God!" She repeated the cry over and over again in a
voice strange to her brother's ears.

"It--it wasn't my fault," he told her, hoarsely. "I aimed to save him."

"You killed him!"

"He ain't--" Buddy choked and clung to her. "He's just stunned like. He
ain't--that!" The youth was amazed when Allie turned and cursed him
with oaths that he himself seldom ventured to employ.

But Gray was not dead. Buddy's blow had well-nigh broken his neck, and
he had suffered a further injury to his head in falling; nevertheless,
he responded to such medical aid as they could supply, and in time he
opened his eyes. His gaze was dull, however, and for a long while he
lay in a sort of coma, quite as alarming as his former condition. They
brought him to at last long enough to acquaint him with what had
happened, and although it was plain that he understood their words only
dimly, he ordered the work resumed.

When for a second time he lapsed into semiconsciousness, it was Allie
Briskow who put his orders into execution. "You ain't doing any good
standing around staring at him and whispering. Bring in that well, as
fast as ever you can, and bring it in _big_. Now, get out and leave him
to me."

Buddy was the last to go. He inquired, miserably: "Honest, he ain't
hurt bad, is he? You don't think--"

"Get out!"

"He won't--die? Ain't no chance of him doin' that, is there?"

"If he does, I'll--" The speaker's face was ashen, but her eyes blazed.
"I'll fix you, Buddy Briskow. I will, so help me God!"

It was late that night when the well came in. It came with a rush and a
roar, drenching the derrick with a geyser of muddy water and driving
both crew and spectators out into the gloom. Up, up the column rose,
spraying itself into mist, and from its iron throat issued a sound
unlike that of any other phenomenon. It was a hoarse, rumbling bellow,
growing in volume and rising in pitch second by second until it finally
attained a shrieking crescendo. Ten thousand safety valves had let go,
and they steadily gathered strength and shrillness as they functioned.
A shocking sound it became, a sound that carried for miles, rocking the
air and stunning the senses. It beat upon the eardrums, pierced them;
men shouted at each other, but heard their own voices only faintly.

Calvin Gray had recovered his senses sufficiently to understand the
meaning of that uproar, and he tried to get up, but Allie held him down
upon his bed. She was still struggl