His anxiety to aid the suffering man had so completely occupied Scott’s attention that he had not noticed what was going on outside. A sudden gust of wind forced his attention. He ran to the door. The little black clouds which were just peeping over the horizon a short time before had spread over half the sky. The heat was oppressive and a warm, sultry wind which was blowing half a gale seemed only to accentuate it. Angry little waves were beating on the shore now and the growing streams on the other side of the reservoir were beginning to roar ominously.
Scott ran down to the edge of the reservoir to look at the mark he had set on the dam the day before. The water had already risen a foot since he had noticed it that morning and he knew from the rush of waters in the cañons that it was rising now at an alarming rate. He glanced at his watch. It was five o’clock. Ordinarily the cool of the approaching evening had begun to tie up the springs of ice and snow in the hidden cañons before that time and the streams would be drying up, but to-day that hot wind was searching its way into every cranny of the rocks and melting the winter’s store of ice at a tremendous rate. Nor would they cease to melt even with the setting of the sun as long as that wind continued. A warm rain on top of that was almost sure to be disastrous.
Even while Scott looked the last patch of blue was blotted from the sky and the little basin was thrown into semi-darkness. The swiftness of the onrushing storm was bewildering. He would ’phone Baxter for help to get Dawson out of there and then open the sluice gates without waiting for the level of the reservoir to reach the danger point. He feared that it would reach it all too quickly even with the sluice gates open.
Scott rushed up the bank to the little camp and grabbed the telephone. He gave Baxter’s ring and waited what seemed an age. He tried three times without getting any answer. Baxter must be either out on the range or out of hearing of the ’phone. He tried Benny. Benny was always there.
He was interrupted by a blinding flash followed instantly by a deafening explosion. The receiver was apparently wrenched from his hand and he stood dazed while the reverberations of the mighty report were hurled crashing from peak to peak. The storm was on them. He grasped the ’phone again desperately but the fuses were burned out and the line was dead.