CHAPTER XXXIV.
BATTLING WITH THE RIVER.
Some day, perhaps, the history of that River war will be written. Itcan only be suggested in my story.
It was a war of terrific forces waged for a great cause by men as braveas any who ever fought with weapons that kill.
The attacking force was the Rio Colorado that with power immeasurablehad, through the ages past, carved mile-deep canyons on its course andwith its mountains of silt had built the great delta dam across theancient gulf, thus turning back the waters of the sea that sun and windmight lay bare the floor of the Basin and work the desolation of thedesert.
Using the Seer's open hand for his map of La Palma de la Mano de Dios,Jose, the Indian, had traced the course of the river along the base ofthe fingers flowing toward the gulf which lies between the edge of thepalm and the thumb--this same inner edge of the hand representingroughly the high ground that shuts out the waters of the sea. Thethousands of acres of The King's Basin lands lie from sea level tonearly three hundred feet below. The river at the point where theintake for the system of canals was located is, of course, higher thansea level, for the waters that pass the intake flow on southward to thegulf.
It was the river flowing thus on higher ground that made irrigation andreclamation of the desert possible. It was this also that made possiblethe disaster that was now upon the hardy pioneers, who had stakedeverything in their effort to realize the vast potential wealth of theancient sea-bed. The grade from the river at the intake to the lowestpoint in the bottom of the Basin is much steeper than the establishedfall of the river from the intake to the gulf. The water in the canalson this steeper grade was controlled by headings, spillways, gates anddrops, while the structure at the intake, with gates to regulate theflow into the main canal, prevented the river from leaving its oldchannel altogether, pouring its entire volume into the Basin and intime converting it again into an inland sea.
The dangerously cheap and inadequate character of the vital parts,built by the Company upon the usual promoter's estimates, had led AbeLee to protest against the risk forced upon the settlers and hadfinally caused him to resign. Later, as the Company system of canalswas extended and more and more water was needed to supply the rapidlyincreasing acreage of cultivated lands, Willard Holmes came toappreciate the desert-bred surveyor's view of the danger andinsistently urged his employers to supply him with funds to replace thetemporary wooden structures with safe and lasting works of concrete andsteel.
But the hunger of Capital for profits forbade. Some day the work wouldbe done, the directors promised. In the meantime, without increasingthe original investment by so much as a dollar but with the revenuesderived from the sale of water rights, they were extending the systemto supply the ever increasing fields of the settlers, thus shrewdlyforcing the people, who were ignorant of the terrible risk they werecarrying, to supply the funds to build the canals and ditches thatbelonged to the Company; while for the water carried to the ranches thefarmers continued to pay the Company large rentals. The originalinvestment of the Company was very small compared with the thousandsinvested by the pioneers who had been induced to settle in the newcountry. And yet from every dollar of the wealth taken from the landthe Company would receive a share.
But the Rio Colorado gave no heed to the decree of the New Yorkfinanciers. The forces that had made La Palma de la Mano de Dios arenot ruled by Wall street.
Willard Holmes, who had come to understand that his work was not aloneto safeguard the property of his employers but to protect the interestsof the pioneers as well, had been discharged because he would notdeliver the people wholly into the hands of the Company. A new engineerout of the East, as faithful to the interests of Capital as he wasunfamiliar with conditions in the new country, was placed in charge.
It was as if the river, in the absence of the man whose constantreadiness had held it in check, saw its opportunity. Swiftly itmustered its forces from mountain and plain. Hundreds of miles away itgathered its strength and hurried to the assault. The sources ofinformation established by Holmes on the tributaries and headwaterswired their reports: a foot rise on the Gila; three feet coming downthe Little Colorado; two feet rise in the Salt; five feet on the Grand.The New York office-engineer received the messages with mild interest.The daily reports from the weather bureau covering the countriesdrained by the Rio Colorado lay on his desk unnoticed.
