Episode 72
The steamship continued up the Fraser River towards Tte Jaune Cache. Occasionally they would meet a scow coming downstream, taking great care to not collide. Fortunately there were no mishaps.
As the river widened near McBride a small pointer-boat appeared up ahead of the paddle-wheeler. The smaller craft turned into the shore to avoid any waves from the approaching vessel. Joe was on the foredeck as they began to pass. One of the two men in the boat waved his arms in the air to get the steamer's attention. It was 'Sand-bar Sam'. Joe called out to his old friend, "Hey Sam. It's me, Joe! Are you still on the Dynamite Run?"
Sam's answer came as a shock to everyone who heard the news, "Joe, something terrible is happening back at the 'Cache'!" Sam cupped his hands to his mouth to make his voice travel further as the two friends grew further and further apart. "The river has flooded the town! Tte Jaune is being washed away!"
Joe knew the river level was high but he never thought that Tte Jaune would be affected. Within moments the pointer boat and Sam were left far behind as the B.C. Express steamed upstream towards Mile 53. They soon encountered a continual presence of floating debris in the water.
Back at 'The Cache', everyone was helping to rescue items that would soon be submerged or that were already floating around in the flood-waters. The jut of land that ran into the Fraser at Mile 52 was covered in water and the buildings situated there were crumbling away.
By the time the B.C. Express was moored at the wharf at Mile 53, half the buildings on the main-street of Tte Jaune Cache had been washed down the river. The debris from the flood was now incredible. Most of the tote-road between Mile 52 and 53 was under water and in parts of town the river-water rose to a level of three feet.
In the alley behind the Tte Jaune dance-hall a wall of wooden barrels full of empty beer bottles swayed back and forth as the river-water continued to erase that part of town.
In the next episode, BACK TO THE SHACK, Joe returns to the Wall Brother's bunk-house in search of his personal belongings.
