Orde now took steps to deflect1 into the channel recently dredged to Stearn's Bayou the mass of the logs racing2 down stream from Redding. He estimated that he had still two hours or so in which to do the work. In this time he succeeded by the severest efforts in establishing a rough shunt into the new channel. The logs would come down running free. Only the shock of their impact against the tail of the jam already formed was to be feared. Orde hoped to be able to turn the bulk of them aside.
This at first he succeeded in doing; and very successfully as affecting the pressure on the jam below. The first logs came scattering3. Then in a little while the surface of the river was covered with them; they shouldered each other aside in their eagerness to outstrip4 the rushing water; finally they crowded down more slowly, hardly able to make their way against the choking of the river banks, but putting forth5 in the very effort to proceed a tremendous power. To the crew working in the channel dredged through to Steam's Bayou the affair was that of driving a rather narrow and swift stream, only exaggerated. By quick and skilful6 work they succeeded in keeping the logs in motion. A large proportion of the timbers found their way into the bayou. Those that continued on down the river could hardly have much effect on the jam.
The work was breathless in its speed. From one to another sweat-bathed, panting man the logs were handed on. As yet only the advance of the big jam had arrived at the dredged channel.
Orde looked about him and realised this.
"We can't keep this up when the main body hits us," he panted to his neighbour, Jim Denning7. "We'll have to do some more pile-driver work."
He made a rapid excursion to the boom camp, whence he returned with thirty or forty of the men who had given up work on the jam below.
"Here, boys," said he, "you can at least keep these logs moving in this channel for a couple of hours. This isn't dangerous."
He spoke8 quite without sarcastic9 intent; but the rivermen, already over their first panic, looked at each other a trifle shamefacedly.
"I'll tie into her wherever you say," said one big fellow. "If you fellows are going back to the jam, I'm with you."
Two or three more volunteered. The remainder said nothing, but in silence took charge of the dredged channel.
Orde and his men now returned to the jam where, on the pile-driver, the tugs11, and the booms, they set methodically to strengthening the defences as well as they were able.
"She's holding strong and dandy," said Orde to Tom North, examining critically the clumps12 of piles. "That channel helps a lot in more ways than one. It takes an awful lot of water out of the river. As long as those fellows keep the logs moving, I really believe we're all right."
But shortly the water began to rise again, this time fairly by leaps. In immediate13 response the jam increased its pressure. For the hundredth time the frail14 wooden defences opposed to millions of pounds were tested to the very extreme of their endurance. The clumps of piles sagged15 outward; the network of chains and cables tightened16 and tightened again, drawing ever nearer the snapping point. Suddenly, almost without warning, the situation had become desperate.
And for the first time Orde completely lost his poise17 and became fluently profane18. He shook his fist against the menacing logs; he apostrophised the river, the high water, the jam, the deserters, Newmark and his illness, ending finally in a general anathema19 against any and all streams, logs, and floods. Then he stormed away to see if anything had gone wrong at the dredged channel.
"Well," said Tom North, "they've got the old man real good and mad this time."
The crew went on driving piles, stringing cables, binding20 chains, although, now that the inspiration of Orde's combative21 spirit was withdrawn22 the labours seemed useless, futile23, a mere24 filling in of the time before the supreme25 moment when they would be called upon to pay the sacrifice their persistence26 and loyalty27 had proffered28 for the altar of self-respect and the invincibility29 of the human Soul.
At the dredged channel Orde saw the rivermen standing30 idle, and, half-blind with anger he burst upon them demanding by this, that and the other what they meant. Then he stopped short and stared.
Square across the dredged channel and completely blocking it lay a single span of an iron bridge. Although twisted and misshapen, it was still intact, the framework of its overhead truss-work retaining its cage-like shape. Behind it the logs had of course piled up in a jam, which, sinking rapidly to the bed of the channel, had dammed back the water.
"Where in hell did that drop from?" cried Orde.
"Come down on top the jam," explained a riverman. "Must have come way from Redding. We just couldn't SCARE her out of here."
Orde, suddenly fallen into a cold rage, stared at the obstruction31, both fists clenched32 at his side.
"Too bad, boy," said Welton at his elbow. "But don't take it too hard. You've done more than any of the rest of us could. And we're all losers together."