Mr. Burk warned him, but the thoughtful Manager of the Company was notan engineer. Willard Holmes tried to help him, but Holmes had beendischarged by the Company and the words of discharged men have littleweight with those who succeed to their positions.
The daily reports from the gauge at Rubio City showed an increase inthe river's volume of twenty thousand second feet; then thirty thousandmore; and on top of that came another twenty thousand. The assistantsof the new chief engineer tried to tell him what it meant, but theassistants were subordinates and friends of Willard Holmes. The manfrom New York, who was privileged to write several letters after hisname, was supposed to know his business.
Then the assembled forces of the river reached the intake, and thetrembling wooden structures that stood between the pioneers and ruin,besieged by the rising flood, battered by the swirling currents,bombarded by drift, gave way under the strain and the charging watersplunged through the breach.
Too late the Company's forces were rushed to the scene. Before theirvery eyes the roaring waters, as if mad with destructive power,wrenched and tore at the Company's property, twisting, ripping,smashing, until not a trestle, plank or stick was left in place and theterrific current, rushing with ever increasing volume and power throughthe opening, plowed into the soft, alluvial soil of the embankment,undermining and carrying it away until nearly the entire river wasadmitted.
As quickly as men and material could be assembled, the Company's chiefengineer began the battle to regain control of the mighty stream. Thewarfare thus begun meant life or death to the greatest reclamationproject in the world.
Millions already invested by the settlers in farms and towns and homesand business enterprises were at stake. Many more millions that wereyet to be realized from the reclaimed lands depended upon the issue ofthe fight.
Against the efforts of the engineers and the army of laborers the rivermassed from its tributaries in the regions of heavy rains and meltingsnows the greatest strength it had assembled in many years.
Five times, with piling and trestles and jetties and embankments, themen who defended The King's Basin were in sight of victory. Five timesthe river summoned fresh strength--twisted out the piling, wrecked thetrestles, undermined the jetties and embankments and swept the nearlycompleted structures, smashing, grinding, crashing, away--a twisted,tangled ruin.
While the engineers and men of the Company were waging this war withthe river, the situation of the pioneers in the Basin grew daily moreperilous. Without a well-defined channel large enough to carry theincoming stream, the flood spread over a wide territory in the southernand western portions of the Basin, filling first the old channels andwashes left by the waters ages ago, forming next in the areas of nearlylevel or slightly depressed sections shallow pools, lakes and seas, outof which the higher ground and hummocks rose like new-born islands,growing smaller and smaller as the rising tide submerged more and moreof their sandy bases. Meanwhile the whole flood, eddying slowly withwinding sluggish currents in the shallow places, moving more swiftly inthe deeper washes and channels, swept always onward toward the northwhere, miles away, lay the deepest bottom of the great Basin.
Many of the settlers in the flooded districts were forced to abandonfarms they had won with courage and toil, for the sweeping waterscovered alike fields of alfalfa and grain and barren desert waste. Thetowns of Frontera and Kingston were protected from the inundation byearthen levees, in the building of which men and women toiled indesperate haste, and night and day these embankments were patrolled bywatchful guards, who frequently summoned the weary, besieged citizensfrom their rest t
o protect or strengthen some threatened point in theirfortifications.
The eastern side of the Basin being higher ground, the settlers in theSouth Central District and east of Republic, with the two towns builtby Jefferson Worth, were in no immediate danger, but the old Dry Riverchannel became a roaring torrent, bank-full; and it was only a questionof time, if the river were not controlled, when every foot of the newcountry with its wealth of improvements and its vast possibilitieswould be buried deep beneath the surface of an inland sea.
