human
A big snow-slide must have come along since I was up on that slope before, and gouged out quite a cañon for itself, he said.
gpt
Anyway, if it wasn't a snow-slide it was a cloudburst or a waterspout. They happen around when folks don't want them now and then.
human
Come to the point, said Brooke.
gpt
I'm sufficiently acquainted with the meteorological perversities of the country.
human
Slinging names at them isn't much use. I've tried it, and any one raised here could give you points at the thing. Now before I came to Quatomac I was staying up at the Tillicum ranch, and I'd just taken a new twelve-dollar pair of gum-boots off one night when there was a waterspout up the valley that washed me and Jardine out of the house. We sailed along until we struck a convenient pine, and sat in it most of the night while the flood went down. Then I hadn't any gum-boots, and Jardine couldn't find his house.
gpt
I believe you told me you went down the river on a door on the last occasion, Brooke said, wearily.
human
Still, it doesn't greatly matter. What has all this to do with the hollow the snow-slide made in the range?
gpt
Well, said Jimmy,
human
I guess you know the way the big rock outcrop runs across the foot of the valley. Now, before the snow-slide or the waterspout came along the melting snow went down into the next hollow, and the one where the outcrop is got just enough to keep the outlet of the creek that comes through it open.
gpt
I do. Will it be an hour or more before you make it clear how that concerns anybody?
human
No, sir. I'm getting right there. The snow's melting tolerably fast, and the drainage from the big peak isn't going the way it used to now. The foot of the valley's quite a nice-sized lake, and the stream has washed most of the broke-up pines the snow brought down into the outlet gully. I guess you have seen a bad lumber jam?