"It is a great satisfaction to have met you, Dix, and if I can arrange my business in season I am going back with you as far as Diamond." These were Mr. Goings' parting words, and as Little Snap left Salt Works, where he had changed horses, he said, to himself: "I don't know whether I am anxious or not for your company, Mr. Goings. If you do go back with me, I shall ask you a few questions in regard to yourself." Below Salt Works the road wound down the valley for a couple of miles, when the base of Flat Top Mountains was reached, where a long ascent had to be made. As at the Narrows, though the passage was wider, the Great Kanawha found its way along a rocky gorge, the banks of which were in places hundreds of feet in height. Near the summit of the post road's greatest elevation, was a shelf of rock overhanging the stream, that was called "Lover's Leap," one of the three hundred dizzy crags in the United States bearing that favorite name. After passing this spot, the post road, in making its descent on the west side of the mountain, wound away from the Kanawha, until the sullen roar of that river was supplanted by the musical ripple of a smaller stream, called Tripping Waters. About two-thirds the way up this narrow valley the road led across this river, following its west bank to its outlet into the Kanawha at a point where the rugged mountain defile opened out into the broad basin of the western slope. Little Snap was leisurely approaching the pole bridge that spanned Tripping Waters, when all at once a deep roaring sound reached his ears. Abruptly reining in his horse, he listened for a moment, to find that the sound was rapidly increasing. It seemed nearer, too, and more deadly in its sound! He glanced wildly up the valley, but from his position he could see nothing to explain the heavy, booming thunder still growing louder and louder! He had never heard anything like it. The ground beneath him began to tremble and the mountain to shake! He touched his horse smartly, fearing to remain there longer. But the animal had not taken the second bound before the heart of Little Snap seemed to come into his mouth, as he suddenly realized the meaning of the awful sound. A mile above, a dam had been built across the river to hold back the water for the benefit of a mill at the lower end of the valley. This barrier had broken down, and the flood let loose! "Fly, Tom!" he cried to his horse. "It is a race for life! On! on! It is overtaking us! We are lost!" CHAPTER XXX. A RACE WITH A RUNAWAY RIVER. Though the Postboy of the Kanawha was not borne on by his gallant Jack in that fearful ride with the flood of Tripping Waters, he sped down the post road at a flying pace. The blooded bay that he rode seemed to have a realization of the awful peril from that pursuing wall of water.