The situation was appalling. The remarkable development of the newcountry, the marvelous richness of the reclaimed lands, with theimmense possibilities of the reclamation work as demonstrated by TheKing's Basin project had attracted the attention of the nation. Thepioneers in Barbara's Desert were, in fact, leaders in a far greaterwork that would add immeasurably to the nation's life--that would,indeed, be world-wide in its influence. Because of this the attentionof the nation was fixed with peculiar interest upon the disaster thathad fallen upon The King's Basin. Throughout the land civil engineerswatched intently the efforts of the Company men to regain control ofthe river and to force it back into its old channel. Many declaredthat, because of the alluvial character of the soil, the absence ofanything like a rock floor to build upon and the great volume andterrific velocity of the current, the feat was an engineeringimpossibility. In the eyes of the engineering world The King's Basinproject was doomed. The settlers were advised to abandon the work theyhad accomplished and to move out. But those strong ones who had forcedthe desert to yield its wealth to their hands did not move. Those whosefarms were in the flooded district were forced to go. There was theinevitable sifting of the timid-hearted and the weak, but the greatmajority stood fast.
Jefferson Worth, in the face of almost certain ruin, went steadily onwith his work on the railroad and continued pushing his otherenterprises toward completion--making improvements, erecting newbuildings, planning further investments and developments with aconfidence and conviction that was startling. Not once throughout thattrying period was he heard to express the slightest doubt as to theultimate triumph of the settlers. His business friends and associatesoutside urged him to stop--to wait at least until the issue wascertain. He answered calmly that the issue was already certain and wenton with his work.
His confidence and courage were the inspiration that fired the heartsof that threatened people. Had he given ground, had he weakened anddrawn back it would have started a panic that nothing could havechecked and that would have resulted inevitably in the abandonment ofthe cause forever. The King's Basin lands with the wealth of effortthat had already been expended would have been given over to the river,lost irretrievably to the race.
Hundreds went to him when they felt their courage failing and theirspirits weakening under the strain. And always they returned to theirfarms or to their business with renewed strength to go on. As one, whopassed through that ordeal, long afterwards expressed it: "In thosetimes we all just lived on his nerve."
Through all the Company's war with the river and its repeated defeatsWillard Holmes was forced to stand a mere observer, an idle looker-on.Foreseeing the catastrophe that was now upon them, he had preparedhimself by careful study of every factor in the problem and by thoroughknowledge of the situation to meet the crisis when it came. With everymeans at his command he had planned and worked that he might be readyand so far as possible equipped for the struggle and now, when war wasdeclared and the battle being waged, he could only watch the ruin ofthe work he loved while a stranger, who ignored his preparatoryefforts, took the place that should have been his.
But the great man of the S. & C., with whom the engineer had many acounsel in those days, warned him always to be ready for the timewhen--as the western man put it--"The Company should throw up itshands."
The waters moving northward reached the lowest point in the Basin andthere formed an inland sea that, without an outlet and receiving thefull volume of the river, grew ever larger and larger. Flowing towardsthe sea the flood developed swift currents in the depressions andwashes that led in the general direction of its course, seeking thus tomake for itself a well-defined channel. The largest of these ancientwashes, scarcely noticeable in the desert, led from the south toKingston, passing through the edge of the town, curved slightly to thewest and extended on northward, becoming deeper and more clearlydefined with higher ground on either side as it neared the lowest pointof the Basin. The general lay of the land drew the flood toward thischannel and developed a current that moved with increasing velocity asthe waters, nearing the sea, were concentrated more and more by thegreater depth of the old channel and the steeper grade of the land onboth sides.
Then a new and alarming phase of the river's destructive work developedand everyone saw that the war at the intake must be forced to a speedyfinish or the cause would be lost. The immense volume of water, flowingwith increased strength and velocity as it defined for itself a moredistinct channel down the steeper grade of the Basin, began cutting inthe soft soil a vertical fall that from the foot of the grade movedswiftly up-stream; a mighty cataract from fifty to sixty feet in heightand a full quarter of a mile wide, moving at the rate of from one tothree miles a day and leaving as it went a great gorge through which anew-made river flowed quietly to a new-born and ever-growing sea. Theroar of the plunging waters, the crashing and booming of the fallingmasses of earth that were undermined by the roaring torrent were heardmiles away. Acres upon acres of the soft fertile land fell, melted andwere swept away down the gorge as banks of snow fall and melt in thespring freshets. Day and night, night and day, the immeasurable powerof the canyon-cutting river drove the cataract southward toward thebreak at the intake through which, by this time, the entire Colorado atits highest flood stage was turned.
