immediately before him. He was
gazing into chaotic depths of torn black rock amidst which a great
cascade of water poured out from the bowels of the earth and flowed on
to join the waters of Yellow Creek. It was the site where had hung the
suspended lake. Half the great hill had been torn away by some
terrible subterranean upheaval, which seemed to have solely occurred
on that side where the lake had been, and where the hill had
confronted the distant camp. Gone were the workings of the miners.
Gone was that great bed of auriferous soil. And in their places lay an
ocean of rock, so vast, so torn, that the power which had hurled it
broadcast was inconceivable to his staggered mind.

For a while he contemplated the scene with thoughts struggling and
emotions stirring. Then with a sigh he looked out beyond. The valley
of the creek, that little narrow strip of open grass-land, bordered by
pine forests all its length, was gone, too. The creek was now a
wide-spread expanse of flowing water, which had swept from its path
the last vestige of the handiwork of those people who had lived upon
the banks of the original stream.

There was not a sign of a house or log hut to be seen anywhere. Gone,
gone, swept away like the buildings of children's toy bricks.

What of those who had dwelt where the water now flowed? Had they, too,
gone on the rushing tide? He wondered. Where had been their escape?
Maybe they had had time. And yet, somehow it seemed doubtful. The
skeleton forests stretched out on every hand to a great distance. They
backed where the camp had stood. They rose up beyond the northern
limits. To the west of the water it was the same. Had he not witnessed
the furnace upon that side? And here, here to the south would they
have faced this terrible barrier belching out its torrential waters,
perhaps amidst fire and smoke?

He did not know. He could not think. They were gone as everything else
that indicated life was gone, and--they two were left alone in a
wilderness of stricken earth.

He sighed again as he thought of the gracious woods which the long
centuries had built up. All Nature's wonderful labors, the patient
efforts of ages, wiped out in a few moments of her own freakish mood.
It was heart-breaking to one who had always loved the wild hills where
the all-powerful Dame's whimsies had so long run riot.

Then as he stared out upon the steaming horizon where hills greater
and greater rose up confronting him and n