Niagara Falls 



1886 ness he added: " We reach the Profile House next week, and I 



amer am sure I can convince you that I am right." 



King found Niagara pitched to the key of his lacerated and 

 tumultuous feelings. There were few people at the Cataract 

 House, and either the bridal season had not set in, or in America 

 a bride has been evolved who does not show any consciousness of 

 her new position. In his present mood the place seemed deserted, 

 the figures of the few visitors gliding about as in a dream, as if 

 they too had been subdued by the recent commission which had 

 silenced the drivers, and stopped the mills, and made the park 

 free, and was tearing down the presumptuous structures along the 

 bank. In this silence, which emphasized the quaking of the earth 

 and air, there was a sense of unknown, impending disaster. It 

 was not to be borne indoors, and the two friends went out into 

 the night. 



On the edge of the rapids, above the hotel, the old bath-house 

 was in process of demolition, its shaking piazza almost over- 

 hanging the flood. Not much could be seen from it, but it was 

 in the midst of an elemental uproar. Some electric lamps shining 

 through the trees made high lights on the crests of the rapids, 

 while the others near were in shadow and dark. The black mass 

 of Goat Island appeared under the lightning flashes in the north- 

 west sky, and whenever these quick gleams pierced the gloom 

 the frail bridge to the island was outlined for a moment, and 

 then vanished as if it had been swept away, and there could 

 only be seen sparks of light in the houses on the Canadian shore, 

 which seemed very near. In this unknown, which was rather 

 felt than seen, there was a sense of power and of mystery which 

 overcame the mind; and in the black night the roar, the cruel 

 haste of the rapids, tossing white gleams and hurrying to the 

 fatal plunge, begat a sort of terror in the spectators. It was a 

 power implacable, vengeful, not to be measured. They strolled 

 down to Prospect Park. The gate was closed; it had been the 

 scene of an awful tragedy but a few minutes before. They did 

 not know it, but they knew that the air shuddered, and as they 



792 



