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--

"Silence, there! Save your lives! Up the sides as fast as you can, and
as high as you can climb. At any moment the dam may be washed away like
so much salt. Think of nothing but your lives!"

A wild yearning cry full of despair arose at this, but the master's
words went home, and the next minute the hurried scrambling of feet was
heard, as women, carrying their children, began to climb up the sides of
the vale, dragged and pushed up by the menfolk, in whose faces were seen
reflected the looks of their chief; but to a man they were grim and
stern; and all the while, harsh, wild and strange, bringing down as it
were a shower of echoes of its tones, the great bell rang on, swung to
and fro, and over and over under the feverish impulse given by Will's
untiring arms.

So effective were the commands, so deeply imbedded in every breast was
the knowledge of what might happen, that the time seemed short before
Mr Willows could draw breath and feel satisfied that the weaker portion
of the community were in safety.

"Now," he cried, "you who are old, and all you boys, follow the women.
No words--Go! Now, my lads, you who are ready to work, let's see what
we can save. But, mind, it must be one eye