of it, The men with the mattocks and shovels it on down the cutting.
Every time it met any enticing obstruction and faltered, they fell upon
the blockage and tore it away.
the gradient fall At last the thin trickle of water felt away as the
valley opened before it. The trickle increased to a freshet, and then to
a torrent. With its new strength it gouged out the canal and burst
through with the full flow of the river behind it.
The men in the bottom of the cutting yelled with fright at the
suddenness and ferocity of it, and scrambled up the sides of the canal.
But some of them were not quick enough and were swept away, struggling
and screaming for help. The men on the banks ran alongside them,
throwing ropes and dragging them sodden and muddy from the flood.
Now the river roared through the canal and tore on down the valley,
rediscovering the ancient course that it had not followed for thousands
of years. For almost an hour they stood upon the bank watching it, for
it exercised over them the particular spell that turbulent waters always
have over men. They were forced to retreat step by step as the river cut
the banks out from under their feet.
At last Nicholas roused himself, and went back to where Sapper was still
shoring up the dam wall. By now he had erected a sloping revetment on
the downstream side of the dam wall, with four rows of gabions on the
bottom course gradually narrowing as it reached the top of the retaining
wall. For the time being the dam was secure, the vulnerable grating had
been shored up with the heavy, stone-filled mesh baskets, and the
overflow through the canal into the valley had relieved much of the
pressure upon it.
'Do you think it will hold?' Royan eyed the structure with suspicion.
'Until the rains come, we hope.' Nicholas drew her away. 'We don't want
to waste any more time here. Time to go on downstream to begin work at
Taita's pool.'
hey followed the banks of the new river that they had created, down
the length of the long 6- valley. At places they were forced to detour
higher up the slope because the overflow from the dam had cut away and
submerged the old trail. Eventually they reached the confluence of the
stream that had as its source the butterfly fountain that they had
explored with Tamre.
They paused on the bank, and Nicholas and Royan looked at each other
wordlessly. The stream had dried up.
Turning aside, they followed the empty stream bed up the hills and at
last scrambled out on to the ledge from which the butterfly fountain had
poured. The cave was still surrounded by lush green ferris, but it was
like the eye socket in a skull, dark and empty.
'The spring has dried up!' Royan . 'The dam -Iispere has shrivelled it.
That's the proof that the fountain was fed from Taita's pool, Now we
have diverted the river we have killed the fountain.' Her eyes were
bright and sparkling with excitement. 'Come on. Let's waste no more time
here.
Let's get on up to Taita's pool.'
'Nicholas was the first one down into Taita's pool. This time, he had a
bosun's chair to sit in and a properly rigged block and tackle to lower
