The Benson signal., 1917-06-09
time to waste, there's more need for

time to waste, there's more need for
the rest of us to take their places"
He drew man or two from the
other gangs to re-enforce this danger
point and himself directed their work.
Now it takes time for water to rise
five feet, even in a cloudburst or a
succession of them. The rain constant
ly seemed to increase as the wind
drove it on. Vandeventer knew that
the dam was doomed, that the Sluice
and the half-finished spillway COM
bined could discharge only small part
of the flow, but he knew that he would
have two hours at least to work. be-
fore the water could pass the crest,
undermine, and batter down the pail
side and begin to trickle over. Just
as soon as it did roll over the top,
unless they could stop it, the whole
thing was gone. For those two hours
the supermen labOred unremittingly in
the dOwnpOur with persistent and he
roic courage that should have been re-
corded in song and story but which
a while by none save a few. To the
many it was only "all in the days
work !"
The undersluice in the side of the
dam which would later serve as head
gate for the canal had been intended
occur during the construction and had
been open since the rain began. 1t
carried off a great volume of water,
but hopelessly little in comparison with
the flood. Foot by foot in the torren-
tial downpour the water rose. At half
after eight it reached the level of the
spillway and commenced to rush
through in ever-increasing volume, but
the flow into the reservoir was far
greater than the spillway's capacity.
Still the sight of the rushing water
encouraged the men. Every one of
them felt that if the palisade held the
discharge would be increased enough
to stop the rise, but at present the eff
feet was small. By nine o'clock it was
within foot of the top. They began
to measure it's rise by inches. Although
the dam had been carefully kept level
as it was built, the trample of horses
and men, the present digging and pail
sading and revetting had caused little
depressions. Now the water rose to
the level. Here and there it began to
trickle over!
The rain coming down from the
mountain tops was as cold as ice, yet
the men were in fever of excitement.
They had got their second wind. They
were too enthused, too desperate, to
feel their WEAKNESS. They had not
worked before as they did then. 1t
was the last possible nervous Outburst
with most of them. They could keep
it up a little longer-till they dropped
dead. AS the mad thoroughbred falls
in his stride on the track, pushed be-
yond his power of endurance, as even
the common carthorse can be made to
go until he drops, so these men, white,
haggard, nervous, drawn-faced, sweat
mingling with the rain on their sOdden
bodies, would go till they broke. They
There were some five hundred heavy
cement bags which had been filled with
sand and piled up on the roadway at
convenient points. AS a forlorn hope,
as a last try, Vandeventer called all
the diggers and ditchers, and hewers
and drivers, and bade them tackle the
sandbags. The timber wall that rose
to four or five feet was now packed to
height of three with an unequal wall
Of earth.
The waves were beginning to roll
against the rampant, although their
force as yet was broken by the brush
wood. Vandeventer jumped up on the
palisade near the center. There were
some large logs there where he could
stand, and whence he could get as
clear view of the whole top of the
dam as was possible through the driv-
ing rain.
"There," shouted the engineer, point
ing to a red trickle-it seemed to him
like blood, taking it's hideous hue
from the red clay of the banks-where
the water had found a low spot and
was washing across the top and
trickling through the new wall and
down on the other side. Even as he
pointed, the trickle became a stream
and the stream bade fair to be flood.
Men ran and dropped sandbags over
in front of the palisade, right where
the leak had occurred. Other men
heaped UP the earth behind the wall,
seeking to smother it and stop it. The
water checked there, they were forced
to do the same thing at another place.
Desperately they dropped their sand
bags, sturdily they piled their shovels
in the mud; scrambling and yelling,
they ran from leak to leak. They lift
ed the heavy bags of sand as if they
had been loaves of bread and jammed
them down. They swung pick and
shovel like toys, although the rain
made all the earth sticky mud and
the work all the harder. The water