CHAPTER XXI.
AT THE IRRIGATION DAM.
Bright and early, before the last stars had faded, in fact, JackMerrill and Pete eagerly roused Jim Hicks for the trip to the watercompany's dam. Both of them hated the idea of losing a minute on thisimportant errand. Once awakened, Jim Hicks proved a nimble person,and breakfast was soon dispatched, his animals packed and saddled,and Maud made ready. No time was lost in hitting the trail when thesepreparations had been concluded. Jim Hicks was a born trailer, and ledthe two travelers over the ragged ways of the rough mountains in askillful manner that excited even Coyote Pete's admiration.
At noon they ate a hasty meal and then pressed on. Jim Hicks promisedto land them at the dam at about dusk. Controlling their impatience asbest they could, Jack Merrill and Coyote Pete rode obediently afterthe prospector. One change had been made in the cavalcade since noon.One of the packs had been transferred to Maud, while another pack hadbeen taken off one of the other ponies and had been distributed betweentwo of his brethren. This left two ponies for Coyote Pete and his youngcompanion to ride.
After this change they pressed on far more quickly, and shortly beforesundown their guide halted on the top of a ridge and pointed downward.
Far below them they could see an immense silvery sheet of water--asmall lake, in fact. Its surface shimmered in the dying light, and,at another time the two travelers would have admired the sight of themirror-like sheet of water in its natural frame of rock and raggedtimber. Now, however, their thoughts were riveted on the idea ofgetting to the 'phone, and, by the tiny filament of wire, summoningpowerful aid for their beleaguered companions.
"Purty, ain't it?" asked Jim Hicks softly.
"Shouldn't have imagined they'd ever have got such a lot of watertogether out here," grunted Coyote Pete. "Where's it all come from?"
"Partly from damming up the creek, and partly from the water that poursoff the higher ridges when the snow melts in the spring. We're purtyhigh up here, you know."
"Well, that's a pretty good showing for a country where the rainfallisn't more than four inches a year," commented Coyote Pete.
"Not that, sometimes," put in Jim Hicks, "and, by the same token, ifthis wasn't summer I should say we were in for some rain now."
He looked overhead, and Jack noticed that the sky, which had beencloudless not very long before, was now black and overcast. A heavyelement was in the air, too--an oppressive sort of feeling.
"Come on, let's be getting down the slope," said Coyote Pete suddenly,and once more they moved onward. As they threaded their way down thenarrow trail, Jack's mind reverted to the destroyed bridge.
"How far should you imagine that bridge was below here?" he asked.
"You mean where the bridge was, I reckon," grinned Jim Hicks, who hadheard the story of the Mexican's trick, from Jack and his companion."Well, I should judge about five miles from here."
"Then we are on the Mexican side of the canal ca?on?"
"Yep; but we'll soon be on American soil, sonny, don't forget that."
"Not likely to," rejoined Jack fervently.
After half an hour's riding, the great water-works came into full view.There was a massive, containing-wall of cement, with a pathway alongthe top, and in the center the trailers could see the machinery usedfor opening and closing the sluice pipes that fed the irrigation canal.Word was telephoned from the land company's offices in Maguez to thedam-keeper regarding the pressure to be used, and, in accordance withtheir instructions, he turned on more or less.
At the near side of the dam was a small building in which thedam-keeper made his home. From its roof there extended a pole,from which, to Jack's intense delight, they could see a thin wirestretching off to the north. On that wire now depended so much thatJack almost felt like taking his hat off to it and to the inventor oftelephones.
"Geddap!" urged Jim Hicks, cracking his quirt about the haunches of hispack animals. The little cavalcade broke into a brisk trot. The dustspurted from under their rattling hoofs.
"We're coming on in style," laughed Jack, as they came briskly down thelast few rods of the trail.
"Don't see old Simmons about," commented Jim Hicks, looking for somesign of the dam-keeper. "Guess he's taking a snooze some place. Hey,Sam! Sam!"
"Here he comes," said Jack briskly, as the door of the dam-tender's hutopened. But the next moment every member of the approaching party gavea gasp of dismay. Jim Hicks spasmodically jerked up his rifle to hisshoulder, but instantly lowered it again.
From the door of the hut there had stepped out, not old Sam Simmons,the dam-tender, but--Black Ramon and six of his men!
They held their weapons grimly leveled at Jack Merrill and hiscompanion, while Ramon sharply bade them dismount.
"We have prepared for you what we must call a little surprise party,"he said. "Please tie your horses and we will go inside."