The imminent danger that threatened the Basin was not the danger fromthe ever-rising sea. Long before the waters could fill the old sea-bed,that mighty cataract, moving ever upstream, would pass the intake; andwith the floor of the river lowered thus some fifty feet it would beimpossible to take the water out for irrigation. The lands reclaimed bythe pioneers would go back to desert years before they would be buriedonce more under the surface of the sea.
The complete destruction of all that the settlers had gained and theutter desolation of the land was now a question of weeks.
The Company town of Kingston was directly in the path of that movingNiagara. While the Company's men were making a last desperate effort toclose the break, the great falls were eating their way nearer andnearer the little city. When the roar of the water and the crashing andbooming of the falling banks could be heard on the streets and in theoffices of the Company, the people left their homes, their stores andtheir shops; the town realizing that no human power now could avert thedisaster.
Heroic efforts were made to direct the course of the new river awayfrom the little city, but the waters with savage, resistless powerchose their own way. The pioneers, who built the first town in theheart of The King's Basin Desert, saw that mighty, thundering cataractmove upon the work of their hands and felt the earth trembling undertheir feet as they watched homes, business blocks, the hotel, the operahouse, the bank and finally the Company building undermined andtumbled, crashing into the deep canyon.
In a few short hours it was over. The falls moved on and where Kingstonhad once stood was that great gorge, with a few scattered houses onlyremaining on each side.
That same day the last attempt of the Company men to close the breakfailed.
With every hour the awful ruin drew nearer the point which, if reached,would place The King's Basin forever beyond the reclaiming power ofmen. Frantic appeals for help were made to the government, but beforethe ponderous machinery of state, with its intricate and complicatedwheels within wheels, could unwind a sufficient quantity of red tapethe work of the pioneer citizens would be past saving.
It was at this time that a telegram from Jefferson Worth to the greatman of the Southwestern and Continental brought a s
pecial train ofprivate cars into the Basin. At Deep Well Junction Jefferson Worth, AbeLee, the Seer and Willard Holmes boarded the train and entered the carof the general manager, where the officials representing the highestauthority in the great transcontinental system had gathered to meetthem in consultation.
At Republic the president of The King's Basin Land and IrrigationCompany with his manager and chief engineer joined them, and the trainmoved on until, at a word from Holmes, the conductor gave the signal tostop. From the windows and platform of the car the party could see thewater extending to the south and west mile after mile, and nearer thehuge plunging cataracts with leaping columns of spray, while the roarof the falls, the crashing and booming of the caving banks shook theair with heavy vibrations and the earth trembled with the shock of theplunging waters and the falling masses of earth. Just ahead, whereKingston had stood, the track ended on the bank of the deep gorge. Fromhere the party was driven in comfortable spring wagons to the scene ofthe Company's defeat.
Save for the camps of the laborers, the boats, pile-drivers, implementsand materials of their warfare and the debris of their wreckedstructures, not a sign of their work remained, while through thebreach--widened now to nearly a quarter of a mile--the great riverpoured its hundred and fifty thousand second feet of muddy water withterrific velocity and solemn, awful power.
When the party had viewed the situation, the railroad men with Mr.Greenfield retired to the tent of the Company's chief engineer.
A little apart from Jefferson Worth and his two companions, WillardHolmes stood alone on the brink of the broken embankment looking downinto the swirling muddy waters. He knew that his time had come. He knewthat at that moment the railroad officials were concluding a deal withThe King's Basin Land and Irrigation Company through its president, bywhich the S. & C. would assume control of the situation and attempt tosave the reclamation work. His chief had told him to be ready. He wasready.
