five o'clock
Morris Blood was away with the Pittsburgers and Callahan had foolishly consented to look after his desk for a few days . At the moment that Morrison took hold of the key Giddings opened the door from the despatchers ' room . `` Mr. Callahan , there 's a message coming from Francis , conductor of Number Two . They 've had a cloudburst on Dry Dollar Creek , '' he said , excitedly ; `` twenty feet of water came down Rat Cañon at five o'clock . The track 's under four feet in the cañon . '' As a pebble striking an anthill stirs into angry life a thousand startled workers , so a mountain washout startles a division and concentrates upon a single point the very last reserve of its activities and energies . For thirty minutes the wires sung with Callahan 's messages .