"Gee whiz, fellows, that's the 'all ash.o.r.e' whistle. We've got to hustle!" cried Rob.

The three Scouts broke into a run, each congratulating himself that he could present himself before Mr. Mainwaring with an "upturned badge."

CHAPTER XVI.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE Ca.n.a.l.

"Suppose you tell us what you know about Panama and the ca.n.a.l?" remarked Tubby to Rob as the three boys perched in the bow of the _Caribbean_, three days out, watching the flying fish as the vessel's prow sent them scattering like coveys of birds from big patches of yellow gulf weed.

"Yes, that's a good idea," supplemented Merritt, "I guess we won't get much time to study books down there. Mr. Mainwaring said this morning that, after he had given the work a preliminary look-over, he was going to hunt for the source of that tributary of the Chagres that he thinks is responsible for the big floods every rainy season."

"Well, I don't suppose I know much more about it than you two fellows do," rejoined Rob modestly, "but I've been reading up on it."

Here he looked at Tubby, who had done nothing much on the steamer but consume three huge meals a day, with "snacks" in between, and amuse himself. One of these amus.e.m.e.nts had been stuffing some of those odd-looking pills known as "Pharaoh's Serpents" into the captain's pipe.

Almost every boy can guess what happened when the glowing tobacco reached the "Serpents" and big, wriggly, writhing things began to climb out of the pipe bowl.

"Ach himmel, der sea serpent," yelled the skipper, who was a German.

"Oh-h-h-h-h-h!" screamed a lot of ladies to whom he happened to be talking.

It was just at this juncture that the captain had caught sight of Tubby doubled up with laughter behind a ventilator. He chased and captured the fat youth, who then and there received a spanking for which he got no sympathy, even from his fellow Scouts. Except for spilling "sneezing powder" in the main dining room at dinner time and burning an old gentleman's bald head by sun rays concentrated in a magnifying gla.s.s, Tubby had done nothing out of the way since.

"Fire away. Unload your knowledge," ordered Merritt, luxuriously stretching out under the awning.

"All right, here goes. To begin at the beginning, of course you know that Panama was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502."

"Ginger snaps!" interrupted Tubby. "Is there anything, except Coney Island, that he didn't discover?"

"Shut up, can't you," cried Merritt indignantly. "Go on, Rob, it's just the nature of the beast. Never mind him."

"Well," resumed Rob, "Columbus discovered the Chagres River and sailed up it. He called the beautiful harbor by which he entered it Porto Bello.

Then came Balboa, who was the first to cross the Isthmus and view the Pacific. It was about this time that a road was built across and the city of Panama founded on the Pacific side. It was from Panama that Pizarro set out to begin his brutal campaign which ended in the practical extinction of the Incas of Peru."

"Oh, cut out the history and let's get down to the ca.n.a.l," muttered Tubby; "I hate history, anyhow."

"It's my belief that you like nothing but eating," declared Merritt indignantly.

"And sleeping," put in Tubby without a smile.

"The road was fifty miles long and well paved and provided with substantial bridges, some of which are yet standing although the road is almost impa.s.sable," went on Rob. "It was the war between Mexico and Uncle Sam in 1846-47 that brought about a change. But in the meantime, I forgot to tell you that old Panama was sacked by Captain Henry Morgan and his pirates in 1671, great stores of gold taken and the inhabitants put to the torture. The city was never rebuilt, but its ruins still stand some miles from the site of the present city."

"Well, what happened in the Mexican war?" asked Tubby.

"I'm coming to that. At that time there were not more than 9,000 miles of railroad in America, and it was a hard matter to get as far west as Chicago by rail.

"Between the East and the Pacific Coast lay great prairies, practically unexplored. Indians were thickly scattered over this region and very hostile to the white man. The journey across took months. The lack of a short route to the Pacific coast set everybody to thinking. Then, in 1849, came the great gold rush to California. Hundreds of miners went by way of the Isthmus, but there was no railroad and they got sick, and many of them died on the way across. It became clear that there must be a railroad and, at last, in 1855, after unheard of difficulties had been mastered, one was completed with American capital.

"From the first it paid tremendously, in the s.p.a.ce of forty-seven years making $38,000,000 of clear profit for its projectors. But to build that forty-eight miles of track had cost 2,000 recorded human lives, five years of labor, and $8,000,000."

"First history, then a railroad year book, and now, I suppose, we'll get down to the ca.n.a.l," grunted Tubby.

"Yes, that's coming now," smiled Rob. "In the first place, the idea of building a ca.n.a.l across the narrow strip of land forming the Isthmus had been a dream even of the early Spaniards. Then a Scotchman founded a colony which was to grow rich on the products of the Isthmus and also dig a ca.n.a.l. Disease and failure soon put an end to this enterprise. In fact, from the earliest days Panama and the Isthmus have always been known as one of the most unhealthy spots on earth. As you may know, it is only nine degrees north of the equator, and the rainy season lasts more than half the year. But nowadays, with modern medicine and modern hygienic methods, it is quite safe, with reasonable care, to penetrate the jungle.

Mr. Mainwaring told me that," he added.

"Well, after various schemes had been gotten up and had fallen through, a French company, backed by the money of almost everyone in France who could by hook or crook secure stock, in 1882 turned the first shovelful of earth for a ca.n.a.l. It was to have been a sea-level one, that is, one without locks, and was projected and engineered by Ferdinand De Lesseps, the aged builder of the Suez ca.n.a.l.

"We know now that a sea-level ca.n.a.l would not be feasible on the Isthmus.

