CHAPTER XXIII
THE FLASHLIGHT
For an instant the moving picture boys could hardly grasp themeaning of the fateful words spoken by Captain Wiltsey. But itneeded only a look at his face to tell that he was laboring undergreat excitement.
"The Gatun Dam to be destroyed," repeated Joe. "Then we'd betterget--"
"Do you mean by an earthquake?" asked Blake, breaking in on hischum's words.
"No, I don't take any stock in their earthquake theories," thecaptain answered. "That's all bosh! It's dynamite."
"Dynamite!" cried Joe and Blake in a breath.
"Yes, there are rumors, so persistent that they cannot be denied,to the effect that the dam is to be blown up some night."
"Blown up!" cried Blake and Joe again.
"That's the rumor," continued Captain Wiltsey. "I don't wonder youare astonished. I was myself when I heard it. But I've come to getyou boys to help us out."
"How can we help?" asked Blake. "Not that we won't do all we can,"he added hastily, "but I should think you'd need Secret Servicemen, detectives, and all that sort of help."
"We'll have enough of that help," went on the tug boat commander,who was also an employee of the commission that built the Canal."But we need the peculiar help you boys can give us with yourcameras."
"You mean to take moving pictures of the blowing up of the dam?"asked Joe.
"Well, there won't be any blowing up, if we can help it," spokethe captain, grimly. "But we want to photograph the attempt if itgoes that far. Have you any flashlight powder?"
"Yes," Blake answered. "Or, if not, we can make some withmaterials we can easily get. But you can't make more than apicture or two by flashlight."
"Couldn't you if you had a very big flashlight that would last forseveral minutes?"
"Yes, I suppose so."
"Well, then, figure on that."
"But I don't understand it all," objected Blake, and Joe, too,looked his wonder. Both were seeking a reason why the captain hadsaid he was glad Mr. Alcando had gone out to get the camera he hadforgotten.
"I'll explain," said Mr. Wiltsey. "You have no doubt heard, as weall have down here, the stories of fear of an earthquake shock. AsI said, I think they're all bosh. But of late there have beenpersistent rumors that a more serious menace is at hand. And thatis dynamite.
"In fact the rumors have gotten down to a definite date, and it issaid to-night is the time picked out for the destruction of thedam. The water of the Chagres River is exceptionally high, owingto the rains, and if a breach were blown in the dam now it wouldmean the letting loose of a destructive flood."
"But who would want to blow up the dam?" asked Blake.
"Enemies of the United States," was the captain's answer. "I don'tknow who they are, nor why they should be our enemies, but youknow several nations are jealous of Uncle Sam, that he possessessuch a vitally strategic waterway as the Panama Canal.
"But we don't need to discuss all that now. The point is that weare going to try to prevent this thing and we want you boys tohelp."
"With a flashlight?" asked Blake, wondering whether the captaindepended on scaring those who would dare to plant a charge ofdynamite near the great dam.
"With a flashlight, or, rather, with a series of them, and yourmoving picture cameras," the captain went on. "We want you boys toget photographic views of those who will try to destroy the dam,so that we will have indisputable evidence against them. Will youdo it?"
"Of course we will!" cried Blake. "Only how can it be done? Wedon't know where the attempt will be made, nor when, andflashlight powder doesn't burn very long, you know."
"Yes, I know all that," the captain answered. "And we have made aplan. We have a pretty good idea where the attempt will bemade--near the spillway, and as to the time, we can only guess atthat.
"But it will be some time to-night, almost certainly, and we willhave a sufficient guard to prevent it. Some one of this guard cangive you boys warning, and you can do the rest--with yourcameras."
"Yes, I suppose so," agreed Blake.
"It will be something like taking the pictures of the wild animalsin the jungle," Joe said. "We did some of them by flashlight, youremember, Blake."
"Yes, so we did. And I brought the apparatus with us, though wehaven't used it this trip. Now let's get down to business. Butwe'll need help in this, Joe. I wonder where Alcando--?"
"You don't need him," declared the captain.
"Why not?" asked Joe. "He knows enough about the cameras now,and--"
"He's a foreigner--a Spaniard," objected the captain.
"I see," spoke Blake. "You don't want it to go any farther thancan be helped."
"No," agreed the captain.
"But how did you and the other officials hear all this?" Joewanted to know.
"In a dozen different ways," was the answer. "Rumors came to us,we traced them, and got--more rumors. There has been somedisaffection among the foreign laborers. Men with fancied, but notreal grievances, have talked and muttered against the UnitedStates. Then, in a manner I cannot disclose, word came to us thatthe discontent had culminated in a well-plotted plan to destroythe dam, and to-night is the time set.
"Just who they are who will try the desperate work I do not know.I fancy no one does. But we may soon know if you boys cansuccessfully work the cameras and flashlights."
"And we'll do our part!" exclaimed Blake. "Tell us where to setthe cameras."
"We can use that automatic camera, too; can't we?" asked Joe.
"Yes, that will be the very thing!" cried Blake. They had found,when making views of wild animals in the jungle, as I haveexplained in the book of that title, that to be successful in somecases required them to be absent from the drinking holes, wherethe beasts came nightly to slake their thirst.
So they had developed a combined automatic flashlight and camera,that would, when set, take pictures of the animals as they came tothe watering-place. The beasts themselves would, by breaking athread, set the mechanism in motion.
"The flashlight powder--I wonder if we can get enough of that?"spoke Joe. "It'll take quite a lot."
"We must get it--somehow," declared the captain. "I fancy we havesome on hand, and perhaps you can make more. There is quite achemical laboratory here at the dam. But we've got to hustle. Theattempt is to be made some time after midnight."
"Hustle it is!" cried Blake. "Come on, Joe."