A BOLT FROM THE BLUE.
Outside the shanty the storm roared and flashed. The rain pelted
in torrents. Suddenly there came a sharp ringing at the telephone
instrument. It seemed to have a note of insistence in it. The Mexicans
exchanged glances. Here was an unexpected interruption. The instrument
connected on a direct wire with the land company's offices. If one of
the Mexicans answered it, the possibilities were that a warning would
be spread that the dam was being tampered with.
Ramon solved the difficulty. Without untying the old man, he had two of
his men support him to the telephone. Another held the receiver to Sam
Simmons' ear.
Black Ramon drew his revolver and held it to the other ear.
"Now, if you utter a word of warning, I'll scatter what brains you
have," he warned viciously.
In a trembling voice Sam Simmons answered the call.
"Y-y-yes, the storm is here," Jack heard him answer, evidently in reply
to some question at the other end.
"Y-y-yes, I will open them, sir. Y-y-yes, I know the dam is weak."
"Don't hesitate," warned Black Ramon vindictively.
"Y-y-you'll send the engineers to-morrow, you say? Very well, sir."
"Evidently they know of the storm in the valley," thought Jack to
himself; "shouldn't wonder if the old man himself warned them some time
ago, before he was tied."
This was, in fact, the case. But now the old man's hesitancy grew more
painful than ever.
"T-t-they're asking about you," he said, turning to the Mexican.
"Tell them you haven't seen me," snarled Ramon.
"No, I have seen nothing of him," whimpered the old man feebly.
"Kidnapped some boys, you say--the ranchers are after him--and the
soldiers, too----"
"There, there, that will do," said the Mexican impatiently. "When the
dam bursts, those Americanos will be drowned like so many rats, and the
soldiers will find an empty nest for their pains."
"G-g-good-bye. I will attend to it," quavered the old dam-tender. After
responding to further warning from the other end of the wire, he was
removed from the telephone and the receiver was replaced.
At the same instant the two Mexicans who had been despatched to the dam
to close the sluice gates returned. Their evil smiles showed that they
had done their duty well. The rain had now increased to a torrent and
the small gauge on the side of the dam-keeper's hut showed that the
water was rising rapidly.
"How long before the dam goes?" asked Ramon, bending over the old man,
who was moaning and crying pitifully over the idea of his treachery.
"She can't last more than half an hour," he whimpered. "Oh, what shall
I do? They will think it was my fault. They----"
There came a roar so dreadful that the hut seemed to be shaken like a
leaf in a windstorm. At the same instant a blue glare filled the hut,
hissing viciously like a nest of aroused serpents. A sulphurous odor
permeated everything. Before any of the occupants of the place had
time to move a step an explosion so loud that it seemed as if a ton of
dynamite had detonated, rent the air.
Jack's eyes were almost blinded by the sudden glare and crash, and his
senses reeled for an instant. The next moment, however, he realized
what had happened. The hut had been struck by a thunderbolt.
Black Ramon, his clothing singed, stood in a dazed way in the center
of the smoking hut--in the floor of which a great, jagged hole had
been ripped. By his side stood two of his men. The rest lay senseless,
perhaps dead, in various parts of the reeking place.
One of them had been hurled by the violence of the electrical shock
close to Jack's side, and his knife lay within an inch of the boy's
fingers. Bound as he was, however, he could not reach it, nor did he
dare to move while the Mexican leader's eyes were on them.
Suddenly the cattle rustler's superstitious mind seemed to recover from
its daze. He gazed about him in a wild way.
"It is the judgment of Heaven," he cried. "Let us escape."
Followed by the two of his men who still retained their senses, he
dashed from the hut.
In an instant Jack rolled over on his side and seized the haft of the
Mexican's knife in his teeth. Then he rolled over to Coyote Pete's side.
"What the dickens----" began the cow-puncher, but stopped short as
Jack, still holding the blade clenched in his teeth, laid the keen
blade across Pete's ropes. The knife was as keen as a razor, and in a
few seconds Coyote Pete's hands were free. Then he took the knife and
severed his leg bonds. A few seconds more and Jack was free, and, in
less time than it takes to tell, old Sam Simmons and Jim Hicks were
also on their feet.
"Quick, get their weapons," urged the cow-puncher, and instantly all
four possessed themselves of the four unconscious Mexicans' knives,
pistols and rifles. Black Ramon and his men, in their superstitious
fright, had rushed from the place in such a hurry that they had
neglected to disarm their followers.
"Now for the ponies," exclaimed Jim Hicks.
"Hold on a moment," shouted Jack. He dived out of the hut into the
blinding rain. But old Simmons was ahead of him. Already the old man
had sped along the top of the dam, and while the weakened breast wall
of masonry shook under his feet with the great pressure behind it, had
screwed open the sluice gates. Far below them a yellow flood boomed and
roared and screamed its way to the valley, but the pressure on the dam
had been relieved and the masonry stood.
All this took some time, and in the meanwhile Coyote Pete and Jim Hicks
had cautiously crept from the hut and gone to look for the horses. They
found them unharmed, but of Black Ramon there was no sign. They learned
afterward that his animals had been left down the trail, so as not to
alarm old Simmons when they crept on him and surprised him. As soon as
the Mexican had found himself outside the lightning-blasted hut, he had
lost no time in mounting his black, and speeding back to his rendezvous
at the old mission. He had, of course, no idea but that the boys and
the old dam-tender would go to their death with the hut when the dam
collapsed.
Suddenly Jack thought of the telephone. He ran back into the hut and
telephoned the glad news of the safety of the dam to the amazed office
in Maguez. Also he gave them a brief sketch of what had happened.
"But what the----" came a brief voice at the other end, but already
Jack had rung off and was outside, where Jim Hicks and Coyote Pete had
the ponies.
They had held a hasty consultation, and had decided that inasmuch as
the soldiers were advancing on the mission, and the American ranchers
were on their way, that their best plan would be to head back toward
the valley. But it was Jack who vetoed this plan.
"I want to be in at the finish of those rascals," he exclaimed, "and,
besides, think of our friends imprisoned in that dismal old church."
"You're right, kid," shouted Coyote Pete, waving a dripping hat in the
downpour, "the mission it is."
Old Simmons had been too badly shaken by his encounter with the Mexican
for it to be advisable to leave him alone. Maud's pack was therefore
removed, and the old dam-tender mounted on her. First, however, a call
was sent for a "relief." Till the latter arrived the sluices were to be
left open to drain off the heavy surplus of water.
"Wished I knew where them greasers' horses were," sighed Jim Hicks;
"they'll be coming to in a minute, and walkin' bein' a healthy
exercise, I'd like to provide some of it for them."
A short distance down the trail they found the miscreants' ponies,
just as Ramon had left them hitched. Even the fair-minded Jack did not
protest when Coyote Pete and Jim Hicks, with yells of glee, cut the
cayuses loose and sent them galloping off.
"I only wish we could be here to see the Mexicans' faces when they
wake up and wonder what's hit 'em," said Jim, who had examined each of
the stunned men and ascertained that not one of them was seriously hurt.
"Now, then, forward!" cried Jim, as soon as the clatter of the
retreating Mexican ponies' hoofs had died out.
"Forward!" echoed Jack again, putting his heels to his mount.
With a loud shout, the four Americans dashed down the trail.
"Now look out for fireworks! Yip-yip-yip-y-ee-e-ee!" yelled Coyote
Pete, in a voice that rivaled the last efforts of the retreating
thunder-storm.