“Bucket,” said the boy briefly.
“Good idea,” commented Mr. Whitney and was silent until the engine pulled up snorting as near their destination as it could get. “Come along,” invited Mr. Whitney as he swung off the engine. Pleased, Bob did his best to keep up with his long-legged boss who had headed for the point of trouble with great strides.
It has taken a long time to describe the things that had happened to Bob since he heard Jerry’s predicament in the office, yet the actual time it had taken him to get Mr. Whitney to the scene of action was hardly a handful of minutes. This was proved by the fact that Bob had a confused belief that halfway back on the little engine he had seen Jerry on his way to find Mr. Whitney. These thoughts mingled in his brain as he followed his Chief to the temporary spillway.
Nothing serious had happened so far, he was glad to see, as they came upon Mr. Rutherford and the gang of men who were attempting to shore up the wall of the stream. The waterway at this point was built entirely of wood and the present trouble was due either to an unexpected pressure of water or some defect in construction.
The gang had been working feverishly and without much order until Steve Whitney came on the scene. Bob was amazed at the change that seemed to take place as soon as his Chief had uttered a few incisive directions. The rescue work went on smoothly and efficiently. There was no panic, no blundering.
“Here, you men, down stream a bit with that timber. Rutherford, you’ve the right idea—stick to it. Rush ’em up, boys,” to a gang bringing up a supply of planks. “Have you diverted any of the water, Rutherford?”
“No, sir, I—I never thought of—”
“You should have!” This was all the rebuke the young engineer was to get. Perhaps it was because Whitney did things that way, that all his men adored him. He did not think that because a man made a mistake that he should be shamed before his fellow workers. He turned to Bob.
“Chase up to the dam line. There’s an overflow gate in the spillway there. Break it open!”
Bob hustled off on his errand and found the place the Chief had designated. A few blows with a stone and he had loosened the gate sufficiently to let a big stream of water flow out.