Orde looked at him strangely.
"That about settles it," repeated Welton.
"Settle!" cried Orde. "I should think not."
"Don't you know when you're licked?"
"Licked, hell!" said Orde. "We've just begun to fight."
"What can you do?"
"Get that bridge span out of there, of course."
"How?"
"Can't we blow her up with powder?"
"Ever try to blow up iron?"
"There must be some way."
"Oh, there is," replied Welton. "Of course--take her apart bolt by bolt and nut by nut."
"Send for the wrenches34, then," snapped Orde.
"But it would take two or three days, even working night and day."
"What of it?"
"But it would be too late--it would do no good--"
"Perhaps not," interrupted Orde; "but it will be doing something, anyway. Look here, Welton, are you game? If you'll get that bridge out in two days I'll hold the jam."
"You can't hold that jam two hours, let alone two days," said Welton decidedly.
"That's my business. You're wasting time. Will you send for lanterns and wrenches and keep this crew working?"
"I will," said Welton.
"Then do it."
During the next two days the old scenes were all relived, with back of them the weight of the struggle that had gone before. The little crew worked as though mad. Excepting them, no one ventured on the river, for to be caught in the imminent35 break meant to die. Old spars, refuse timbers of all sorts--anything and everything was requisitioned that might help form an obstruction above or below water. Piles were taken where they could be found. Farmer's trees were cut down. Pines belonging to divers36 and protesting owners were felled and sharpened. Some were brought in by rail. Even the inviolate37 Government supply was commandeered. The Railroad Company had a fine lot which, with remarkable38 shortsightedness and lack of public spirit, they refused to sell at any price. The crew took them by force. Once Captain Marsh39 was found up to his waist in water, himself felling the trees of a wood, and dragging them to the river by a cable attached to the winch of his tug10. Night followed day; and day night again. None of the crews realised the fact. The men were caught in the toils40 of a labour ceaseless and eternal. Never would it end, just as never had it begun. Always were they to handle piles, steam hammers and the implements41 of their trade, menaced by a jam on the point of breaking, wet by a swollen42 and angry flood, over-arched by a clear calm sky or by the twinkling peaceful stars. Long since had they ceased to reckon with the results of what they did, the consequences either to themselves or to the jam. Mechanically they performed their labour. Perhaps the logs would kill them. Perhaps these long, black, dripping piles they drove were having some effect on the situation. Neither possibility mattered.
Then all at once, as though a faucet43 had been turned off, the floods slackened.
"They've opened the channel," said Orde dully. His voice sounded to himself very far away. Suddenly the external world, too, seemed removed to a distance, far from his centre of consciousness. He felt himself moving in strange and distorted surroundings; he heard himself repeating to each of a number of wavering, gigantic figures the talismanic44 words that had accomplished45 the dissolution of the earth for himself: "They've opened the channel." At last he felt hard planks46 beneath his feet, and, shaking his head with an effort, he made out the pilot-house of the SPRITE and a hollow-eyed man leaning against it. "They've opened the channel, Marsh," he repeated. "I guess that'll be all." Then quite slowly he sank to the deck, sound asleep.
Welton, returning from his labours with the iron bridge and the jam, found them thus. Men slept on the deck of the tug, aboard the pile-driver. Two or three had even curled up in the crevices47 of the jam, resting in the arms of the monster they had subdued48.
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deflect
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| v.(使)偏斜，(使)偏离，(使)转向 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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outstrip
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| v.超过，跑过 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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denning
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| vi.穴居（den的现在分词形式） | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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tugs
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| n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 ) | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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anathema
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| n.诅咒；被诅咒的人(物)，十分讨厌的人(物) | |
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binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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combative
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| adj.好战的；好斗的 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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invincibility
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| n.无敌，绝对不败 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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wrenches
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| n.一拧( wrench的名词复数 )；（身体关节的）扭伤；扳手；（尤指离别的）悲痛v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的第三人称单数 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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inviolate
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| adj.未亵渎的，未受侵犯的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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toils
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| 网 | |
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41
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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43
faucet
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| n.水龙头 | |
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talismanic
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| adj.护身符的，避邪的 | |
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45
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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47
crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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48
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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