mess, and not got any help from him anyway.

―

The car slammed down into a pothole and skidded off toward a waiting oak. But it couldn't get there because it was being steered by the ruts in the road. I tried to concentrate on the murk beyond the dirty windshield and on the problem at hand getting an automobile down this "road." Maybe that was half of what was holding the project up. After driving to work the men were beat till ten or eleven. And I was probably in no shape to work either. Take a memo, old boy. First thing Monday morning put a crew up here on the road improving drainage and spreading gravel.

I struggled around the final bend, and the dam project loomed phantom-like in the cold moonlight. The first of the storage sheds began to slink by on my right. Suddenly my eyes fell on something unexpected. A car, in this desolate place, parked at the base of the form. It would be building material thieves. I killed the car lights. Maybe lovers, but it was nearly a mile to the main road, and no girl could be good enough for this drive.

I was lose now, and the moon showed that there was nobody upright in the car blue Toronado convertible. I eased in behind it, slid over the front bucket and went out the rear door to keep the courtesy lights off. Crept up beside it nobody. Hidding in the shadow of the car I scanned the dam site for some sign of life, but saw nothing.

Then a movement on the dam itself caught my eye. It looked like a woman standing on the center section of the curving black form. The wood was wet and slick, and she was on an unpoured section - two hundred fifty feet to fall on either side, no staging near the spot where she stood. She might go between the form or over the side into the canyon.

I started to yell, but thought better of it. This had to be suicide. If I yelled she might be frightened into jumping. Good God, she might jump anyway! I stood transfixed. It's like the first few moments after a wreck, when you stare dumbly thinking somebody should do something, but you do nothing.

I made up my mind. I've got to do something - and NOW!