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It was a wonderful sight, and the Boy Scouts gazed long at the scene of activity before turning away toward the Gatun dam itself. This, Peter Fenton explained, was one of the big cuts of the canal, and ran from the marshy valley above down through the rocky ridge which held the rains in check and made a swamp of the upland.
"We didn't come down here to get big game, but to prevent enemies of the government getting gay and blowing up the Gatun dam. Whew! They might have blowed it up while we've been shooting snakes and cats. Guess there's one of the explosions now." A rumbling came toward them from the east. It was such a rumbling as one hears when great masses of fireworks are set off at once.
"Yes, two more here at Gatun, and three at Miraflores; or, rather, there is one lock at Pedro Miguel, where we go down thirty and a third feet, and then we go a mile to reach the locks at Miraflores. "There we shall have to go through two locks, with a total drop of fifty-four and two-thirds feet," Captain Watson explained. "The system is the same at each place."
By day one could watch the growth of the great locks, the gradual drowning of little green, new-made islands beneath the muddy still waters of Gatun Lake, tramp out along jungle-flanked country roads, through the Mindi hills, or down below the old railroad to where the cayucas that floated down the Chagres laden with fruit came to land on the ever advancing edge of the waters.
"I'm not in it for money, anyway, and the other motive is no longer of avail to me." "If you'll tell me everything you know concerning this plot against the Gatun dam," Ned said, "I'll release you after the case is ended." "Not a word," replied the other, closing his lips tightly, as if to shut back words seeking utterance. "Then we'll have to find a little coop to put you in," Jimmie said.
"The work," the stranger said, in a pleasant tone, which gave no indication of foreign birth "has progressed beyond the expectations of the most enthusiastic advocate of the canal. When we came here we found about seven miles of waterway bored into the side of the Isthmus, reaching, well, about up to the rising slope of Gatun. Beyond this there were scratches in the soil for about forty miles.
During the dry season, about four months, the river does not supply enough water to run the locks so Gatun Lake must furnish the supply. This lake at present covers one hundred and sixty-four square miles, and last year it was lowered five feet during the dry season.
He didn't shout, or shoot, or run, or do a consarned thing. He just leaked out. Where do you think he went?" "I think," Ned replied, "that you were looking back to see the explosion and he dodged into a thicket." "Well," admitted Jimmie, "I did look back." Ned, rather disgusted at the carelessness of the boy, walked on in silence until the two came to the smooth slopes which led up to Gatun.
Beyond the native town, as an escape from all this, there was the back country road that wound for a mile through the fresh night and the droning jungle, yet instead of leading off into the wilderness of the interior swung around to American Gatun on its close-cropped hills. I awoke one morning to find my name bulletined among those ordered to report for target test.
"We know now that it is the Gatun dam that is threatened, and that the newspaper building in New York will soon become a mass of ruins unless some action is taken at once." "Also we know where they made their bombs," said Jack. "But we don't know where they will make them in future," said Frank. "Well, what about staying here?" asked the lieutenant.
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