In the railroad yards at Rubio City and on every available side-trackfor several miles east and west were standing train-loads of ties andrails. In the yards at the Coast city were cars loaded with machinery,implements and supplies. In the yards at the harbor were othertrain-loads of timber and piling. With the readiness of a perfectlyequipped and organized army the forces of the S. & C., backed by theresources of that powerful system, waited the word, while every momentthe disaster that threatened the pioneers drew nearer. From the roaringriver at his feet Willard Holmes turned to look toward the tent. Whywere they so slow?
Then his face lighted up and he took an eager step forward as theprivate secretary of the general manager came out of the tent andhurried toward him.
"They want you, Mr. Holmes," said the young man. The engineer wentquickly to answer the call.
When he entered the tent every man in the party turned toward theengineer. "Holmes," said his chief, "we will attempt to close thebreak. You will take charge at once."
Within an hour the forces of The King's Basin Land and IrrigationCompany already on the ground were set to work under the Seer preparingthe grade for a spur-track that would leave the main line near theriver fifteen miles north of the break, and Holmes, with Abe Lee, setout on horseback for Rubio.
With the return of the general manager and his party to their train,the movement already planned began. Without hurry but with readypromptness the orders, voiced by the hundreds of clicking telegraphinstruments covering the district affected by the operations, wereobeyed. Special trains carried Jefferson Worth's force of railroadbuilders with teams and equipment to the point at which the spur-trackwould connect with the main line where, under Abe Lee, they beganpushing the grade southward to meet the forces that, under the Seer,were working northward from the front.
Throughout the Basin the call for men and teams was issued by JeffersonWorth, and the pioneers, answering as the Minute Men of old, werehurried to the scene where they found trainloads of equipment waitingready for their use, while every hour brought reinforcements--laborersof many nationalities gathered in the cities of the coast by the agentsof the railroad company.
The waiting trains loaded with ties and steel began to move and theconstruction gangs followed close on the heels of the graders. And whenthe last spike in the track to the scene of the decisive battle wasdriven, the track-men with their sledges stepped aside to clear the wayfor the panting engines that drew the first train loaded with pilingand timbers for the trestle.
Hour by hour now, without pause or halt, the men under Willard Holmesworking in shifts met the Rio Colorado in a hand-to-hand fight for TheKing's Basin lands. By day under the white, semi-tropical sun, by nightin the light of locomotive headlights that gleamed strangely over thedark swirling floods, the trestles were forced further and further outinto the plunging current that wrenched and twisted and tugged withterrific strength in a mad wrestle with those who dared attempt tocheck its sullen destructive will, while steadily, irresistibly, thecanyon-cutting falls drew nearer and nearer. It was not alone themagnitude of the task directed by Willard Holmes that made the workheroic. It was that this seemingly impossible work must be accomplishedagainst time. In his fight with the river the engineer raced against adestructive force which, if it reached the scene of the struggle beforethe battle was won, would make final defeat certain and place theColorado, so far as The King's Basin reclamation was concerned, beyondcontrol of men.
As the engineer stood on the trestle above the mad, whirling currents,directing his men in their efforts to drive the piling in thirty feetof water that--as one veteran expressed it--"ran like the mill tails ofhell," he fancied he could hear above the roar of the river against thestructure, the blows of the heavy driver, the rattle of cable and chainand windlass, the grinding and squeaking of the straining timbers andthe shouts of the men--the menacing thunder of that moving cataract afew miles away. While he paced the embankments, studying the set of thecurrents, observing the form and action of the eddies or receiving thehourly reports from the river gauge at Rubio City, and heldconsultation with his assistants, he often turned his headinvoluntarily to look anxiously away in the direction of the racingfalls.
Only when his exhausted body and wearied brain refused to respondlonger to his will would he throw himself fully dressed upon a cot inhis tent for an hour's sleep. His face grew haggard and deeply linedwith anxious care, his hollow eyes--dark-rimmed--were bloodshot andburning as if with fever, his jaws were set as if by sheer power of hiswill he would beat the river into submission. And he barked his ordersshortly in a hoarse strained voice that told of nerves stretched almostto the breaking point. In critical moments, when it looked as thoughthe river in the next instant would reduce their work to a hopelesswreck, the engineer, standing on the trembling timbers or clinging tothe swaying pile-driver itself, seemed to those who did his bidding tobecome the very incarnation of human courage and power.
