dazed look of a woman in a dream,
and knelt at the piano bench.

"Oh, my God--my God--my God!" she said in a low, hoarse tone, her
fingers pressed tightly over her eyes.

"Don't be so scared!" said Belle, hardily, though the sight of the
other woman's terror had made her feel cold and sick at her stomach.
"There's lots of things we can do--"

"There's an attic--"

"Ye-es," Belle hesitated. "But I wouldn't go up there," she said. "It's
just an unfloored place under the roof--no way out!"

"No--no--no--not there, then!" Miss Carter said heavily, paler than
before. "But what can we do?"

"Why, this water is backing up," Belle said slowly, "It's not coming
downstream, so any minute whatever's holding it back may burst and the
whole thing go at once--or if it stops raining, it won't go any higher."

"Well, we must get away as fast as we can while there is time," said
Miss Carter, trembling, but more composed. "We could swim that
distance--I swim a little. Then, if we can't walk into Emville, we'll
have to spend the night on the hills. We could reach the hills, I
should think." Her voice broke. "Oh--this is terrible!" she broke out
frantically--and she began to walk the floor.

"Hong, could we get the baby acrost?" asked Belle.

"Oh, the child--of course!" said Miss Carter, under her breath. Hong
shook his head.

"Man come bimeby boat," he suggested. "Me no swim--Little Hong no swim."

"You can't swim" cried Miss Carter, despairingly, and covered her face
with her hands.

Little Hong now came in to make some earnest suggestion in Chinese. His
uncle, approving it, announced that they two, unable to swim, would,
nevertheless, essay to cross the water with the aid of a floating
kitchen bench, and that they would fly for help. They immediately
carried the bench out into the night.

The two women followed; a hideous need of haste seemed to possess them
all. The rain was falling heavily again.

"It's higher," said Miss Carter, in a dead tone. Belle eyed the water
nervously.

"You couldn't push Timmy acrost on that bench?" she ventured.

It became immediately evident, however, that the men would be extremely
fortunate in getting themselves across. The two dark, sleek heads made
slow progress on the gloomy water. The bench tipped, turned slowly,
righted itself, and tipped again. Soon they worked their slow way out
of sight.

Then came silence--silence!

"She's rising!" said Belle.

Miss Carter went blindly