CHAPTER XXII.
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE.
Outside the shanty the storm roared and flashed. The rain peltedin torrents. Suddenly there came a sharp ringing at the telephoneinstrument. It seemed to have a note of insistence in it. The Mexicansexchanged glances. Here was an unexpected interruption. The instrumentconnected on a direct wire with the land company's offices. If one ofthe Mexicans answered it, the possibilities were that a warning wouldbe spread that the dam was being tampered with.
Ramon solved the difficulty. Without untying the old man, he had two ofhis men support him to the telephone. Another held the receiver to SamSimmons' ear.
Black Ramon drew his revolver and held it to the other ear.
"Now, if you utter a word of warning, I'll scatter what brains youhave," he warned viciously.
In a trembling voice Sam Simmons answered the call.
"Y-y-yes, the storm is here," Jack heard him answer, evidently in replyto some question at the other end.
"Y-y-yes, I will open them, sir. Y-y-yes, I know the dam is weak."
"Don't hesitate," warned Black Ramon vindictively.
"Y-y-you'll send the engineers to-morrow, you say? Very well, sir."
"Evidently they know of the storm in the valley," thought Jack tohimself; "shouldn't wonder if the old man himself warned them some timeago, before he was tied."
This was, in fact, the case. But now the old man's hesitancy grew morepainful than ever.
"T-t-they're asking about you," he said, turning to the Mexican.
"Tell them you haven't seen me," snarled Ramon.
"No, I have seen nothing of him," whimpered the old man feebly."Kidnapped some boys, you say--the ranchers are after him--and thesoldiers, too----"
"There, there, that will do," said the Mexican impatiently. "When thedam bursts, those Americanos will be drowned like so many rats, and thesoldiers will find an empty nest for their pains."
"G-g-good-bye. I will attend to it," quavered the old dam-tender. Afterresponding to further warning from the other end of the wire, he wasremoved from the telephone and the receiver was replaced.
At the same instant the two Mexicans who had been despatched to the damto close the sluice gates returned. Their evil smiles showed that theyhad done their duty well. The rain had now increased to a torrent andthe small gauge on the side of the dam-keeper's hut showed that thewater was rising rapidly.
"How long before the dam goes?" asked Ramon, bending over the old man,who was moaning and crying pitifully over the idea of his treachery.
"She can't last more than half an hour," he whimpered. "Oh, what shallI do? They will think it was my fault. They----"
There came a roar so dreadful that the hut seemed to be shaken like aleaf in a windstorm. At the same instant a blue glare filled the hut,hissing viciously like a nest of aroused serpents. A sulphurous odorpermeated everything. Before any of the occupants of the place hadtime to move a step an explosion so loud that it seemed as if a ton ofdynamite had detonated, rent the air.
Jack's eyes were almost blinded by the sudden glare and crash, and hissenses reeled for an instant. The next moment, however, he realizedwhat had happened. The hut had been struck by a thunderbolt.
Black Ramon, his clothing singed, stood in a dazed way in the centerof the smoking hut--in the floor of which a great, jagged hole hadbeen ripped. By his side stood two of his men. The rest lay senseless,perhaps dead, in various parts of the reeking place.
One of them had been hurled by the violence of the electrical shockclose to Jack's side, and his knife lay within an inch of the boy'sfingers. Bound as he was, however, he could not reach it, nor did hedare to move while the Mexican leader's eyes were on them.
Suddenly the cattle rustler's superstitious mind seemed to recover fromits daze. He gazed about him in a wild way.
"It is the judgment of Heaven," he cried. "Let us escape."
Followed by the two of his men who still retained their senses, hedashed from the hut.
In an instant Jack rolled over on his side and seized the haft of theMexican's knife in his teeth. Then he rolled over to Coyote Pete's side.
"What the dickens----" began the cow-puncher, but stopped short asJack, still holding the blade clenched in his teeth, laid the keenblade across Pete's ropes. The knife was as keen as a razor, and in afew seconds Coyote Pete's hands were free. Then he took the knife andsevered his leg bonds. A few seconds more and Jack was free, and, inless time than it takes to tell, old Sam Simmons and Jim Hicks werealso on their feet.
"Quick, get their weapons," urged the cow-puncher, and instantly allfour possessed themselves of the four unconscious Mexicans' knives,pistols and rifles. Black Ramon and his men, in their superstitiousfright, had rushed from the place in such a hurry that they hadneglected to disarm their followers.
"Now for the ponies," exclaimed Jim Hicks.
"Hold on a moment," shouted Jack. He dived out of the hut into theblinding rain. But old Simmons was ahead of him. Already the old manhad sped along the top of the dam, and while the weakened breast wallof masonry shook under his feet with the great pressure behind it, hadscrewed open the sluice gates. Far below them a yellow flood boomed androared and screamed its way to the valley, but the pressure on the damhad been relieved and the masonry stood.
All this took some time, and in the meanwhile Coyote Pete and Jim Hickshad cautiously crept from the hut and gone to look for the horses. Theyfound them unharmed, but of Black Ramon there was no sign. They learnedafterward that his animals had been left down the trail, so as not toalarm old Simmons when they crept on him and surprised him. As soon asthe Mexican had found himself outside the lightning-blasted hut, he hadlost no time in mounting his black, and speeding back to his rendezvousat the old mission. He had, of course, no idea but that the boys andthe old dam-tender would go to their death with the hut when the damcollapsed.
Suddenly Jack thought of the telephone. He ran back into the hut andtelephoned the glad news of the safety of the dam to the amazed officein Maguez. Also he gave them a brief sketch of what had happened.
"But what the----" came a brief voice at the other end, but alreadyJack had rung off and was outside, where Jim Hicks and Coyote Pete hadthe ponies.
They had held a hasty consultation, and had decided that inasmuch asthe soldiers were advancing on the mission, and the American rancherswere on their way, that their best plan would be to head back towardthe valley. But it was Jack who vetoed this plan.
"I want to be in at the finish of those rascals," he exclaimed, "and,besides, think of our friends imprisoned in that dismal old church."
"You're right, kid," shouted Coyote Pete, waving a dripping hat in thedownpour, "the mission it is."
Old Simmons had been too badly shaken by his encounter with the Mexicanfor it to be advisable to leave him alone. Maud's pack was thereforeremoved, and the old dam-tender mounted on her. First, however, a callwas sent for a "relief." Till the latter arrived the sluices were to beleft open to drain off the heavy surplus of water.
"Wished I knew where them greasers' horses were," sighed Jim Hicks;"they'll be coming to in a minute, and walkin' bein' a healthyexercise, I'd like to provide some of it for them."
A short distance down the trail they found the miscreants' ponies,just as Ramon had left them hitched. Even the fair-minded Jack did notprotest when Coyote Pete and Jim Hicks, with yells of glee, cut thecayuses loose and sent them galloping off.
"I only wish we could be here to see the Mexicans' faces when theywake up and wonder what's hit 'em," said Jim, who had examined each ofthe stunned men and ascertained that not one of them was seriously hurt.
"Now, then, forward!" cried Jim, as soon as the clatter of theretreating Mexican ponies' hoofs had died out.
"Forward!" echoed Jack again, putting his heels to his mount.
With a loud shout, the four Americans dashed down the trail.
"Now look out for fireworks! Yip-yip-yip-y-ee-e-ee!" yelled CoyotePete, in a voice that ri
valed the last efforts of the retreatingthunder-storm.