“Rickard!” The engineer did not recognize the quenched voice. “The work has got to go on.”
It came to Rickard as he gave the orders for the trains to run “and be quick about it,” that Eduardo was closer to Marshall than to him. “As near a son as he’ll ever have.”
He turned a minute later to see his chief standing bareheaded. His own cap came off.
“We’re burying the lad,” said Marshall. A rain of rock struck the nerves of all of them, though less than six people knew who it was who had paid the tribute of life to the river. Rickard kept the smell of arnica in his nostrils. It nauseated him. Never would its sharp breath blow on him but that scene would shake him in all its horror,—the sad beautiful face under those malignant waters, the rocks nailing it down. “It kept coming. I had it while you were all talking—just now!”
The minute of funeral had to be pushed aside. The river would not wait. Train after train was rushed on to the trestles; wave after wave hit them. But perceptibly, the dam was steadying. The rapid fire of rock was telling.
Another ridge of yellow waters rose. Every eye was on that watery mountain; it appeared to wait, as if summoning its strength for a final onslaught. The river’s stillness was ominous to the sweating men who watched as they labored that bulge of yellow water. Car after car ran on to the track; load after load of clattering rock was dumped. The roll of water came slowly, dwindling as it came; it broke against the trestle weakly. For the first time, the trestle never shuddered. Workers and watchers breathed as a unit the first deep breath that night. There was a change.
Hardin came rushing down to the track where the rock cars ran on to the trestles.
“It’s stopped rising!” he bellowed.
“Then work like hell!” bawled Rickard.
There followed some minutes of intensity when the rock-pour was almost continuous. Was not that another bulge of yellow waters, swelling there to the east? Every eye was on the river where it touched the rim of the dam. Suddenly, a chorused cry rose. The river had stopped rising!