Gordon glanced at Mattawa, who grinned. “Well,” said Mattawa, “it was only yesterday when I fell in, and I figured Charly was going right under the fall the day before. Oh, yes, I guess we’d better get the thing through while it’s light.”
“I have felt inclined to wonder if it wouldn’t be advisable to suspend operations if this frost continues,” said Waynefleet reflectively.
“Our charter lays it down that the work is to be carried on continuously,” answered Gordon. “Still, on due notice being given, it permits a stoppage of not exceeding one month, owing to stress of weather or insuperable natural difficulties. As a matter of fact, even with the fire going, it’s practically impossible to keep the frost out of the stone.”
Nasmyth looked up sharply. “The work goes on. There will be no stoppage of any kind. We can’t afford it. The thing already has cost us two or three times as much as I had anticipated.”
Gordon looked amused, though he said nothing further. Nasmyth was up against it, with his back to the wall, but that fact had roused all the resolution there was in him, and he had shown no sign of flinching. It was evident that he must fight or fail ignominiously, and he had grown grimmer and more determined as each fresh obstacle presented itself while the strenuous weeks rolled on. There was silence for a few minutes, and then Mattawa grinned at Waynefleet.
“I guess you’ve got to keep that rock from freezing, and the fire was kind of low when I last looked out,” he remarked.
With a frown of resignation Waynefleet rose wearily and went out, for it was his part to keep a great fire going day and night. This was one of the few things he could do, and, though it entailed a good deal of sturdy labour with the axe, he had, somewhat to his comrades’ astonishment, accomplished it reasonably well. In another minute or two Nasmyth followed him, and when the rest of the men came clattering down from the shanty, higher up the gully, they set to work.
There was just light enough to see by, and no more, for, though the frost was bitter, heavy snow-clouds hung about the hills. Shingle and boulders were covered with frozen spray, and long spears of ice stretched out into the pool below the fall. Now and then a block of ice drove athwart them with a detonating crackle. The pool was lower than it had been in summer, and the stream frothed in angry eddies in the midst of it, where shattered masses of rock rent by the blasting charges lay as they had fallen. It was essential that the rock should be cleared away, and a great redwood log with a rounded foot let into a socket swung by wire rope guys above the pool. Another wire rope with a pair of iron claws at the end of it ran over a block at the head of the log to the winch below, and the primitive derrick and its fittings had cost Nasmyth a great deal of money, as well as a week’s arduous labour.
They swung the apparatus over the pile of submerged rock, and, when the claws fell with a splash, they hove at the winch, two of them at each handle, until a mass of stone rose from the stream. Then one guy was slackened, and another hauled upon, until the rock swung over the shingle across the river, where they let it fall. 243 Part of the growing pile would be used to build the road by which they brought supplies down the gully.