CHAPTER XVIII
THE BIG SLIDE
For a short space there was a calm that seemed more thrilling thanthe wildest confusion. It took a few seconds for the rush of waterto reach the _Bohio_, and when it did the tug began to sway andtug at the mooring cables, for they had not yet been cast off toenable it to be towed.
Blake rushed toward the lower cabin.
"Where are you going?" cried Joe.
"To get the cameras," replied his chum, not pausing. "This is achance we mustn't miss."
"But we must escape! We must look to ourselves!" shouted Mr.Alcando. "This is not time for making moving pictures."
"We've got to make it this time!" Joe said, falling in with Blake."You'll find you've got to make moving pictures when you _can_,not when you _want_ to!"
To do justice to Mr. Alcando he was not a coward, but this wasvery unusual for him, to make pictures in the face of a greatdanger--to stand calmly with a camera, turning the crank andgetting view after view on the strip of celluloid film, while aflood of water rushed down on you. It was something he neverdreamed of.
But he was not a "quitter," which word, though objectionable asslang, is most satisfactorily descriptive.
"I'll help!" the young Spaniard cried, as he followed Blake andJoe down to where the cameras and films were kept.
On came the rush of water, released by the accidental opening ofthe upper lock gates before the lower ones were closed. The watersof Gatun Lake were rushing to regain the freedom denied them bythe building of the locks.
But they were not to have their own way for long. Even thisemergency, great as it was, unlikely as it was to happen, had beenforeseen by those who built the Canal.
"The dam! Swing over the emergency dam!" came the cry.
The _Bohio_ was now straining and pulling at her cables.Fortunately they were long enough to enable her to rise on theflood of the rushing water, or she might have been held down, andso overwhelmed. But she rose like a cork, though she plunged andswayed under the influence of the terrible current, which was likea mill race.
"Use both cameras!" cried Blake, as he and Joe each came on deckbearing one, while Mr. Alcando followed with spare reels of film."We'll both take pictures," Blake went on. "One set may bespoiled!"
Then he and his chum, setting up their cameras on the tripods,aimed the lenses at the advancing flood, at the swung-back gatesand at the men on top of the concrete walls, endeavoring to bringinto place the emergency dam.
It was a risky thing to do, but then Blake and Joe were used todoing risky things, and this was no more dangerous than thechances they had taken in the jungle, or in earthquake land.
On rushed the water. The tug rose and fell on the bosom of theflood, unconfined as it was by the restraining gates. And as thesturdy vessel swayed this way and that, rolling at her mooringsand threatening every moment to break and rush down the Canal,Blake and Joe stood at their posts, turning the cranks. And besidethem stood Mr. Alcando, if not as calm as the boys, at least asindifferent to impending fate.
Captain Wiltsey of the _Bohio_ had given orders to run the engineat full speed, hoping by the use of the propeller to offsetsomewhat the powerful current. But the rush of water was too greatto allow of much relief.
"There goes the emergency dam!" suddenly cried Blake.
"Gone out, you mean?" yelled Joe above the roar of waters.
"No, it's being swung into place. It'll be all over in a fewminutes. Good thing we got the pictures when we did."
Across the lock, about two hundred feet above the upper gate, wasbeing swung into place the steel emergency dam, designed to meetand overcome just such an accident as had occurred.
These dams were worked by electricity, and could be put in placein two minutes; or, if the machinery failed, they could be workedby hand, though taking nearly half an hour, during which time muchdamage might be done. But in this case the electrical machineryworked perfectly, and the dam, which when not in use restedagainst the side of the lock wall, and parallel with it, was swungacross.
Almost at once the rush of water stopped, gradually subsidinguntil the tug swung easily at her mooring cables.
"Whew!" whistled Blake in relief, as he ceased grinding at thecrank of his moving picture camera. "That was going some!"
"That's what!" agreed Joe. "But I guess we got some good films."
