e over his dishevelled
head looked like the spirit of destruction presiding over a scene of
desolation.

A rapping at the front door was the first thing that recalled us to the
necessity for action.

"Is it drownded ye all are, Muster Lumley?"

It was the voice of Donald Bane.

"Not quite," cried Lumley, with a laugh and a shiver. "Come in,
Donald."

"Ay, ay, sur, I would come in if I could, but the door won't open."

"Shove hard, Donald."

"I wull, sur. Here, Shames, lend a hand."

We heard both the Highlanders put their broad backs against the door and
groan in Gaelic as they heaved, but they might as well have tried to
lift the house. They caused the door to crack, however.

"Wheesht! What's that Shames?"

"We've splut the toor, Tonald."

"Never mind; heave again, boys," cried Lumley.

At that moment poor Salamander, who was groping about with nothing but
his shirt on, stumbled over something, and, in trying to recover
himself, pitched head first against the door with considerable violence.

This was a climax. The door, although it had withstood the pressure
from without, could not resist this additional pressure within. It
collapsed and burst outwards suddenly. The great mass of water went
forth with the gushing hilarity of a prisoner set free, and, with
something like a roar of triumph, carried Salamander like a chip on its
crest. He was launched into the bosom of the amazed James Dougall, who
incontinently went with the stream, laying hold of and carrying off
Donald Bane as he passed.

After a few turns over on the lawn, the three men regained their
footing, and made their way back to the house, while the stream,
subsiding almost immediately, left us in peace to make the best of what
James Dougall called a paad chob!

What had actually occurred was this: the rock that held the main
supports of our dam, being detached from the cliff as Lumley had
surmised, had been undermined by the unusual floods of the previous
week. Even in that condition it might have remained fast, so strong was
our artificial buttress, but as the foundation wore away the rock heeled
over to one side a little; this deranged the direct action of the
buttresses, and in an instant they flew aside. The rock was hurled
over, and the whole of our dam was dashed in dire confusion into the bed
of the stream. It was this choking of the natural channel which sent
the great flood over our lawn, and, as we have seen, created