Chapter 6 The Gaillard Cut

Chapter 6
The Gaillard Cut


A whole two years has passed and the canal was still not close to being done. Richard was helping with the locks when John Stevens came up to him and said, "Richard, I have some news that you won't want to hear." Richard stopped what he was doing immediately and looked at John.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I am quitting Chief Engineer," John said.
"What?!" Richard exclaimed. "Who's gonna take your place?"
"I talked it over with George Goethals, next year he is gonna take over."
"Why are you leaving?" Richard asked. John shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know." Just don't like it here. Richard, I want you to tell everybody tonight about my decision."
"If you say so," Richard said. At eight o'clock that night, Richard spread the news.
"Can I get everyone's attention!" he yelled. "We have bad news, and good news."
"What's the bad news?" everyone asked.
"The bad news is... well... John is quitting Chief Engineer." Right after Richard said that everyone got really loud with shock.
"What's the good news?!" they yelled.
"Next year, George Goethals is taking John's place," Richard said. The crowd was silent with disbelief.
"Thanks for all of your time," Richard said. That night Richard thought a lot about the canal. As he was thinking, he fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, Richard woke up to a man tapping on his shoulder.
"Hi there," the man said. "I'm David Du Bose Gaillard." But you can just call me David."
"Hi David, I'm Richard. Why did you wake me up?"
"Follow me son, and you'll figure it out." David brought Richard on a boat ride through the canal. As they were riding, they stopped when they saw a big mountain in front of them.
"The reason I woke you up is to show you this mountain," David said. "Do you expect to get ships past this mountain?"
"No," Richard said. David picked up a bunch of dynamite.
"With this dynamite, we are going to blow a hole right through this mountain so people can get past." David said.
"When do we blow the hole?" Richard asked.
"Right now." Richard and David went back to where everyone was sleeping and woke them up telling them the idea. A couple hours later everyone was ready and they went to the mountain. A couple of men dug a little whole in the mountain to place the dynamite in.
"Richard," David said. "Do you mind doing the honors?" David held up the dynamite.
"Sure." Richard took the dynamite and crawled into the five-foot hole with a match. He lit the match and put it on the fuse. When Richard lifted his head to turn around he smacked his head on the mountain. Richard got knocked out.
"Get him out of there!" David screamed. David grabbed Richard's feet and pulled him out of the hole. He got Richard about five feet away from the hole when the dynamite exploded. The force of the explosion made Richard and David fly all the way back to the edge of the land. David landed on top of Richard onto the hard rock. They bounced into the water and everyone ran over to where they were. David came up from under water pulling Richard up with him.
"Are you okay?" one man asked.
"I am," David said. "But Richard... he didn't make it."