“They are short-handed up there. They need help.”
“Dynamite,” cried Silent and Hardin antiphonally. They happened to be standing near.
“We must have dynamite,” bawled Hardin. “Are the wires down between here and Brawley? We must get a wire somehow to Los Angeles, to rush it down here this morning.”
“It’s here. There is a carload on the siding,” yelled Silent.
Hardin did not need to ask by whose orders it was there. An angry scowl spoiled his face.
“Put some on the machine.” He was turning away.
Silent called after him. Did Mr. Hardin think it was safe? There was no road between the towns and Fassett’s. The night, the explosive,—should they not wait till morning? The question threw his late chief into a rage.
“Did I ask you to take it?” It was the opening for his fury. “Safe! Will the towns be safe if the river cuts back here? The channel has got to be widened, and you talk of your own precious skin! Wait till I ask you to take it. Get out the machine. I’ll take it to Fassett’s myself.”
Silent left the levee, smarting. As he fumbled for the lanterns hanging in the shed where the machine was stalled, he lived over those last few years; with Hardin in the desert. When had he ever hesitated over a risk of life? When had he thought of his own safety? But this was a foolhardy thing, no matter who took the machine. Daylight would be here in a few hours. The way to Fassett’s, through the ravaged country, was scarred by other floods. There was a half-mile of levee to be covered; a ticklish thing by day to carry a machine over the narrow mound, scraping bottom all the time. By night—with dynamite in the bumping tonneau it was a gamble—and the wind blowing like this. But he wouldn’t let Hardin take it, he would show Hardin what he meant by “safe”!
By the pale flicker of the single lantern he got out the long gray car, nosed like a hound, filled the tank with oil, the canteens with water from a filter in the adjoining shop. He backed the machine out of the shed and sped through the darkness toward Mexicali, where the car of explosives was isolated.