“Sure,” Dick said. “We’ll carry on, and I feel better now because I can tell you our plans, and you can tell me if you think I’m doing right or not. Now we’ve got to have a look at the dam. I’m taking Slade and Vince with me to look it over so Slade can decide where his dynamite charge must be placed, and I can figure out how to handle the guard so he can get in to do it. It won’t be easy. Max will stay here with you until we get back. Tony’s in the bell tower with the radio.”
Scotti nodded his approval of these plans and Dick gave him a pat on the shoulder and moved away. At the front of the cave he found the others and gave them the latest news.
“Now we’re going to look at the dam,” he said, and Slade sighed with relief.
“I was beginning to wonder,” he said, “when we would get around to the main objective of this mission.”
Dick laughed. “Okay, Boom-Boom, tonight is your night. Vince will come along with us. Max, you stay here with Scotti until we get back.”
The three men started down the hill from the cave. But this time they did not go as far as the field below. Instead, they kept to the woods and circled around to the east where the hill ended at the right-hand branch of the Y which was the northeastern branch of the Maletta valley. It took them almost an hour to reach the dam, for they were not always sure of their direction.
It was the glinting of a light on the water of the artificial lake that finally told them it was near at hand. They moved forward much closer to the edge of the trees and looked down. From where they stood, on the hill a little above the dam, they had a perfect view of everything.
Directly below them about seventy-five feet was the main northwest road which went part way up the hill in order to circle around the dam and lake. On the other side of the road there was a short drive which led in toward the dam itself, which was a concrete structure about three hundred yards long, stretching to the opposite hill. On top of the dam wall at this end was a concrete building and near it stood several sentries.
“Probably the control house for the sluice gates,” Slade said, “and headquarters for the guards. There’s a similar structure at the other end of the wall, but smaller.”
Below the dam itself, on a stretch of level ground, stood the electric power station. It was a low building made of brick, about fifty feet square.