lack of
public spirit, they refused to sell at any price. The crew took
them by force. Once Captain Marsh was found up to his waist in
water, himself felling the trees of a wood, and dragging them to the
river by a cable attached to the winch of his tug.
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