Resistance was useless, and they obeyed.
* * * * *
To understand how this came about, we must revert for a moment toevents which had been taking place at the old Mission and at the RanchoAgua Caliente while we have been following the young adventurers andtheir companions. We left Mr. Merrill and his cow-punchers riding backtoward the ranch with heavy hearts, bearing with them the woundedMexican, from whom they hoped to gain some information concerning BlackRamon's whereabouts.
On the arrival of the disconsolate party at the ranch house, Mr.Merrill had at once sent out a call to his neighbors, and they cameriding in from miles around to a consultation. All agreed that it wouldbe a grave invasion of international law to send an armed party overthe border, but it was agreed that, providing the Mexican recovered itwould be legitimate to surround Black Ramon's rendezvous--that is, ifthe prisoner revealed it--and demand the surrender of the prisoners.The Mexican authorities would then be informed and, if possible, BlackRamon given over to justice.
This course would have been followed at once but for two reasons. Mr.Merrill and his brother ranchers felt that to act prematurely mightruin everything, and the wounded Mexican obstinately refused to getbetter. Still another obstacle, was the great chasm left by the blowingup of the bridge. It would be impossible to pass this. Just when thisdifficulty seemed in its most serious phase, an old rancher spoke upand volunteered to guide the party by a secret trail he knew of, whichled over the mountains and across the border.
As he spoke, the wounded Mexican, who for better attention andobservation had been laid on a cot in the living room of the ranchhouse, stirred uneasily.
"Hullo, he's coming to," exclaimed Mr. Merrill bending over him, butthe man's eyes remained closed, and he seemed, to all intents andpurposes, as badly off as he had been before. For two days he remainedthus, and the ranchers carried on their consultations freely beforehim, little dreaming what a hornets' nest they were preparing to bringdown about their own heads. On the morning of the third day, when Mr.Merrill awakened he was astonished to find that the Mexican's cot wasempty. The man was gone! A search showed that he was not about theplace, and a further investigation revealed the fact that one of thebest horses on the ranch was missing.
The wounded Mexican had been "playing possum" just as a wounded animalwill sometimes do, awaiting but the slightest relaxation of vigilanceto be up and off.
The consternation this caused may be imagined. If the man understoodEnglish, and there seemed little room to doubt that he did--otherwisehe would have had no object in deceiving them as to his realcondition--the ranchers' plans must by this time be known to BlackRamon. Mr. Merrill was in despair for a time, but finally, as a lastrecourse, and even at the risk of upsetting everything, he decided tocall up Los Hominos, a considerable town in Chihuahua province, andrequest that soldiers be sent in pursuit of Black Ramon.
None knew better than Mr. Merrill the danger he thus incurred of havinghis plans doubly revealed to the chief of the cattle rustlers. Thecountry posts of the Mexican army are largely recruited from men insympathy with the lawl
ess element--especially if that lawless elementconfines itself to preying on Americanos. There was, therefore, agrave risk that some traitor in the ranks might convey the news ofMr. Merrill's request to Black Ramon. That it was no time for doubtsor hesitation, however, every rancher felt, and on the top of Mr.Merrill's message preparations were at once made for a start across theborder by the ranchers themselves.
In the meantime, the captured Mexican, whose wound, though severe,still allowed him to ride, was spurring on his way across the Hachetasto Black Ramon's headquarters in the old Mission. It has been said thatthe greatest blackguards have sometimes the most faithful followers,and this seemed to be the case with the Mexican miscreant, for hisunderling, despite the pain of his wound and his weakened condition,did not hesitate an instant over taking a ride which might have causedeven a slightly wounded man to pause and reflect on the undertaking.
Thus it had come about, that, at the same time that Jack Merrill andCoyote Pete, escorted by the eccentric prospector, were setting out toget in communication with civilization, Black Ramon and six of his mosttrusted followers had started for the land company's dam, with what aheinous purpose in view we shall presently see. The Mexican was in theblackest of moods. He had hardly returned from his vain chase afterJack Merrill and the cow-puncher before word had been brought to himthat his other prisoners had escaped.
The Mexican was almost beside himself with rage as he heard this,and, in addition, news had been brought to him that Mr. Merrill hadrequisitioned that a band of soldiers be sent in search of him. Armedalso with the wounded man's story of the pursuit of the ranchers bymeans of the secret trail, Ramon was indeed almost desperate when heset out with the intention of accomplishing the deed he had in mind.He felt he would render his name hateful to Americans and glorious toborder Mexicans forever, and was all the more anxious to achieve it forthat reason.
