In the lull which succeeded, Williams dropped his weapon and crawled quickly away to the edge of the spillway torrent. When he came back there was a new note of alarm in his voice.
“That spillway of ours is eating away the dam at the rate of a foot a minute!” he announced. “If we can’t get to work on it again, the whole business will go out with a rush!”
It was a cruel dilemma, and it was quickly made worse by a new movement on the part of the attackers. Jennings’s party was closing in again, and flashes of red fire were appearing here and there on the hill-side to herald a dropping hail of pistol bullets. Under cover of the irregular firing, a man was worming his way down toward the edge of the ravine through which the wasting torrent was rushing out upon the mesa. It was Sprague who first saw the crawling man and divined his purpose.
“That’s Jennings!” he exclaimed, “and if he reaches the edge of that gully, we’re all dead men! Stop him, Starbuck! don’t kill him if you can help it, but stop him!”
Starbuck levelled his short rifle over the top of the breastwork and took careful aim. The light was bad and he could scarcely see the sights. At the trigger-pulling, those who were watching saw a little cloud of dust and gravel spring up directly in front of the crawling man; saw this, and heard above the roaring of the torrent his yell of pain as he doubled up and clapped his hands to his face.
“Good shot, Billy!” gritted the white-haired colonel. “You’ve blinded him! Now if we could only choke those crazy range-riders off.... Tarbell, can’t you—where’s Tarbell gone?”
Tarbell’s place at the end of the breastwork was empty, and Smith, who was next in the line, accounted for him.
“Archer dropped out a minute or two ago. I think he’s trying to make a dodge-around to get at those cow-punchers.”
The firing had ceased for the moment, and the man who had tried to creep down to the ravine was stumbling back up the hill. Williams nervously thrust in his plea again.
“I tell you, we’ve got to get to work on this thing behind us and do it quick!” he urged. “There is still water enough in the lake to tear the heart out of Timanyoni Canyon if it all goes at once!”