d. I gits a holt oncet, but the water backs up behind us an'
we goes a-scootin' down on a big wave that sloshes out o' the flume on
both sides an' sends us flyin' toward that Horn fer further orders.

"When we gits to the sharpest curve we knows we're there all right. She
wabbles on one side an' then on the other, so I can see chunks o' sky
ahead right under her. An' then, all of a sudden, she gives a whoopin'
big jump right off the top o' the boat, an' over the side o' the flume
she goes, her strings all a-singin' like mad, an' sailin' down four
hundred feet. Jud had a holt of her before she dropped, an' if I hadn't
'a' grabbed him he'd 'a' gone over, too.

"You might not believe it, pardner, but we run a quarter of a mile down
that there flume before we hears her strike. Jeroosalem! What a crash! I
ever heer'd one o' them big redwoods that made half so much noise when
she dropped. How she did roar! An' I tell yeh what was strange about
that there noise: it seemed like all the music that everybody had ever
expected to play on that pianner for the nex' hundred years come
a-boomin' out all to oncet in one great big whoop-hurray that echered up
an' down that canon fer half an hour.

"'We've lost somethin',' says I, cheerful-like, fer I thinks the' 's no
use cryin' over spilt pianners.

"But Jud he never says nothin',--jest sets there like he was froze plumb
stiff an' couldn't stir a eyelid--sets there, starin' straight ahead
down the flume. Looks like his face is caught in the air and held that
way.

"Of course, now our load's gone, the brake works all right, an' I hooks
a-holt onto the side about a hundred feet from where Jess stands like a
marble statute, lookin' down inter the gulch.

"'Come on, Jud,' says I, layin' my hand onto his arm soft-like; 'we gits
out here.'

"He don't say nothin', but tries to shake me off. I gits him out at
last, an' we goes over to where poor Jess stands, stiff an' starin' down
inter the gulch. When she hears our feet on the side planks, she starts
up an' begins to beller like a week-old calf; an' that fetches Jud outer
his trance for a while, an' he puts his arm aroun' her an' he helps her
back along the walk till we comes to a place where we gits down an' goes
over to view the wreck.

"Great snakes, pardner, but it was a sight! The pianner had flew down
an' lit onto a big, flat rock, an' the' wasn't a piece of her left as
big as that there plate. There was all kinds o' wires a-wr