Noah, bent low, slipped forward in utter silence--more silence than necessary. The American water keeper, Madrigal, and the Mexican guard were too profoundly busy with a crap game on the floor under the lantern to be disturbed by the mere breaking of a twig.
But all at once from out the night came a drawling voice:
"Brethren, let's raise our hands." Three pairs of eyes leaped up from the dice and looked into the muzzle of the most vicious shotgun they had ever seen--not ten feet away. Six hands went up without a word.
"Stand up," was the next drawling command. "Turn your backs." Noah flung two small ropes at their feet.
"You," he ordered Madrigal, "tie the Mex's hands behind him--and stand him over by the wall."
"Whitey," he ordered the water keeper when that was done, "tie the Hebrew's hands and feet and set him down over by the wall, facing this way.
"Now," Noah again commanded the water keeper, "go to the telephone and order the water turned in. Tell 'em we are dry--that all the trouble is settled, and to shoot the water down banks full, right away, quick."
The water keeper was shaking as though with the ague. He knew danger when he saw it and he was perfectly sure he saw it.
He went to the telephone and called the keeper at the Valley Irrigation Company's office. As he started to speak Madrigal stirred on the floor as though trying to get up.
Still keeping the water keeper covered with the shotgun, Noah looked round at Madrigal and drawled:
"If I was you, Hebrew, I'd keep sayin' over that parable which reads: 'Once there was a Mexican who was shot in the stomach with half a pint of buckshot; and in hell he lifted up his eyes and said, "Father Abraham, send me a drop of water." And Father Abraham says, "Not a drop. Ain't you the man that helped burn up the Imperial Valley? Hell's too good for you, but it's all we've got."'"
"It sounded all right," said Noah to the water keeper. "Sit down over there and be comfortable, while we wait and see; and keep your eye on the muzzle of the gun. It is the only way to keep it from smokin'."
Forty minutes passed. Noah's eyes were on his prisoners, but his ears kept listening. Fifty minutes, then he heard a loud woosh--almost a roar. The water was coming!