Don Sebastian bowed. “I must be satisfied with your promise. We may find the key to the telegram, and must try to get into communication with the steamer.”
They went down stairs together, but the Spaniard did not leave the office with Dick, who went out alone and found Bethune and Jake waiting at the end of the line. They bantered him about his leaving them on board the ship, but although he thought Jake looked at him curiously, he told them nothing.
When work stopped on the Saturday evening, Jake and Dick went to dine with Bethune. It was getting dark when they reached a break in the dam, where a gap had been left open while a sluice was being built. A half-finished tower rose on the other side and a rope ladder hung down for the convenience of anybody who wished to cross. A large iron pipe that carried water to a turbine, however, spanned the chasm, and the sure-footed peons often used it as a bridge. This required some agility and nerve, but it saved an awkward scramble across the sluice and up the concrete.
“There’s just light enough,” Jake remarked, and balancing himself carefully, walked out upon the pipe.
Dick followed and getting across safely, stopped at the foot of the tower and looked down at the rough blocks and unfinished ironwork in the bottom of the gap.
“The men have been told to use the ladder, but as they seldom do so, it would be safer to run a wire across for a hand-rail,” he said. “Anybody who slipped would get a dangerous fall.”
They went on to Bethune’s iron shack, where Stuyvesant joined them, and after dinner sat outside, talking and smoking. A carafe of Spanish wine and some glasses stood on a table close by.
“I’ve fired Jose’s and Pancho’s gangs; they’ve been asking for it for some time,” Stuyvesant remarked. “In fact, I’d clear out most of the shovel boys if I could replace them. They’ve been saving money and are getting slack.”
The others agreed that it might be advisable. The half-breeds from the hills, attracted by good wages, worked well when first engaged, but generally found steady labor irksome and got discontented when they had earned a sum that would enable them to enjoy a change.
“I don’t think you’d get boys enough in this neighborhood,” Bethune said.