I saw the bombs fall, and then watched a great crimson flare leap
responsive to each impact, and mountainous masses of red-lit steam and
flying fragments clamber up towards the zenith. Against the glare I saw
the country-side for miles standing black and clear, churches, trees,
chimneys. And suddenly I understood. The Central Europeans had burst
the dykes. Those flares meant the bursting of the dykes, and in a little
while the sea-water would be upon us....'
He goes on to tell with a certain prolixity of the steps he took--and
all things considered they were very intelligent steps--to meet this
amazing crisis. He got his men aboard and hailed the adjacent barges;
he got the man who acted as barge engineer at his post and the engines
working, he cast loose from his moorings. Then he bethought himself of
food, and contrived to land five men, get in a few dozen cheeses, and
ship his men again before the inundation reached them.
He is reasonably proud of this piece of coolness. His idea was to take
the wave head-on and with his engines full speed ahead. And all the
while he was thanking heaven he was not in the jam of traffic in the
main canal. He rather, I think, overestimated the probable rush of
waters; he dreaded being swept away, he explains, and smashed against
houses and trees.
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