"You certainly deserved to!" exclaimed Mr. Alcando, with shiningeyes. "You are very brave!"
"Oh, it's all in the day's work," spoke Blake. "Now I wonder howthat happened?"
"That's what I'd like to know," said Captain Wiltsey. "I must lookinto this."
An inquiry developed the fact that a misplaced switch in somenewly installed electrical machinery that controlled the upperlock gate was to blame. The lock machinery was designed to beautomatic, and as nearly "error proof" as anything controlled byhuman beings can be. That is to say it was planned that no vesselcould proceed into a lock until the fender chain was lowered, andthat an upper gate could not be opened until a lower one wasclosed. But in this case something went wrong, and the two gateswere opened at once, letting out the flood.
This, however, had been foreseen, and the emergency dam provided,and it was this solid steel wall that had saved the lock fromserious damage, and the _Bohio_ from being overwhelmed.
As it was no harm had been done and, when the excitement hadcalmed down, and an inspection made to ascertain that the gateswould now work perfectly, the tug was allowed to proceed.
"Well, what are your plans now, boys?" asked Mr. Alcando on theday after the lock accident.
"Back to Culebra Cut," answered Blake. "We have orders to get apicture of a big slide there, and we're going to do it."
"Even if you have to make the slide yourself?" asked the Spaniardwith a short laugh.
"Not much!" exclaimed Blake. "I'd do a good deal to get the kindof moving pictures they want, but nothing like that. There havebeen some rains of late, however, and if things happen as theyoften have before in the Cut there may be a slide."
"Yes, they do follow rains, so I am told," went on the Spaniard."Well, I do not wish your Canal any bad luck, but if a slide doesoccur I hope it will come when you can get views of it."
"In the daytime, and not at night," suggested Joe.
For several days nothing of interest occurred. Blake and Joe sentback to New York the films of the mad rush of waters through thelock, and also dispatched other views they had taken. They hadgone to Culebra Cut and there tied up, waiting for a slide thatmight come at any time, and yet which might never occur. Naturallyif the canal engineers could have had their way they would havepreferred never to see another avalanche of earth descend.
Mr. Alcando had by this time proved that he could take movingpictures almost as well as could the boys. Of course this filmingof nature was not all there was to the business. It was quiteanother matter to make views of theatrical scenes, or to film thescene of an indoor and outdoor drama.
"But I do not need any of that for my purpose," explained Mr.Alcando. "I just want to know how to get pictures that will helpdevelope our railroad business."
"You know that pretty well now," said Blake. "I suppose you willsoon be leaving the Canal--and us."
"Not until I see you film the big slide," he replied. "I wish youall success."
"To say nothing of the Canal," put in Joe.
"To say nothing of the Canal," repeated the Spaniard, and helooked at the boys in what Blake said afterward he thought was astrange manner.
"Then you haven't altogether gotten over your suspicions of him?"asked Joe.
"No, and yet I don't know why either of us should hold any againsthim," went on Joe's chum. "Certainly he has been a good friendand companion to us, and he has learned quickly."
"Oh, yes, he's smart enough. Well, we haven't much more to dohere. A slide, if we can get one, and some pictures below GatunDam, and we can go back North."
"Yes," agreed Blake.
"Seen anything of Alcando's a
larm clock model lately?" asked Joe,after a pause.
"Not a thing, and I haven't heard it tick. Either he has given upworking on it, or he's so interested in the pictures that he hasforgotten it."
Several more days passed, gloomy, unpleasant days, for it rainednearly all the time. Then one morning, sitting in the cabin of thetug anchored near Gold Hill, there came an alarm.
"A land slide! A big slide in Culebra Cut! Emergency orders!"
"That means us!" cried Blake, springing to his feet, and gettingout a camera. "It's our chance, Joe."
"Yes! Too bad, but it had to be, I suppose," agreed his chum, ashe slipped into a mackintosh, for it was raining hard.