The Seer and Abe Lee, remembering the man who had come out from theEast to go with them on that preliminary survey, wondered at thetransformation. Then Willard Holmes was the servant of Capital thatused people for its own gain. He saw his work then only as a means tothe end that his Company might make money. Now, though employed stillby a corporation, he was a master who used the power at his command inbehalf of the people. He had come to look upon his work as a service tothe world and through that service only he served his employers. It wasas if in this man, born of the best blood of a nation-building people,trained by the best of the cultured East--trained as truly by his lifeand work in the desert--it was as though, in him, the best spirit ofthe age and race found expression.
At last the trestles were pushed across the break, the track was laidand the gigantic work of filling the channel was begun. In every rockquarry reached by the S. & C. within two hundred and fifty miles of thebattle, men were drilling and blasting and with steam shovels andderricks were loading cars with material for the fill. At the word fromWillard Holmes these rock trains steamed swiftly to the front,everything giving them the right of way. Merchan
ts and manufacturerseast and west cursed the railroad because their shipments were delayed.Passengers, held for hours on the sidings, complained, scolded,protested and threatened. It was an outrage! declared the tourists intheir luxurious Pullmans that they should be forced to give up an hourof their pleasure in order that a train load of rock might make bettertime. But, unheeding, the great battleships, each with its fifty cubicyards of stone, and the flats and gondolas, each with its tons ofmaterial, thundered away to the scene of the struggle. Every fiveminutes, night and day, from the moment of the completion of thetrestles until the fill was above the danger point a car of rock wasdumped into the break.
So the task was accomplished; the fight was won. The Rio Colorado waschecked in its work of destruction and beaten back into its oldchannel. The thousands of acres of The King's Basin lands that wouldhave been forever lost to the race through one corporation were savedby another; and the man, who--without protest--had built for hisemployers' gain the inadequate structures that endangered the work ofthe pioneers, led the forces that won the victory.
The afternoon of the day on which the break was finally closed threeprivate cars came in with the rock trains. The passengers were thegeneral manager and the general superintendent with their wives,Jefferson Worth and a small party of friends.
Leaving their cars the party walked toward a point below the rockembankment where they could look down into the now empty gorge. Withthis visible evidence of the river's power before them, the visitorsexclaimed with wonder.
When the superintendent had explained the magnitude of the work, thedifficulties encountered and how the task had been accomplished, thegeneral manager, who--here and there--had added a word, said: "Afterall, friends, taking into consideration money, equipment andeverything, the whole question of a work like this, or of any greatenterprise, resolves itself into a question of men. It's up to the _manon the job_. We have the system, the machinery without which this workcould not have been done. We have the capital to supply material andlabor--but that man up there closed the break."
As he spoke he pointed to a figure standing on the upper trestle abovethe fill--outlined against the sky.
Then the party climbed the grade to the tracks again and walked to theend of the upper trestle. Turning, the engineer saw and came towardsthem. Silently they stood to receive him. From boots to Stetson hiskhaki trousers and rough shirt were stained with mud and grime, hiseyes were sunken in dark hollows, his worn face was unshaven and hishair, when he removed his hat, was unkempt. He did not look like ahero; he looked more like some ruffian just from a prolonged debauch.But the little party burst into applause.
The engineer smiled as his chief went forward from the group to grasphim by the hand. For a moment they talked of the work. Then theofficial, placing his hand on the engineer's arm, said: "Come, Holmes,we have some women here who want to meet the man who mastered theColorado."
The engineer protested. He was "not presentable."
"Presentable! You're the most presentable man I know of this minute.Come along, there's my wife making signs to me to hurry right now."
There was nothing for Holmes to do but to go. A moment later he wasface to face with the rest of the party and--with Barbara Worth.
The Winning of Barbara Worth Page 36