His astonishment, therefore, when he heard Coyote Pete's hail andemerged from the dam-tender's hut to find his escaped prisoners walkingright into his net again, was only equalled by his delight. As hisfollowers bound each of the three hand and foot, after roughly draggingthem from their ponies, Black Ramon rubbed his hands gleefully.
"You are going to see a sight before long that you will remember allyour days," he said, as the Americans, scornfully disdaining to utter aword, were carried into the hut.
"What, you do not answer?"
"No, you yellow dog," grunted Jim Hicks disdainfully, "I'm mightyparticular who I talk to."
Beside himself with fury at the American's calm contempt, the Mexicanopened his palm and struck the bound and helpless miner a blow acrossthe face. Jim Hicks' ruddy, bronzed countenance went white as deadashes.
"You'll be sorry for that, you greaser, some day," he said in a quiet,controlled tone, which to those who knew him signified trouble.
"Some day, yes!" laughed Ramon; "but I shall be far away some day,amigo, but before I go I am going to give you Americanos a lessonyou will never forget. The father of this boy here, and twelve otherrancheros, are riding through the American foothills now to yourrescue. But they will never reach the mountains. Why?--Ah, you willsoon see."
As they were carried into the hut and thrown roughly on the floor,Jim Hicks' eyes espied poor Sam Simmons, the tender of the dam. Theemployee of the water company was also bound hand and foot, and seemedto have been beaten into submission by the brutal Mexicans. He gave aslight groan as he saw the plight of the new-comers, but made no othersign.
"He resisted us," laughed Black Ramon harshly, "see what happened tohim. It is a good thing you gave in without making trouble."
As he spoke, there came a long, low grumble that shook the earth andmade the furniture in the hut rattle. It was the near approach of thestorm the captives had noticed impending. At the same instant, therecame a dazzling flash of lambent lightning. It illumined the cruelfaces about them as if a flickering calcium had been thrown upon them.
The advancing storm seemed to have a strange effect on Sam Simmons; hestirred in his thongs and a pitiful expression came over his bruisedface.
"The storm! the storm!" he cried. "Hark! it is coming. Let me out totend the gates."
"Not likely," sneered Black Ramon, turning from him contemptuously.
"But the sluices must be opened. The rain is coming!" cried the oldman, seemingly galvanized into life by the call of duty. "Let me loose,I say."
"Be quiet," snarled Ramon. "Do you want another dose of the samemedicine?"
The old man quivered pitifully, while the others looked on with eyesthat burned with indignation.
"If they are not opened, the dam will burst," begged the old man. "Itis weakened now, I tell you. It cannot stand the pressure of morewater. Let me up, and then you can tie me again."
Ramon seemed suddenly interested.
"You say that if the sluices are not opened the dam will burst?" heasked.
"Yes, yes! Let me up, I must open them. I----"
"Silence! And if they burst what will happen?"
"Why, the whole valley from here down is a trough! The water will rushdown and destroy many lives and acres of property. Let me up, forHeaven's sake, Ramon, or if you will not let me do it, open the sluicesyourself. You do not know what you are doing--every moment counts."
Again the thunder roared, and a blinding flash illumined with a blue,steely radiance the strange scene in the old dam-tender's shanty.In the brief period of lighting, Jack Merrill surprised a wickedlyradiant look on Ramon's face. At the same instant a few heavy drops ofrain fell on the roof.
"Hark! The rain!" cried the old man; "for mercy's sake, let me out. Itis my duty."
"Which you will not perform to-night," sneered the Mexican, as thestorm increased; "this storm saves us the use of dynamite."
In one dreadful flash of insight, Jack Merrill realized the Mexican'sterrible plan. He had intended to blow up the dam and flood the valleybelow. The storm had taken the work out of his hands. The heavyrain-fall would swell the dam till the weak containing wall broke. Ina few short hours every ranch in the course of the bursting dam wouldbe devastated. Yes, that was what the fruit rancher at Maguez had toldthem. And there was nothing he could do but lie there powerlessly. Theboy's brain seemed to be on fire, but in his veins was ice.
Suddenly Black Ramon spoke. For an instant Jack thought he hadrepented, but his words dashed that hope almost as it was born. TheMexican issued a sharp order to two of his men.
"Screw down those sluice gates till not a drop escapes," he said. "Wedo not want to have to wait too long."