THE EVIDENCE ADDUCED. 321 



the court seated on boxes, barrels, and the bed. The 

 evidence taken that night in the cabin was sub- 

 stantially the following : 



Two years before Jules Pigget, a native of France, 

 accompanied by his young wife, appeared on the rail- 

 road below, and solicited work. They both found 

 ready employment, and lived below Hays, in a dug- 

 out, happy and prosperous. Within a year came 

 another Frenchman, our present Honest Rombcaux. 

 Across the water, he and Jules had been rival suitors 

 for Marie's hand ; yet strangely enough, the new- 

 comer was welcomed by the young couple, and took 

 up his abode with them. Matters prospered with 

 all three, and soon Jules was to be appointed tank- 

 tender on the road. That year came the great rain- 

 storm, when so many families in Western Kansas 

 and Texas were drowned. Hundreds of people were 

 living in dug-outs, rude excavations in the banks of 

 streams, with the roof on a level with the bank 

 above, but the room itself entirely below high-water 

 mark — a style of dwelling which, as no great rise had 

 occurred in years, had become quite popular among 

 new-comers. 



On the night of the great flood people went to bed 

 as usual. The streams had risen but little. At mid- 

 night the rain fell heavily ; the firm surface of the 

 plains shed the waters like a roof; streams rose ten 

 feet in an hour, and the foaming currents, roaring like 

 cataracts, came down with the force of mighty tidal 

 waves. Many dwellers in the dug-outs sprang from 

 their beds into water, to find egress by the doors im- 

 possible, and were fortunate if they succeeded in es- 