It would take too long to build and cost a prohibitive sum, almost double what a lock ca.n.a.l costs. For seven years digging went on, with fearful loss of life among the laborers and engineers from yellow fever. Then, in 1899, it was discovered that almost half of the $400,000,000 raised had been squandered in mismanagement and waste, and by far the larger part had gone in what we should nowadays call 'graft'. An investigation was made. Several of the promoters of the ca.n.a.l committed suicide, and De Lesseps went mad and died in an asylum. Such was the tragic history of the French era; but brighter days were to come.

"It was in 1898 when the _Oregon_ made her record run from San Francisco to join the Atlantic fleet in the West Indies and fight the Spaniards off Cuba, that Americans began to think that a short cut was needed. With our acquisition of the Philippines, a 'door' between the Pacific and Atlantic was declared to be almost a necessity. There was much discussion at Washington, but finally in 1903 President Roosevelt and Congress decided that if we could purchase from the French all they had left at Panama and could, in addition, buy a strip or 'zone' across the Isthmus for ca.n.a.l building purposes, it would be fitting and right for the United States to take up the work.

"After some d.i.c.kering, the French company, took $40,000,000 for what they owned, and, in 1904, the Panama Republic, a newly created nation, sold the United States for $10,000,000 a strip of land ten miles wide and fifty miles long, which strip of land is now known as the Ca.n.a.l Zone.

"The first thing that the Americans did after they took hold was to start a campaign against disease. No ca.n.a.l could be dug while yellow fever had to be reckoned with. Under the masterly hand of Col. W. C. Gorgas, the Zone has been cleaned up till disease is almost rarer than in cities of the north. Mosquitoes have been wiped out, streets paved, filth and garbage, which used to lie and rot under the hot sun, all swept away, and good comfortable houses put up for workmen and their bosses. The men who stand the climate best among the laborers are Jamaican negroes. Hindus, Italians and Spaniards are also employed for lighter work, but for 'making the dirt fly' the Sambo is the real thing.

"Anything else you'd like to know?"

"Well, yes," said Merritt. "Just why is this Chagres River such an important part of the ca.n.a.l?"

"Well, it's this way, as I understand it," said Rob. "In the first place, the ca.n.a.l is fifty miles long,--forty-one miles through the land and nine miles of channel dredged out in the harbors of Colon and Panama. From Colon to Bah Bohia the route pa.s.ses for twelve miles through low, swampy ground not much above sea level. Then it cuts into the hills and is practically a more or less shallow ditch as far as a place called Miraflores, nine miles away. The highest point of land that the ca.n.a.l must traverse is Gold Hill, at the famous Culebra, where it is 662 feet above the sea level.

"But right here occurs a 'saddle' through which the ca.n.a.l must run. This, at its lowest point, is 312 feet above sea level. Right here is the notorious Culebra Cut, which is an immense excavation nine miles long and, in places, more than three hundred feet deep in solid rock,--think of that!

"Bad as Culebra has been as an obstacle, however, the Chagres River is worse. For 23 miles the ca.n.a.l must follow the valley of this river and cross and recross its bed. The Chagres is an unruly stream. At times it is small, and then again it swells to tremendous size, sweeping all before it and causing great floods. To build the ca.n.a.l the problem was to turn the Chagres into a friend, instead of an enemy, and that, it is believed, has been done in an unique way.

"You must now roughly picture a cross section of the ca.n.a.l route as a flat-topped pyramid. Suppose the top of the pyramid to be hollow and that through that hollow flows the Chagres River. Well, on one side of your cup or hollow is the famous Gatun Dam, in the construction of which 2,250,000 barrels of cement have been used. Below the Gatun Dam is a 'flight,' just like a succession of steps of locks. These will be used to lower vessels from the 'cup' at the top to the Atlantic level,--or to raise them, as the case may be.

"On the other end of the cup, on the Pacific end that is, will be another flight of locks, the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, which will raise or lower vessels from and to the Pacific. Is that clear? There's a big cup at the top of our pyramid, and steps, or 'locks,' lead down to the levels of the oceans on each side."

"Oh, it's as clear as mud," muttered Tubby, "go on."

"Now, then, we get to the Chagres and the part it plays," went on Rob serenely. "That whole 'cup' at the top of our pyramid is actually an artificial lake of vast size. As a matter of fact, it will be 165 square miles in area. At Gatun a great dam will hold it in, and at Pedro Miguel the locks will perform the same office. This lake is the valley of Chagres, and the Chagres will be relied on to keep it filled. This immense Gatun Lake, as it is called, is the 'keystone' of the ca.n.a.l. Any weakness in the Gatun Dam would ruin the whole project. You can see, of course, why this is so, because the water in that Gatun Lake will be relied upon to fill the locks which will raise vessels up or down."

"But suppose the Chagres River cuts up ugly, as you said it does sometimes?" asked Merritt.

"Well," said Rob, "I heard Mr. Mainwaring say that the great lake will be so big that a flood would affect its level no more than a cup of water poured into a bath tub. The river will merely serve to keep the lake filled and supply the water needed to work the locks."

"That's a very good description, Master Rob," said a voice at their elbows.

They started and looked up, and there was Mr. Mainwaring himself looking down at them.

"We have changed the Chagres from a dangerous enemy into an excellent friend," he said, "but, as Rob pointed out, the Gatun is unavoidably the spot at which an enemy who wished to harm us could do almost irretrievable damage at the expenditure of a few dollars' worth of dynamite, if," he paused for an instant, "if he knew just where to place it."

"Does anyone possess such knowledge?" asked Rob.